Posts Tagged ‘Women Business Enterprise’
What HR 4435 Could Mean for Small Business
Heads up owners of Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise (SDMWVBE) businesses! The government-wide Federal Procurement Contract Award Goals could be changing. In late May, House Resolution No. 4435 was passed. Included in this bill are a number of provisions that could positively affect small businesses if the Senate passes the bill out…
Read MoreCertification Alphabet Soup (or fun with acronyms)
In the world of diversity certifications there are many acronyms, some more familiar than others. This alphabet soup contains WBE, MBE, DBE, SBE, VBE, DSBE, HUB, LGBT and that’s only half of them. Some of the abbreviations are shared by government and third-party certifiers (MBE, WBE) and others are specific to the Federal government (8(a),…
Read MoreInclusion Dividends: Taking the Initiative
During the summer, we talked about The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan, intending to relate the book’s concepts to supplier diversity and how we SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprise) businesses might be able to incorporate this information in our organizations.…
Read MoreAccountability
We planned a series on The Inclusion Dividend, and we’ll get back to that next post — but we discovered a stunning article about the SBA’s new WOSB (women owned small business) certification that merits comment. Fierce Government reports that NASA audited their fiscal 2010 contracts awarded to self-certified WOSB firms and found that 35…
Read MoreInclusion Dividends
Just finished reading The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan. It is a well written commentary about the history and contemporary aspects of diversity and inclusion (DI) from a human resources and organizational perspective. I highly recommend it to all of us who care about…
Read MoreNOT One Size Fits All
There may be just one disadvantaged certification program based on the memorandum of understanding between the United States Department of Transportation and the Small Business Administration, but it would be inaccurate to say the program is standardized … each state can have completely different forms, interpretations and requirements. You can think of it as 52…
Read MoreHow Long Does It Take?
Last week we fielded three calls about getting diversity certified, and while each caller had very specific questions they all had one in common — how long will it take me to get certified? These calls come from business owners who want to get certified for a particular reason; usually because an opportunity they want…
Read MoreLess 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…
Read MoreLess Stress, Complex Questions
Complex and compound certification application questions can really amp up the stress level. Make sure you understand the questions before you answer them. When in doubt, don’t try to interpret. Pick up the phone, or email account, and ask!
Read MoreMea Culpa ~ Merry Holidays & Glad Tidings!
While the MWBE community often decries the lack of opporunities, it is important to note that progress is being made in many areas and take advantage of these programs in 2012.
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