National Women Business Owners Corporation

1001 W. Jasmine Drive, # G, Lake Park, FL 33403 800-675-5066 T 561-881-7364 Fax www.nwboc.org

National Women Business Owners Corporation 1st National Certifiers of Women Business Enterprises

History:

The National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC), a nonprofit 501c3 organization, was created in 1995 by a special interest group of women business owners for the purpose of creating a national certification program thus increasing procurement opportunities for women owned companies. The development of this program, sponsored by IBM, involved over 700 public and private sector individuals who created the Application, the process and the Standards/Procedures. NWBOC is also an approved Third Party Certifier for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s WOSB/EDWOSB 8m contracting program.

Certification Designations:

WBE Woman Business Enterprise (for work with Private Sector) WOSB/EDWOSB Woman Owned Small Business and Economically Disadvantaged Woman Owned Small Business (for work with the federal government) VBE/VWBE Veteran Business Enterprise and Veteran Woman Business Enterprise (for work with the Private Sector)

Minimal Criteria to Apply:

Woman(en) must own and control at least 51.0% of the business; and,

Woman owner must serve in the highest position (CEO or President or Manager); and,

Woman owner must be active in daily management; and,

Woman owner must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident; and,

Woman owner must have majority ownership, control and highest title for at least 6 months before applying.

Certification Process:

1. Applicant completes application and sends to NWBOC; 2. If documents are complete, committee review begins; 3. Site Visit is conducted by trained site visitors and results are sent to the committee; 4. Committee meets again to make final decision; 5. Company is notified of decision and if certified, certification packet is mailed; 6. Company must renew certification annually but the process is less involved after the initial certification; 7. If company is denied certification, letter is sent stating reasons and appeal process.

Benefits:

1. Listing in NWBOC database, The Zone, as certified company; 2. List of private and public sector procurement contacts; 3. E-newsletters; 4. Certificate and packet of information; 5. Use of logo for marketing materials; 6. Credibility for the company; 7. Social media notified of company’s certification 8. Procurement opportunities; 9. Training in the form of webinars, conference calls, etc. 10. Reduced registration at Conferences and business development events

Get Involved:

1. Familiarize clients with benefits of certification, designations and process 2. Offer certification training programs 3. Strengthen business training programs to include basics and variations between corporations, LLCs, etc. 4. Have organizations like NWBOC conduct conference calls and other training programs for clients 5. Become trained site visitors i.e. NWBOC trains site visitors and provides a stipend to WBCs for the time and work involved. Site Visits are mandatory for any of the certification designations. 6. Become a certification committee i.e. NWBOC trains a group to review applications in their general vicinity. 7. Attend and participate in certifier events i.e. NWBOC national and regional events.

Contact:

Janet Harris-Lange, President [email protected] 800-675-5066