When NAFE member Mercedes LaPorta started her Miami, Florida-based electric distributor company, Mercedes Electric Supply, in 1979, she was one of a handful of women in this male-dominated industry. She needed an edge, so—since women were not yet recognized as a minority—she obtained local certification as a Hispanic-owned company. Soon, she landed a $300,000 contract with the Dade County school board.

More recently, LaPorta's company became a certified women's business enterprise (WBE). "It opened doors and brought results immediately," she reports. "I'm now doing business with Office Depot and MGM Properties. All told, I've brought in $80 million in business from my certifications."

Getting your business certified as woman- or minority-owned takes time and effort, but for those who market their certification, the payoffs make it worthwhile. "The fastest-growing women-owned businesses are 2.5 times as likely to be certified WBEs as non-fast-growing businesses," states Marsha Firestone, president of the Women Presidents Organization. "Women still must overcome the perception that our businesses are spare-time operations, when in fact women-owned businesses grossing over $1 million a year are the fastest growing sector of our economy."

In fact, becoming a WBE can serve as a growth strategy, according to Women's Business Enterprise Council (WBENC) President Susan Bari, who calls it "the single most productive step a woman can take when she's ready to ramp up her business to the next level." You do need a track record to pique the interest of corporate or government buyers, so getting certified as you're setting up makes little sense. But as a next step, certification brings your developing enterprise a credibility boost.

Where and How
The various certification options can seem bewildering, and an entrepreneur must decide what's right for her particular business. Many of America's largest companies have set-asides for women contractors in their supplier diversity programs for which they require WBE status to prove your business is at least 51 percent woman-owned. If your marketplace is corporate America, this is a vital tool. But if you're interested in city contracts, you must register with your local government as minority or woman-owned (or both).

For contracts with your state, you need to apply there as well; and neither accepts the others' paperwork. Finally, for federal procurement contracts, you must register with the Small Business Administration.

(While the federal government is required to give five percent of federal contracts to women-owned businesses, only three percent of contracts have gone to women in recent years.)

To earn WBE status, Erin Fuller, executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), recommends contacting WBENC or the National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC), two third-party certifiers that will conduct due diligence on your company—including a rigorous site visit.  Both offer advice on leveraging your certification, since the status alone brings no benefits. "You still have to get out there and market yourself like crazy," counsels NWBOC President Janet Harris-Lange, "and use the WBE logo as a tool."

So how do you decide where to certify? "It depends on the commodity of your business," explains Nancy Ploeger, president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. "You want to go where you have a chance, so do the research and if you find there are a lot of government contracts being given out in your industry, that's when you do it." She recommends building a reputation as a federal contractor via jobs with the General Services Administration, where no certification is necessary.

Subcontracts are another route. "The prime contractor gets the government job," Ploeger says, "and the government says to give one-tenth of that business to woman or minority-owned businesses. So get certified, make friends with the prime contracts, and grow."

Perhaps the best reason to certify as woman-owned is the community you join. WBENC brings its entrepreneurs together with Fortune 1000 companies in national matchmaking events and uses listserves to quickly connect buyers with WBEs. NWBOC provides an interactive e-procurement marketplace database. And there's another bonafide advantage. "The WBE community is the equivalent of the old boys' network," notes LaPorta, who says that network pays big dividends. "I make a practice of using other WBEs for my purchases, like printing, health insurance, and marketing. We seek each other out." 


What You Need
To qualify as a Women's Business Enterprise (WBE), your business must have: