Taking Care of Business

Once we titled this article, the music started in our heads. Instead of talking about COVID, let’s talk about self-care for diverse business owners. Our crazy, complicated lives just got more so! Maybe this is the world’s way of telling us to simplify … to drop unproductive tasks and concentrate on four important things: Family…

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To Gift or To Loan?

We’ve been researching how gifts and loans from non-certifiable owners can impact some state-based certifications of legitimately owned DBEs (Disadvantaged Business Enterprises). Yes, harping on legitimacy is part of our shtick. We have absolutely no interest in seeing these certification programs abused or defrauded. Anyway, you would think that a gift is perfectly acceptable, since…

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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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Again With Control & Governance

If a SDMWVLGBTBE’s (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) business owner reviews any certifier’s eligibility criteria s/he’ll find a requirement that reads something like this: the business must be at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a diverse owner(s). Owned and operated are straightforward, but the area of…

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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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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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Profiles in Certification – SourceOne Innovations, Inc.

This year we decided to do something different, profiling a SDMWVLGBTBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) and a specific diverse certification. Samantha Smith interviews potential businesses, so email us with a request to be included — no, you don’t have to be a GetDiversityCertified.com client. Next…

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Spotlight on NVBDC

The National Veteran Business Development Council (NVBDC) is the approved 3rd party certifier of the Billion Dollar Roundtable for Veteran and Service-Disabled Veteran owned businesses (VBE/SDVBE) in the United States. A 501c3, NVBDC was started to provide reliable certification for businesses who fall outside the small business definition of the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Verification and…

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Golden Tickets

We hear stories from SDMWVLGBTBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) owners about how a client told him or her to get a diversity certification. And, while we’re perfectly happy to work with those owners, there are a few thoughts we like to share. Because we’re certification neutral, we…

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Are Pictures Louder Than Words?

Did you notice that the real Rosie the Riveter passed away?  This iconic image was the first widespread public validation I had that girls could do anything in the workforce.  A lesson that we, as SDMWVLGBTBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) owners should be very aware of when choosing images…

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