Women's History Month celebrates achievements made by women around the world in all fields. In the field of business, women--and especially, women of color--are still lagging behind their male counterparts.The WBE business certification was created to help drive change.
WBE, MBE, DBE are a few of the designations available to disadvantaged businesses. The business certifications and personal credentials are necessary to help business owners and professionals to get a foot in the door. Once the door opens (if it opens), the professionals quickly get to work to show why considering women-owned businesses as anything less than qualified is a mistake.
In the state of Ohio, the WBE certification was recently added to:
"assist women-owned businesses in obtaining contracts for goods and services, construction, architecture, engineering, information technology, and professional services. The WBE program does not apply a procurement goal or set-aside target for state government contracts. The State of Ohio developed the program because it recognized the need to encourage, nurture and support the growth of women businesses to foster their development and increase the number of qualified competitors in the marketplace."
Women-owned businesses are disadvantaged only in terms of obtaining contract opportunities. The WBE certification works best if company managers and buyers are thinking (and looking) outside the box for goods and services providers. At Levvitate, we applaud the efforts of the State of Ohio to support businesses like ours.
