2040 – The Impact of Certifications on Contracting Opportunities for Entrepreneurs with Certify My Company’s Heather Cox

0:05Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, influencers, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt-in required where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments.

0:51Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you.

1:05With us right now, it's Heather Cox. Heather, you are the president and co-founder of Certify My Company. You are found on the web at certifymycompany.org. Heather, it's a delight to have you. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. All right. Well, give us an overview of the work that you do. And by the way, to our friend that's listening to this conversation, I suspect that you or someone you may know who is a business owner may have some advantages that are open to them that they are not aware of. So I am thrilled, Heather, for the folks that we might be able to, because I'll share my own personal story on this, but there's some opportunities available if you just simply go through a few extra steps, take advantage of this.

1:53But Heather, would you mind maybe just sharing a little bit about who Certify My Company is and the work that you do, the impact you have? I would actually like nothing more. It's one of my favorite things to talk about, right? Business owners talk about their companies like they're their babies. So Certify My Company was founded 14 years ago. Really what we are is we are, you know, cheerleaders for the underestimated entrepreneurs. And through our certification and educational programming, we prepare them to get bigger and better contracts. And so with, you know, larger organizations, with other entrepreneurs, whatever is going to be the best fit for them.

2:27but it starts with us finding out the best certification for them. Because as you may be aware, there are a plethora of certification options out there. They are not all created equal. They do not all offer the same benefits. And so we like to make sure that based on who they're selling to, what their goals are, what their hopes and dreams are with the certification, we can make sure they get the right certification. And then we actually take the project off their desk because entrepreneurs at any given time have a million things to do. And we are always searching for extra hours in the day. And so I am a big fan of outsourcing both for myself, but also often people will say, what's your number one advice for entrepreneurs?

3:04And I say, outsource to experts. Cause if you don't have the time or money to do it once, you don't have the time or money to do it twice. So taking that, those 22, 26, 30 hours off their desk so that they can focus on what they need to be focused on really allows them to keep scaling their business while the process is getting done. Yeah. Well, Heather, do you mind maybe sharing a little bit about what designations are, what kind of certifications are available and why this is someone, why this is something that someone's providing professional services or something like that may want to look into?

3:42Yeah, absolutely. So there are five main demographics, we'll put it that way. And then we can talk about the various certification organizations, right? So there's five main demographics. It's women, ethnic minorities, which is Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, Asian Pacific, and Native American. And then there's LGBT, veteran-owned, disability-owned, and women-owned. So I think there's women twice, but there's the five, right? Okay. So the various demographics have multiple certification options. It just depends if you're looking to go after government contracts, and that can be state, local, federal, or are you looking for more private sector like Fortune 1000 companies.

4:19Those are the difference in which certifications. Now with the state certifications, those are really only for state contracts. Now you might have like an insurance company, for example, who has requirements in certain states. And so they would want the state certification in addition to maybe the private sector certification as well. So it just depends again on what you want to do with the certification because the state ones have public RFPs available, but they don't have mentorship opportunities. They don't have pitch opportunity. So it's a little bit different on what you want to do with and who you're going after.

4:52Yeah. So in contracting, do you mind for someone that's not, let's say someone's kind of hearing about contracting that might be doing on a state level, local level, national or federal level, that sort of thing. Do you mind maybe just kind of sharing a little bit about that world. And then again, very important that you understand the value of these special designations that you can get for your company. If you're a woman-owned, minority-owned, veteran-owned company, et cetera, they're huge opportunities potentially. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, study after study has shown that companies, that corporations, and I'm sure this is the same for states, but most of the metrics, most of the data out there is about private sector, Fortune 1000 companies, right, is that their overall ROI on their supply chain is far better when the supply chain is diversified.

5:41And they get the shareholders do better, which is usually the reason behind it. They're requesting that their companies do that because the shareholders end up making more money and they get better value from their suppliers. And if one thing, I know COVID is now a distant memory for many of us, hopefully, but one thing that we really learned during that interesting time was that it'd been shrinking supply chains for years. And then all of a sudden they couldn't get what they needed. Right. And who saved the day, who saved the day time and time again, it was small, local, diverse businesses that came through in a pinch when the big guys couldn't do it.

