Welcome to our MWBE series.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be taking you through each step of the process to obtain New York State’s Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) certification. The certification is available to companies with owners who are a woman, multiple women, a minority or multiple individuals who identify as minorities.
It’s important to note that MWBE certifications can be obtained from many issuers. There are government certifications, like New York’s MWBE certification as well as certifications from cities and counties across New York and from the federal government. There also are quite useful private certifications from well-respected organizations such as NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners.
This series focuses on New York State’s MWBE certification.
A company’s WMBE certification lasts for five years. After that, the company must recertify so long as it continues to meet the MWBE criteria.
Why New York Companies Want Certification
The goal of New York’s MWBE certification is to essentially give businesses that meet certain criteria a level playing field for government contracting opportunties as well as greater access to lending and networking programs that are available only to certified businesses.
For State contracts, MWBE-certified companies that might not otherwise be on the State’s or its prime contractor’s radar are afforded greater opportunities and ultimately may be more appealing as contract partners because of the certification.
A certified company also can receive assistance from the Business Development Unit on ways to ensure that it’s getting the most out of its certification. For example, the Business Development Unit offers programs on Business Growth, a Mentor-Protégé program, and Supply and Demand Utilization.
Criteria and Requirements to Qualify For MWBE Certification
This first in our series provides a basic understanding of the criteria applied to companies in order to receive this special designation. To become MWBE-certified, a company must meet certain requirements, each of which will be described in greater detail in later posts in this series.
These requirements are:
- The company must be at least 51% owned by women or a minority group member who’s U.S. citizen or permanent resident;
- Minority or woman applicant must make the company’s operational decisions;
- Minority or woman applicant must control the company;
- The company must operate independently;
- The company cannot employ over 300; and
- Minority or woman applicant can’t have a personal net worth above $15 million
Of course, the first step in becoming a MWBE-certified business is of course compiling all the necessary information and documents and then completing the application. When doing so, it’s important to ensure that your application is both well thought out and also provides ALL of the necessary documents needed to prove the requirements.
This can be a daunting task, which is why it’s beneficial to seek guidance to help ensure that your company gets the certification or recertification to which it’s entitled.
Stay tuned for the second in our series, where we address the ownership requirement. It’s not as easy as it may appear.
More soon.
