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Feb 3
Certification for Women Business Owners?

Now here's an interesting concept: The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) offers a certification program for women-owned businesses.  According to the WBENC, this certification is "an important marketing tool for expanding your company’s visibility among decision makers in corporate supplier diversity and procurement."  Apparently more than 700 corporations, plus federal and government agencies, accept this certification.

Additionally, the WBENC hosts a black-tie Salute to Women's Business Enterprise and an annual National Conference and Business Fair.  Member businesses are allowed access to numerous other resources as well.

Have you completed the WBENC certification program for your business?  Be sure to take the time to share your comments with me here or via email at melonie at smallbizmentor.com.  (Just replace the "at" with @!)


6 Comments/Trackbacks




Hi Melonie:

What an interesting concept! I do wonder why there isn't a certification for men-owned businesses, or co-ed businesses. This seems like a scam to take women's money.

I knew a person who took a certification course on networking. Networking with people, not networking in computer systems. The marketers of the course claimed that the course was chock full of tips and advice in how to network properly (in my belief, the only improper way to do it, is to only network for selfish purposes - such as selling without truly seeing a prospect's needs). It costs almost $1000!! Some networking groups really bought that concept - as if it's a benefit to members who were already networking, and paying membership to the organizations (ranging from $60 to $500 per year).

Noelle

PS: this is the url of the organization I mentioned in the previous comment -

http://www.certifiednetworker.com/

Perhaps others will find the course helpful.

Noelle

You bring up an excellent point, Noelle. I wonder what sort of certification is required by these corporations and governmental agencies when it comes to men-owned companies. Might have to check into that a bit. Thanks for the link, too. I'm sure it will be of assistance to our visitors!

Matthew W, Grant here...a new, fellow author on Know More Media. My blog is PurchaseRealm and I have been in the Purchasing field for 8 years.

I'll add another perspective into this discussion for you. Please note that these comments have nothing to do with the propriety or societal ethics of whether we should certify women or minority owned businesses. (I'll save that debate for a future post on my blog.) This is about the reality of what happens in corporate purchasing departments.

Over the last say, 10 years or so, Supplier Diversity as in "women owned" or "minority owned" businesses has become a hot Public Relations topic. Most large corporations have specific programs in place to award a certain percentage of purchases to businesses meeting these certifications which are obtained through the state in which the businesses are located or through national organizations.

Some government contracts (Example: State Pension Fund) require that their vendors (Example: Mega Corp) purchase a certain percentage of their own purchasing budget from women and minority certified businesses. Otherwise, Mega Corp doesn't qualify to do business with State Pension Fund.

I'll definitely go into more detail on my blog in the future, but suffice it to say, this is a very real phenomenon and some businesses have positioned themselves well by taking advantage of these certifications.

Matthew

Great info to know, Matthew...thanks! (And welcome, too!) It will be interesting to read the rest of the "debate" over on your blog!

» Affirmative (Purchasing) Action from PurchaseRealm
As promised here in Melonie Murray's Workerette blog and in the comments here, this is more detailed information about Women and Minority certifications for business. In the comments link above, I explain how some companies can't even qu... [Read More]

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