6:14And so, but anyone, I could tell you I'm a black owned business. I could tell him a Hispanic owned business. And the reason that certification is so important is that it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that you really are owned, operated and controlled by one or more of those demographics and that you really are a legitimate business. So you are being vetted by a third-party organization who's taking responsibility to say, yes, this company really is who they say they are, right? So people are like, oh, they always want to check a box. The good programs do not want to check a box. The good programs are looking to find out who they're working with.

6:46Because if we want to say we're doing well by these diverse businesses, we can't measure what we can't count. So we have to know who these people are and what your real designation is. yeah um and you know um do you mind maybe sharing a little bit about both kind of contracting and subcontracting and if you have this designation how you could potentially use the even like even if like like for example like with us so um we qualify as now we haven't done the paperwork um I'm glad we've connected, Heather, for a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, which we now qualify for. And by the way, that was the old CVE term.

7:30I don't know if now through the SBA. It's still service-disabled. Yeah. It's kind of like one thing that people will say is I want to be service-disabled veteran certified or women. That's like saying I want a tissue. Which brand? I want a soda. Which brand do you want? Do you want Pepsi, Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite? The different organizations are like the brands of certification, the WBE, SDV, OSB. Those are all like the product, if you will. So you're already especially designated. So what I learned from a government contract, and I'll let you kind of fill in the blanks here. What I learned from some government contracting classes that I took locally is, again, there's value to get your certification because there could be opportunities where a larger contractor is looking for subs.

8:14And if you're a sub and you have a designation, that could potentially be seen as beneficial for them winning these really big deals. So the implication was, please, like if you qualify for these certifications and designations, please get listed as such because you can potentially help because from what I recall, like there are certain entities that need to show, for example, that they're investing in small business, not just big deals. Right. So there's, you know, again, maybe you could kind of talk a little bit more about that world. But that's my very limited understanding of that. So in the federal government, they do have a lot of requirements for small business work.

9:01And they've also added the women on small business, basically the demographics that have the least have done the least amount of growth within the government contracting. They want to really kind of elevate these businesses. Now, there is not a magic wand. It is not if you certify it, they will come. what it is is it is an entrant it is a way to get in the door to show them what you can do now once you're in the door you're going to sell like any other business that's right that's as good and just as competitively priced but if it's you and someone else they're like oh how are we ever going to tell them oh this one's also veteran disability owned it kicks it into your favor but again you have to be just as good and just as competitively priced there is no guarantees in this world.

9:43Now, there are some requirements by the federal government. Some states have some requirements. I mixed up Illinois, Indiana in one word. Both those states have requirements, but Illinois has a lot of requirements for women, minority, and disability-owned businesses. And so there is a lot of extra opportunity in states like that. Now, not all states have them. Nevada's got zero of those, but some other states do have those extras. Now, the private sector companies like, you know, the Fortune 1000, they don't have requirements. But as I said, they know that it makes them stronger businesses. And so that's why they want to do it.

10:19Because again, you can't say it makes a stronger business if you don't know that it has made you a stronger business, which is why they like the certified businesses. Additionally, you get all these access points by going to conferences, by meeting the supplier diversity managers, whose role in these organizations is to find qualified, capable, certified, by diverse suppliers to now bring back to make warm introductions to their team. And as any business owner knows, warm introductions are far superior, right, than just doing cold calls and cold emails, right? That's the way to get to the door.

10:52And so that's really what it is. And, you know, a lot of people know about the women. A lot of people know about the minority. Some people know about veteran. They usually assume it's just government contracting, but there's a lot of also great opportunities in the private sector. LGBT is also very under known. but the most under known is the disability. That is the one that people just assume. It means you're either a service disabled veteran, or it means that you can't see here and walk. Now my company certified is both women owned and disability owned. So what it means is that we, that the owners of certified my company with any disability owned business have a disability as defined by the ADA.

