Narratives: What’s Disadvantaged 2?

Writing a narrative about your disadvantaged status? A simple definition of disadvantaged for certification purposes is “a systematic or systemic barrier to opportunity”. Your first step is a generic statement. “I perceive I have experienced professional rejection for reasons of “… ethnic origin, disability, residence, gender, race, education, or “Other, describe”. Then, you will need to write about specific instances of bias against you and how this bias has had a negative impact on your ability to enter into or advance in business

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Narratives – What’s Disadvantaged?

Writing a narrative about your disadvantaged status? A simple definition of disadvantaged for certification purposes is “a systematic or systemic barrier to opportunity”. Your first step is a generic statement. “I perceive I have experienced professional rejection for reasons of “… ethnic origin, disability, residence, gender, race, education, or “Other, describe”. Then, you will need to write about specific instances of bias against you and how this bias has had a negative impact on your ability to enter into or advance in business.

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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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Overcoming Stereotypes

Overcoming the new MWBE stereotypes in the business community is hard work. Practice transparent diversity yourself – in your work force and supplier base and publicize your commitment to diversity.

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Making Supplier Diversity Work

While the number of small and diverse business enterprises is growing dramatically, companies are consolidating their supply chains as they seek to reduce cost and increase revenue. Healthy economies require strong small and MWBE businesses to create jobs, products or deliver services, so it is necessary to encourage the use of these small and MWBE to build reliable, viable supplier relationships .

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Preparing the Personal Net Worth Statement

In many ways, the personal net worth statement is similar to your business’s balance sheet. It is a snap shot of your financial standing at a particular moment in time. It is used by certifiers to help determine social and economic disadvantage.

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Can’t Get No Information

Bidding government work can be a long, and admittedly sometimes frustrating, process; however, it can also be rewarding. Our willingness to put effort into finding out what our targeted clients wanted from us, using the tips shared here, helped us foster and cement long-term involvement with our government clients.

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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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What’s Going On With MWBE Ownership Trends?

Recessions are a natural part of the business cycle. As the proverb says, what goes up must come down. Conversely, opportunities occur during recovery and the eventual upswing of this cycle. Ideally you can position your MWBE business to survive the recession and take advantage of the next recovery.

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Two Little Words

Small diverse businesses can be particularly vulnerable to requests for MWBE procurement participation when lack of transparency is at issue. You can use these guidelines to help protect your business.

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