Want to get your business a little more business during the economic slump? If you are a woman or a minority business owner, Economic State Development”™s Minority and Women”™s Business Development certification program may be just the ticket.
More than 30 women and minority business owners came to the Orange County Chamber of Commerce”™s meeting room on a steamy Thursday morning, July 21, to learn how to become certified. Lora Trimingham, associate certification analyst, walked them through the process and answered questions.
Before you even consider applying, said Trimingham, ask yourself two questions: Do you own 51 percent of the business? And, if your partner in business should disappear, can you still conduct business without him or her?
There are government contracts out there, Trimingham told her audience, “but you must be certified. You may not think your business qualifies, but there are many opportunities out there.”
Josephine Papagni wanted to know if her own business, GreenWay Environmental Services in Beacon, was eligible. GreenWay handles subsoil disposal, organic gardening, bio-filtration and zero-waste systems.
She was eligible, said Trimingham, because many contracts contain requirements for soil preparation, mulching, landscaping and waste disposal. “But you must be certified,” the longtime certification analyst restated, “in order to be able to bid on the contracts.”
Trimingham, who covers Dutchess, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Putnam counties, is the region”™s field representative who does the face-to-face meeting and evaluation of prospective minority and women-owned business. Trimingham said she works with every applicant one-on-one to get them through the process.
“Small business is truly the backbone of the economy and the ones that are supporting all of us,” said Trimingham. “Don”™t lose sight of this. There are opportunities if you own your own business ”“ and you should have a big chunk of the American pie.”
Yes, there is paperwork involved, and in the past, many were daunted by the prospect of filling out so many forms, but Trimingham said the state is streamlining the process. “Every state or federal contract requires at least 20 percent of it go to a women or minority-owned business, but there aren”™t enough of them out there certified with us for us to let them know what”™s available,” she said. “We need to grow that number.”
Trimingham”™s job is to encourage MWBOs to overcome the trepidation of getting certified so they can take advantage of the government”™s mandate to fulfill its 20 percent MWBO contract requirements.
Although the program requires three years of certified business tax returns and two years of personal tax returns, the state program will consider businesses that have only one tax business return, but that have a history in the industry they have chosen to go into on their own. “If you open a print shop, and you worked 20 years in the industry but have only been in business for a year, your background is taken into consideration,” Timingham said. “It shows you have knowledge of the field.”
Those with only one certified tax return are also required to show other proof of their business”™s viability, including invoices and accounts receivable.
What makes MWBOs hesitant about applying for the certification is the need to quantify personal net worth. “You do not need to include your permanent residence or your business or its equipment,” said Trimingham. Other assets ”“ a second home, a garage full of Harley Davidson”™s or other assets with significant value need to be disclosed. Applicants may not have more than $500,000 in cash on hand or have a net worth above $3.5 million. If a business has more than 300 employees, it is also not eligible.
But many who are seeking the certification are sole proprietors and couples who have started their own business. They need an opportunity to get state business, “and there is plenty of it out there,” said Trimingham.
If you are a business owner who shares a space with another business owner in a barter agreement, the other business must be totally separate and apart from the applicant”™s. “It”™s fine to do that, but they can”™t be doing the same thing you are doing,” said Trimingham.
“Be willing to go out on the limb ”“ that is where the fruit is,” she continued. “The law requires contracts must be 20 percent minority or women-owned businesses, but there are not enough people to fill the jobs. We”™d like to change that.”
But Trimingham also let her audience know there is no room for fraud or male-run businesses in the wife”™s name in the MWBD program. “And some women have difficulty in getting certified because their husbands do not wish to share their information,” she said. “We do go out in the field, and we do monitor the people who apply. There”™s little tolerance for people trying to get into the program by trying to lie about anything. We are vigilant in our screening process.”
The ESD is also fast-tracking minority- and women-owned businesses that apply for certification because of the need to fill the requirement. Outside-of-state certification is also considered.
Trimingham”™s audience included a home health aide, a woman who works with horses, a computer technician and web designer, a composter, a grant writer and others who were encouraged to learn there are jobs they may be missing for lack of certification.
Trimingham told her audience not to leave anything blank: “Put N/A next to it if it does not apply to you. Don”™t leave any empty spaces. It just makes the process longer.”
Why do race, ethnicity, and sex need to be considered at all in deciding who gets awarded a contract? It’s good to make sure contracting programs are open to all, that bidding opportunities are widely publicized beforehand, and that no one gets discriminated against because of skin color, national origin, or sex. But that means no preferences because of skin color, etc. either–whether it’s labeled a “set-aside,” a “quota,” or a “goal,” since they all end up amounting to the same thing. Such discrimination is unfair and divisive; it breeds corruption and otherwise costs the taxpayers and businesses money to award a contract to someone other than the lowest bidder; and it’s almost always illegal—indeed, unconstitutional—to boot (see 42 U.S.C. section 1981 and this model brief: http://www.pacificlegal.org/page.aspx?pid=1342 ). Those who insist on engaging in such discrimination deserve to be sued, and they will lose.
At the federal level, SBA 8(a) certification is for any individual–regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, etc.–who is *both* a.) socially disadvantaged, meaning someone whose opportunities in education, career, and business have been harmed or curtailed by discrimination, and b.) economically disadvantaged, meaning (in brief) a personal net worth under $250K. The program is designed to help the small underdog company compete with the big dogs (million and billion dollar contractors) on an even footing despite possessing fewer resources than the big contractors. In other words, the key factor at play is not color, race, gender, etc. but rather “disadvantage”–opportunities that have been blocked or curtailed due to systemic discrimination or unfair prejudicial practices of others. In this way the program is “color blind.” The set asides help small disadvantaged companies grow and compete.