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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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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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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Thoughts About Roots

We’ve talked about how Supplier Diversity has its roots in Civil Rights and Affirmative Action legislation before.  Long story short, President Johnson amended President Kennedy’s E.O. 11246, which established the Office of Federal Contract Compliance. This required companies with federal contracts to make good-faith efforts to expand employment opportunities for both women and minorities. Once…

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Spotlight on NaVOBA

National Veteran Owned Business Association’s (NaVOBA) mission is to create corporate contracting opportunities for America’s Veteran’s and Service-Disabled Veteran’s Business Enterprises (VBEs/SDVBEs) through certification, advocacy, outreach, recognition and education.  Since 2007 NaVOBA has worked with more than 135 of the world’s largest corporations that engage with veteran-owned businesses. NaVOBA is a 3rd party certifier of Veteran…

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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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What’s Being Certified?

We get asked this question frequently: I’m selling my business (or buying one). Is the diversity certification transferable? There is no short yes or no answer, the reality is that it depends on the type of certification held and who is  purchasing the business. What’s actually being certified? The certification process is two-fold. 1) The business…

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Best Practices

In the world of supplier diversity literature, best practices are defined and expressed by the professionals in corporations and government agencies. SDMWVLGBTBE (Small Disadvantaged or Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) owners are often unaware of the challenges facing supplier diversity organizations. We’ve written about The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing…

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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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