New Year, Time to Plan

Are you considering getting a diverse certification for your business? Perhaps you’re a certified business looking to plan which 3rd party certifier events to attend? Either way, the beginning of the year is always a good time to review your options and determine how best to utilize your diverse status. The Certifiers Disability:IN, the 3rd…

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Down the Rabbit Hole of Certification

Our newest team member, Tara, gives her take on learning the certification process. Being the newest team member (a mere six months), I have submerged myself head first into the world of diverse business certification. As with any journey, obstacles loomed, alongside the fulfillment of assisting others enhance their personal business goals. Now, I could detail…

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Certification: Truth or Myth?

We seem to be deluged with information about diversity certifications lately, and we’ve been unpleasantly surprised by how much of it is false or misleading. SDMWVLGBTQBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered or Queer Business Enterprise) owners already have a lot to juggle without being led down a costly path of…

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Vocabulary Changes

If we live long enough in interesting times, we will likely experience changes in our language’s vocabulary.  Maybe different definitions for the same or similar words, new words replacing currently accepted ones or, my personal favorite, dialogues so obfuscated with acronyms and protocol that we’re not exactly sure what we might be talking about. We’re…

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What You Say Matters!

We’ve been interviewing supplier diversity (SD) specialists over the last few months and the most recent answer to “what’s one of your pet peeves” struck us as we get ready for the diverse business conference season to kickoff into high gear. His peeve, a diverse supplier coming up to speak with him and asking what…

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Reading (& Writing) Excerpts

In the last month, we’ve come across a variety of articles that seem to touch on topics of importance for SDMWVLGBTBEs (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) owners.  The first that sparked a gut reaction was about generational wealth. The Founders of Color believe, “If wealth inequity is…

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Help! I don’t have that document.

The certification process is co-dependent. The business itself is being certified as being capable to provide its products and/or services. The business is being certified as being at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a diverse individual(s) who possesses the knowledge and skill to run the business applying for certification. This is why certifiers require supporting documentation…

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Mandated Spend – What’s That Mean?

SDMWVLGBTBEs (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) hear a lot about mandated diversity goals. But that word, mandate, can be used in multiple ways. A large corporation may have its own internal mandates that are not relevant to any specific job or project.  These mandates, or goals, exist…

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Notes on Supplier Diversity

So, we read a post on LinkedIn the other day and just can’t get it out of our heads. The reason is because this is a bigger issue than our colleague Tammy Davis, CEO at NexLevel, wrote. She’s not wrong in her characterization of some supplier diversity professionals (SDP). Like us, they are imperfect humans doing…

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Meet the 3rd Party Certifiers

New businesses open every day and we know entering the diverse supplier landscape can be confusing with all those acronyms flying around for the types of certifications available (DOBE, MBE, WBE, etc.) and certifiers (NGLCC, NVBDC, USPAACC, etc.) who offer them. Today we’re re-introducing the 3rd party certifiers (which means these certifiers are not a…

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