Spotlight on USBLN

The US Business Leadership Network (USBLN) like WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council) and NMSDC (National Minority Supplier Development Council) is a national third-party certifier.  USBLN certifies business that are owned and operated by a person or persons challenged with a disability – those with physical and/or mental impairment; including disabled veteran businesses, regardless of gender or ethnicity.  Like the other…

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Lean In and the Chaos Imperative

By now it is probably evident that we’re a bunch of readers here.  This time we’re taking another break from The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan to talk about Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work and Will to Lead and The Chaos Imperative: How Change…

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Inclusion Dividend: Business Case

In late June, we talked a bit about The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan, with the intent of relating its concepts to supplier diversity; and, how it might apply to us as SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women or Veteran Business Enterprise) businesses.  Chapter two’s…

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Getting SMWVDBE Certified

It seems that many companies have SMWVDBE (Small, Minority, Women, Veteran, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) certification on their minds as the new year begins.  So, it makes sense to revisit what certification is all about and why a business might want to get certified. What is a certification? SMWVDBE certifications are offered by the Small Business Adminstration,…

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The Rules They Are (maybe) A-Changing

Federal DBE Rules Changing – WANT TO BE HEARD? Did you know that the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is considering changes to its disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE) program — and that you can tell them what you think about these changes?  You can read a summary of or a detailed document about the changes…

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What is SAM?

We’ve discussed the CCR (Central Contractor Registration) web site back in 2010. Early this year it was announced that the CCR, Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG), Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS), Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), Catalog of…

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Less Stress Through Proof Reading

Preparing the application for SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women or Veteran Business Enterprise) certification can be pretty stressful for a variety of reasons. We live and breathe our businesses first.  Certification is a tool that we use to serve our customers and expand our markets.  But, in a process that seems alien and out of…

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Small Business and the Federal Government

Because federal agencies and their primes are mandated to meet these goals – to spend 23% of their contract dollars with small business, including 5% with SDBEs and WSBEs and 3% with SDVSBEs and HUBZone businesses – there is incentive for them to work with small certified business.

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The VOSB Verification Program

In October of 2010 President Obama signed the Veteran Owned Small Business Verification Act, a law that requires the status of firms to be confirmed as owned and operated by Veterans, Service-Disable Veterans or an eligible surviving spouse; assuring that these business are indeed eligible for VOSB (Veteran Owned Small Business) contract set asides.

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Maintaining Your Certification

Getting certified is just the first step. Next comes maintenance of that certification. Virtually all certifiers state that they MUST BE notified – usually in writing – within 30 days of any major change in your business.

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