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National Urban League And Advance
America Launch New Corporate Board
Certification Initiative
 August 26, 2010
NU Reports
Program Will Provide Specialized Business Training for African-
American Executives
Members of National Urban League , Advance America and Marc H. Morial,
President and CEO of National Urban League.
If you run a woman- or minorityowned
business, certifying your
business as such can open doors
to opportunities and can mean the
difference between winning and
losing government contracts.
Government entities designate
goals for awarding contracts to
small businesses. For example, the
federal government reserves contracts
that fall between $2,500 and
$100,000 for small, small disadvantaged
(which includes minorityowned),
small women-owned and
small veteran-owned businesses.
So how much opportunity is
there in doing business with the
government? In 2009, the federal
government wrote 6.6 million contracts
for products and services,
and conducted 30 million credit
card transactions with small businesses.
The contracts represented
about $626 billion, while
the credit cards amounted to an
additional $300 billion, of which
almost 10 million contracts were
reserved for small businesses in
just one year. And while figures
for 2010 are not yet available, recent
reports indicate that procurement
spending continues to grow
about 20 percent per year.
Union Bank doesn’t require certification
to obtain financing, however,
it is encouraged as there may
be other advantages to becoming
a certified business;
• Certification allows you
to be registered in multiple resources
where contracting officers
look for small businesses with
which to contract.
• Many large companies
offer supplier diversity programs
and solicit business opportunities
from women- and minority-owned
business to help build communities
in which they conduct business.
Being formally identified
as a minority-owned or womanowned
business can make it easier
for you to obtain financing from
certain financial institutions
To qualify as minority-owned,
your for profit business, regardless
of size, must be physically located
in the United States or its trust territories
and must be owned and at
least 51% controlled by one or more
minorities.
A qualified business
owner is a citizen or lawful permanent
resident of the United States
who is either one or a combination
of African American, Native Alaskan
and/or American Indian, Asian
American or Hispanic. Only businesses
and organizations can register.
This includes sole
proprietorships, corporations, partnerships
and governmental organizations.
You may not register as
an individual.
Currently, a woman-owned certification
process is not required for
federal contracts. When submitting
a proposal, simply self-certify by
checking the appropriate box. However,
your state and local government
may have different rules and
regulations regarding their contracts
and what their definitions are.
Consult your state and local government
for rules and requirements.
Size standards, which define the
maximum size of a qualifying small
business, may also apply. A size
standard is usually stated in number
of employees or average annual
receipts. For example, the Small
Business Administration (SBA) has
established two widely used size
standards—500 employees for most
manufacturing and mining industries,
and $7 million in average annual
receipts for most
nonmanufacturing industries.
While there are many exceptions,
these are the primary size standards
by industry. The SBA provides a certification
process to assist small businesses
in securing government contracts,
and offers step-by-step instructions
on how to register your business
in the Central Contractor Registration
(CCR), a government-maintained
database and the primary
source that Federal agencies use to
learn about prospective vendors.
Agencies can search for companies
based on their abilities, size, location,
experience, ownership, etc.
There is no cost to register for the
CCR, but you do need to have already
established your business
with all the proper permits, licenses
and registrations.
For more information, visit your
local Small Business Administration
office, their web site at
www.sba.gov, or call the SBA’s CCR
Assistance Center at 1-888-227-
2423.
The foregoing article is intended
to provide general information about
certification for women- and minority-
owned businesses and is not
considered financial or tax advice
from Union Bank. Please consult
your financial or tax advisor.
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