11:28So what does that mean? It means that you need an outside something to manage it. So if you have sleep apnea, for example, Well, you sleep with a CPAP machine so that you can function the next day or the next couple of days. Because if you know anyone who's a CPAP, if they don't use it, they're a mess the next day. And after a couple of days, it can actually cause them to their organs to be affected, their ability to think be affected because the oxygen is not there. If you have autoimmune disorders, maybe you take medication. If you have, you know, whatever it is, cancer recovery, if you're on ongoing medication to keep you from that cancer reoccurring, right, that is considered a disability by the ADA.

12:05because you need to manage the diagnosis in order to continue to run your business, quote unquote, normally. So that's really the most under known of all the demographics. And we see so much potential with all these organizations. And so it's just really important to understand where you fit in. Most entrepreneurs fit into one of the categories. That's just the nature of entrepreneurs is that there's a reason they're running their own business. Usually it's because they're tired of doing what somebody else needs them to do in the way that the other person needs them to do it. So I often find that people that are in these diverse demographics do things differently for a reason, and it brings value to the supply chain.

12:44So hence, here we have Certify My Company. How are you working with your clients? Because some of these certifications applications, they're beefy. Having gone through the VOSB process previously, there's some steps. Which is now through the SBA, right? It's not through the SBA, the veteran-owned small business. And that's actually one of the quicker processes. It still requires a lot of documentation. And the reason people get stuck is not because it's rocket science. It's because, A, again, you have a million things to do at any given point in time as an entrepreneur. But also, how many people go through their operating agreement or their bylaws?

13:29Maybe when they signed it. Maybe. Otherwise, you don't know what's in there. And the majority of templated organizational documents, governing documents, do not meet eligibility requirements unless you're 100 percent owned business. Which, OK, if you are, then there's a better chance. But I've seen sole props get denied certification. Not on our watch, obviously, but I've seen them get denied. Right. It's really a matter. The biggest reason for denial is because documentation is inaccurate or incomplete and does not match the way you actually run your company. We've seen dead spouses on tax returns have been gone for three years.

14:03We've seen people get denied from one line in an operating agreement just because, or they took on investors and they didn't realize that the investment agreement, investor agreement rendered them ineligible for certification. So it's all these very nuanced components of the application that just like anything else, an expert's going to help sure make you get it done right the first time. Yeah. All right. So Heather, what does it look like if someone goes, you know, yes, I'm a woman. I own a company, but I do not have, like, I haven't gone through the certification for the, and I know that there's, I think there's a couple of different women-owned certifying organizations, right?

14:42There's WBENC, I've seen women-owned. Well, women don't get the designation. It's not a certification, right? Okay. It just means, like, so it'd be WeBang is one and WBOC. NABO has one. A lot of states have certifications, but again, you don't want to just throw spaghetti on the wall. You want to make sure your note, you're getting the right certification for your business. So I always have people say, reach out to me, let's do a consult and figure out the right certification for you. Then if you want to hire us, you know, I'll send you a proposal and then people will be like, you know, they're talking about, and there's any other outsourcing, you have to determine what your rate, what your hourly rate is worth as an entrepreneur.

15:16What does your time worth to you? And that way you can do the math. If we save you 24 to 26 hours, take your hourly rate and multiply it by 24. And if it's greater than what we charge, you're saving money. If it's less than try it yourself, but just understand that you might get stuck and we have to do it again. Right. But that's really the, that's what the business case is that outsource when you don't outsource something, how much are you actually taking away from what you could be generating for the company? Yeah. You know, and I can tell you Heather from, um, strictly from an authority standpoint.

15:47So I used to do a lot of work in and around authority and branding and that sort of thing. There are folks out there right now that if given the opportunity would prefer to do business because they want to support, you know, women owned businesses or minority owned businesses or, you know, a veteran owned small business or something like that. So by all means, even if you don't feel like you want to like flaunt this or you don't like, I get that, like I get that energy, but, but keep in mind that you're doing it for the benefit of someone who is looking for opportunities to support. Like I know historically, like I did a lot of pro bono work in our local startup community.

