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Letter to the editor

Certification opens doors for minority, women businesses

Being registered with the state puts these companies on the radar screen for big opportunities.

By Christina Rexrode
Published October 28, 2007

For days, she'd get passed through a string of people who couldn't help her, from the operator to "maybe the person who buys couches."

Now, those companies are calling her, and all it took was a bit of paperwork: Cazares, who has run Solutions Partner Services in Tampa for six years, registered just this year as a minority business enterprise, or MBE.

She's proof that there's a big difference between being a minority-owned company, and being certified as one.

Eileen Rodriguez, associate director of the Small Business Development Center at the University of South Florida, is constantly explaining that distinction.

"The majority of businesses come to me, saying, 'I heard of this thing called certification. What is it and what can it do for me?'"

What it can do is this: Government agencies must contract a certain amount of their operations with minority- and women-owned companies, a concept that's called supplier diversity. Plenty of large corporations have goals that are similar. (Rodriguez names TECO Energy, Progress Energy, Coca-Cola, Ford and IBM as examples.)

These agencies and companies rely on certification papers - which can come through the government or through state and national councils - to tell them which companies really are minority-run.

Kori Monroe, founder of IROK Constructional Services in St. Petersburg, says his firm's MBE certification is the main reason it got a $3.7-million slice of the construction job for Progress Energy Florida's new headquarters in downtown St. Petersburg, one of the area's largest commercial projects in years.

And Cazares met Bank of America's chief of supplier diversity at an August conference of the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

"All the e-mails and all the faxes and all the phone calls in the world never would have gotten me to that level," said Cazares, 41.

But certification is no magic bullet. Bill Norman, president of Envirolight Disposal in St. Petersburg, points out that many small businesses don't have supplier-diversity goals, so MBE certification means nothing to them. He's been certified as an MBE with the state since starting Envirolight 13 years ago. His company gathers electronics, fluorescent lights and similar materials for recycling.

Norman and the others also take pains to point out that they market themselves as quality companies, not necessarily as MBEs. Their minority status "kind of opens doors, but once those doors open, you've got to get in and perform," said Monroe, 34. "If you come in strictly on a minority basis, then the bull's-eye is on you."

Norman, 56, points out that he practices what he preaches, contracting with minority-owned vendors for office supplies and his telephone system.

"We're still in a society," he said, "where it's not a totally fair playing field."

-- Christina Rexrode can be reached at rexrode@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8318.

Should I get certified?

If your product or service would not be useful to government agencies or large corporations, then you don't need to bother with MBE (minority) or WBE (women) certification, said Eileen Rodriguez, at the Small Business Development Center at the University of South Florida. "If you have someone who does manicures or pedicures, she's not going to sell her services to Coca-Cola." Certification can be with different levels of government, or with the state or national levels of the Minority Supplier Development Council. The certifying agencies have different requirements concerning fees, company net worth and personal net worth.

Does my business qualify?

Your business must be at least 51 percent owned and controlled by one of the five minority designations: female, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, African-American or Native American. Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans must have been born in a Hispanic or Asian country, or have at least one parent or grandparent who was. African-Americans must have some kind of government document that lists their race. Native Americans must be inscribed in a federally recognized tribe. "Your grandmother might have been a full-blooded Cherokee, but if you're not in the tribe, you're not going to get certification," Rodriguez said.

Find out more

Rodriguez teaches a class on certification every two weeks at the Small Business Development Center at the University of South Florida in Tampa. For more information, visit sbdc.usf.edu. The USF center is a member of the Florida Small Business Development Center Network (www.flordasbdc.com) that serves counties in the region, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando, Polk, Manatee and others.

[Last modified October 25, 2007, 14:05:48]