Get Your Business OMWBE Certified
The process of getting Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprises (OMWBE) certified with Washington state is, admittedly, time consuming and kind of a headache. I was encouraged by Dr. Julie Pham of CuriosityBased to pursue OMWBE state certification. She told me, the sooner the better.
I procrastinated half a year before finally jumping on it and applying for certification after being somewhat intimidated by all of the documentation needed. I submitted my application just last week and according to their site: state certification can take up to 60 days (with federal certification going up to 90 days). I didn’t apply for federal.
After digging into the application, I see why Julie recommended a start of “the sooner the better”. The more years/time you have in your business, the more tax information, equipment ownership, etc. that needs to be documented.
If you aren’t in Washington State, make sure to check and see if your own state has similar opportunities and certifications for you to potentially be eligible for state and city contracts.
Now, what’s the benefit of being OMWBE certified? Directly from their website:
Boost your potential for conducting business with government entities;
Significantly increase your visibility through listings on important databases for certified firms and active bids throughout the state; and
Provide private-sector companies another opportunity to meet their own supplier diversity goals.
As the process continues to unfold for my certification, I’ll follow up with updates of course, but first, I wanted to call out a few of the challenges that it posed and help prepare you for when you decide to pursue your own certification for your business. Because, as we all know, government sites, whether city, state, or federal, are not always the most user-friendly.
Some things to prepare in advance before jumping in:
It took me about an entire day to work on this, so make sure you set aside time. The more organized you are with your business documents the easier it’ll be too.
$50-$100, depending on how your business is set up (LLC, sole proprietorship, etc.), the application fee is different.
3 years of business taxes (if it’s your first year, you need to upload your profit and loss statement).
3 years of your personal tax returns
For the full list of documents needed, check out this FAQ.
Check out this video resource/walkthrough to apply for your certification.
Now, as for my personal opinion. I think the state could make the process a lot easier for women and minorities. The harsh reality is this is another hoop that women and minorities have to jump through. I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt behind all of the questions and documentation that they need, but it can be emotionally draining. Dare I say, even harmful.
You need to state your personal net worth, and as someone that doesn’t come from a family that had dedicated advisors while I was growing up, finances weren’t really talked about much (to this day, taxes and financials are something that I’m uncomfortable with because it’s a lot of financial and legal jargon I’m not accustomed to. Just check out my post on the 5 steps to understanding taxes this year. I was a mess!).
Not just from the financial components, but also they had questions you can answer, which honestly, I think do more harm than good. Women and minorities are very aware of their lack of privilege on a daily basis and having to answer or relive past trauma by putting pen to paper can be cruel and harmful. Now, some of the questions may be optional, but since it’s an official certification, there’s also a pressure to provide all of the materials requested because as a woman and a minority, many their whole lives have felt the pressure to always go above and beyond just to even be considered. Do you see the dilemma here?
Some of the questions they ask are:
Describe at least one objective distinguishing feature that has contributed to your social disadvantage.
Based on your answer to question 1, describe your personal experiences of substantial and chronic social disadvantage.
Describe negative impacts you have experienced on entry into business or advancement in business because of your disadvantage.
Please describe how your ability to compete in business has been negatively affected due to reduced access to capital and credit opportunities, as compared to others in the same or similar line of business who are not socially disadvantaged.
I don’t say all of this to scare you away from applying for your own certification. I mention it so you can go into it prepared. Be intentional about the day/week/month that you apply because it can be emotionally draining. I hope my state certification ends up leading to more business opportunities, but until then, we’ll see! I would love to hear your own experiences with the process or business opportunities you received through being certified. Shoot me an email at bd@brittanydanyelle.com.
P.S. If you’re in Seattle, you can also self-identify as a Women- & Minority-Owned Business (WMBE). It’s a lot easier and you don’t need as much documentation or “proof” that you are a woman &/or minority. I’m currently working on a City contract for a couple of projects and since I was already in their system as a WMBE business, it made their contract process easier and faster. Huge thanks and shout out to Vivian Huang for her help and recommendation that I get that set up earlier in the year!
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