Power of SDMWVLGBTBE Listings
The intent behind SDMWVLGBTBE (Small, Disadvantaged/Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) participation goals is to help the SDMWVLGBTBE firm mature and grow our own capacity to directly support large companies and government agencies. A New York State Comptroller’s report says the programs are “… intended to provide direct economic benefit to…
Read MoreConfidence
Summer time is reading time, especially if you can find time to bask in the sunshine with a good book. The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman was on our list this year. We talked last time about the many mixed messages we overheard growing up and as we ventured out into entrepreneurship.…
Read MoreLearning From Fangirls (and boys)
We’ve been reading rather than writing, lately, and two books made such an impact we had to share the insights we’ve gained with a wider community — we’ll talk more about The Confidence Code in our next blog as our most recent discussion happened when one of us posed the question: Can you be a…
Read MoreMore Inclusion for V/SDVOBs
Back in March the State of New York announced the addition of the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business (SDVOB) classification on the NYS Contract Reporter (NYSCR). This designation will be self-identifying and will allow New York State agencies to enter their SDVOB contracting goals into NYSCR. Though the State is not currently certifying businesses as SDVOBs the…
Read MoreIntentional Involvement
Being involved in the SDMWVBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women or Veteran Business Enterprise) community should mean more than taking advantage of opportunities. We’ve often written about “walking the walk”, creating our own opportunities for and supporting other SDMWVBE businesses. For us, this meant commenting at a public hearing in Allegheny County Pennsylvania regarding potential changes to…
Read MoreSpring Cleaning
It is the time of year — the requests from supplier portals just keep rolling in, asking us to update our information in their systems. For the most part, that’s the only contact we have from some of the bigger potential clients we’ve been targeting. We all know the spiel when we meet with a supply…
Read MoreIntentional Diversity
We started this blog five years ago, with a sense of continuing hope that remains strong despite recent and recurring public incidents of violent bigotry. Last year we published multiple entries about The Inclusion Dividend: Why Investing in Diversity & Inclusion Pays Off by Mark Kaplan and Mason Donovan. The theme of these entries centered…
Read MoreSite Visit Preparations
A Little History: In the past, SDMWVBEs (Small, Disadvantaged/Disabled, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprises) were certified on faith that owners provided truthful information on application forms and that they really, actually owned and operated their own businesses. Unfortunately, in the early days there was a fair amount of fraud, so the certification process itself…
Read MoreWhat’s In Store for 2015?
Happy, happy, merry, merry and all of that holiday jazz with Best Wishes for 2015 from all of us at Abator and GetDiversityCertified.com. A famous Dickens’ character says “May I have some more, please”? That’s what we want – more diversity in the workplace and market place. And, if recent news articles are any indication,…
Read MoreDOT UCP Changes
Not a month goes by that we don’t wonder what to write about. Sometimes it is easier, like when massive change forces your hand! To refresh, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) is the parent agency that fosters Unified Certification Programs (UCP) for SDMWVBEs (Small, Disadvantaged, Minority, Women, or Veteran Business Enterprises) by state DOTs. Back in…
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