Simplify RFP Reviews

SDMWVLGBTBE (Small, Disadvantaged, Disabled, Minority, Women, Veteran, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered Business Enterprise) business owners are often faced with responding to a variety of requests for proposals (RFPs), requests for quote (RFQ), Invitation to Bid (ITB), or Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) by our commercial or government clients.  If you are a Not-for-Profit, this might be…

Read More

More 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 More

Site 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 More

What’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 More

Size Standards Revised!

Claiming Small Business Status? It is important to know that there are sizing rules and regulations that you must use to determine whether or not your business is considered small. And, the definition of small depends on your business’s industry based on NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes. At the federal level, being classified as…

Read More

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 More

Certification 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 More

Inclusion 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 More

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…

Read More

Inclusion 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 More