16:33And, you know, just at least put it out there. So, you know, you don't have to be, you know, if you got the designation certification, you put it on your website, put it on your business card, put it everywhere. Right. And it's just there. And then people who respond or looking for that are going to appreciate that. And they're going to be very grateful that you made it clear for them to understand that you are helping them fulfill maybe one of their values or missions. Yeah, I know. Actually, there was a few years ago, it's a little bit outdated now. It's probably like seven, eight, nine years old now, whatever.

17:02But Walmart actually did a study and they asked, they knew that women controlled like 85 % of consumer decision and $20 trillion of spending. So they wanted to know how to get more money, that money in their pocket. Now I'm paraphrasing. Don't Google how does Walmart get more money in their pocket? That's not what the study says. It's paraphrasing for you. But they wanted to know like if, and they, you know, they went in, let's see if you wanted to buy shampoo and one was easily identifiable as women owned and one was not, would you be more likely to buy it? So they asked their customers, guess what percentage of women, female consumers said they'd be more likely to buy a product if they could easily identify it as women owned.

17:38What do you think, Josh? Yeah. What number? What do you think? It's up there. 90%. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And then the interesting part was everybody in the study, everyone they interviewed assumed it was better quality when it was women-owned, which is fascinating, right? So it's probably a cent more, say it's a cent more, right? That adds up for a company like Walmart or Target or any of these companies, right? So it behooves them to know who their women-owned products are. It also works in supply chain and their service offerings because again, they get more value, they think differently. So, and people used to say to me, like, I don't make decisions like that.

18:11And at first I was like, yeah, me either. I'm savvy. I'm sophisticated. But then I heard the owner of CLR, you know, calcium lime rust, that product, it's a women owned product. And she happened to say that when she took over and she changed up the company, she's like, Oh, we get rid of yuck is like one of our new taglines. At the time I only had three kids. And I was thinking, you got a lot of yuck in my house with three kids. And I'm thinking, and I had to realize I'm thinking, and she also has three kids. So she's not going to tell me to use a product that's not safe. And oh my goodness, this is how it works.

18:40Right. Cause I'm like, all of a sudden having a conversation in my head, like another mom is not going to be like, yeah, use this toxic product on your kids. Right. So that's how people think. Um, and then additionally, what I usually always tell, like our billion dollar company clients, our high million dollar company clients, our celebrity clients is that maybe you have all the opportunity in the world to get in the door, but when you certify and I, and I, I quote all the time, Janice Bryant Howard, who runs, who owns Act One. It's like a billion. She's one of the first billionaires out there.

19:09But she said, every time I recertify my billion dollar company as a woman in minority-owned business, I take away the perceived risks from every other woman in minority-owned company and elevate them as well. So it's not just for you. It's not just for them. It's for all of us. It's for the future. It's for to understand what these diverse businesses do to the economy and how we elevate everybody. hmm heather cox your website is certifymycompany.org when somebody goes there what would you recommend they do i know you've got resources here certainly um some opportunities to engage with you and and just have a question or have a conversation to see if this makes sense yeah yeah well my scheduling link is on the calendar is on the uh website for sure the website's going to be changing soon so keep an eye on that as well um but you can still find my calendar link on the website and yeah if If you're interested and find out this is a good option for you, you can shoot me an email and you can go through that.

20:05I'm on all the social media at certify my co. You can also throw questions in there as well. And yeah, just find out like how it can benefit you. And I am very transparent to people all the time. It's not going to help. It's not going to, you know, this is your real option. So I'm very transparent about what the certification can do, because as a business owner myself, I don't want someone to tell me to do something that's not going to help me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Heather Cox, again, president, co-founder of Certify My Company. Again, the website, certifymycompany.org. Heather, it's been a great conversation.

20:39Thank you for the work that you do. Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit up my influence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

21:28I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

22:09I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.