Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hey there, thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2000 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 6 to 8 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 up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you. With us right now it's Heather Cox. Heather, you are the president co-founder of Certify My company. You are found on the web at Certify My Company. Org. Heather, it's a delight to have you.

Speaker 2 00:01:17 Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1 00:01:19 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 there's some opportunities available. if you just simply go through a few extra steps, take advantage of this. But, Heather, would you mind maybe just sharing a little bit about, you know, who certified my company is and you know the work that you do, the impact you have.

Speaker 2 00:02:01 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, so sort of on my company was founded 14 years ago.

Speaker 2 00:02:10 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. But 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? And I say, outsource the experts, because 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.

Speaker 2 00:03:10 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.

Speaker 1 00:03:22 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.

Speaker 2 00:03:42 Yeah, 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 there. 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.

Speaker 2 00:04:15 Or are you looking for more private sector like fortune 1000 companies? Those 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, you know, pitch opportunities. So it's a little bit different on what you want to do with and who you're going after.

Speaker 1 00:04:52 Yeah. so in contracting, do you mind for someone that's not, let's say, someone, you know, kind of hearing about contracting they 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 women-owned, minority owned, veteran owned company, etc., there are huge opportunities potentially.

Speaker 1 00:05:24 Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 00:05:25 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 they their overall ROI on their supply chain is far better when the supply chain is diversified and they get the shareholders do better, which is usually the reason behind that. They requested that their companies do that because the shareholders ended up making more money and they get better value from their suppliers. And if one thing I know, COVID's now a distant memory for many of us, hopefully. But one thing that we really learned during that interesting time was that it had 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.

Speaker 2 00:06:14 And so. But anyone I could tell you, I'm a black owned business. I could tell I'm 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 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 like, oh, they just want to check a box. It's the good programs do not want to check a box. The good programs are looking to find out who they're working with, because if we want to say we're doing well by using diverse businesses, we can't measure what we can't count. So we have to know who these people are and what your real your real designation is.

Speaker 1 00:06:57 Yeah. and, you know, 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 like even if like, like for example, like with us.

Speaker 1 00:07:14 So we qualify as now we haven't done the paperwork. I'm glad we've connected. Heather. for, for a service, disabled veteran owned small business, which we now qualify for. And by the way, that was the old CVB term. I don't know if now through the SBA.

Speaker 2 00:07:32 That was disabled. Yeah, it's kind of like one thing that people will say is I want to be serve disabled veterans, certified or women. That's like saying I want a tissue. Which brand or want a soda, which brand you want? You want Pepsi, Coke, Diet Coke, sprite. The visit organizations are like the brands of certification the WB, SB, OSB those are all like the product, if you will. Right?

Speaker 3 00:07:53 Right.

Speaker 1 00:07:53 So you're already especially designated. So. So what I learned from a government contract now lets 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.

Speaker 1 00:08:14 And 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.

Speaker 2 00:08:57 So in the federal government, they do have a lot of requirements for small business work. And they've also added the women of 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 is not a magic wand. It is not a if you certify it, they will come. What it is is it is an entrance.

Speaker 2 00:09:19 It's a way to get in the door to show them what you can do. Now, once you're in the door, you don't have to sell like any other business.

Speaker 3 00:09:25 That's right.

Speaker 2 00:09:26 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 better in 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. Now. There are some requirements for the federal government. Some states have some, like Ileana. Ileana. Illinois. I mixed up Illinois. Indiana. In one word, both of 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. No, not all states have them. Nevada's got big fat zero of those. But some other states do have those extras.

Speaker 2 00:10:08 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. Yeah. And so that's why they want to do it. Because again, you can't say it's 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, diverse supplier, to now bring back, to make warm introductions to their team. And as any business owner knows warm introductions are far superior right to then just doing cold calls and cold emails, right. That's the core. And so that's really what it is. And you know, the the let people know about the women, let 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.

Speaker 2 00:11:05 LGBT is also very under name, 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 is certified as both women owned and disability owned. So what it means is that we that the owners of certified my company don't have any disability owned business, have a disability as defined by the Ada. So what does that mean? It means that you need an outside something to manage it. So if you have sleep apnea, for example, 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 to sleep apnea, If they don't use it, they're a mess the next day, and after a couple days, it can actually cause them to their organs to be affected. Their ability to think the effect because the oxygen is not there. If you have autoimmune disorders, maybe you take medication.

Speaker 2 00:11:56 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 because you need to manage the diagnosis in order to continue to run your business, quote unquote, normally. So naturally, 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.

Speaker 1 00:12:44 so hence here we have certified my company. How are you working with your clients? Because some of these some of these certifications applications, they're beefy.

Speaker 1 00:12:56 Yeah. They're having gone through the Vos process previously. It's, you know, there's some steps.

Speaker 2 00:13:04 Which is now through the SBA, right? Nothing. Not through. That is now through the SBA, the veteran owned small business. and that's actually one of the quicker process is it still requires a lot of documentation. and the reason 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, maybe when they signed it, maybe otherwise you don't know what's in there. And the majority of templated organizational documents governing documents. Yeah. Do not meet eligibility requirements unless you're a 100% owned business, which, okay, if you are, then there's a better chance. But I've seen sold 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.

Speaker 2 00:13:59 We've seen dead spouses on tax returns. I've been gone for three years. You see, 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 all these very nuanced components of the application that just like anything else, an expert is going to help. Sure. Make sure you get it done right the first time.

Speaker 1 00:14:23 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, female or woman owned certifying organizations. Right. There's WBE and see I've seen women owned.

Speaker 2 00:14:46 But women don't get the designation. It's not a certification. Right okay. It just means like so it'd be why Bank has won and Bok Nobo has won. A lot of states have certifications.

Speaker 2 00:14:55 But again you don't want to just throw spaghetti on the wall. You want to make sure you know what, 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 with your hourly rate is worth. As an entrepreneur, what 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. You may 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?

Speaker 1 00:15:42 Yeah.

Speaker 1 00:15:43 You know, and I can tell you, Heather, from strictly from an authority standpoint. So 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 know, like I get that, like I get that energy, but but keep in mind that 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. and, 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.

Speaker 1 00:16:42 And it's just there. And then people who respond or are 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, that you are helping them fulfill maybe one of their values or missions.

Speaker 2 00:16:56 Yeah, I know actually there was a few years ago, it's a little bit outdated now. It's probably like not seven, eight, nine years old now or whatever. But Walmart actually did a study and they asked. They knew that women controlled like 85% of consumer decisions 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, just paraphrasing for you. But they want to know like if and they you know, they went in. Let's see if you went in 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.

Speaker 2 00:17:37 What do you think, Josh?

Speaker 3 00:17:39 Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:17:40 What do you think.

Speaker 3 00:17:41 Is up.

Speaker 1 00:17:41 There?

Speaker 2 00:17:42 99.

Speaker 1 00:17:43 Oh my goodness. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:17:44 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. $0.01 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 own products are. Yeah. And 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. And at first I was like, yeah, me either I'm savvy, I'm sophisticated. But then I heard the owner of Cler, you know, calcium, lime rest 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.

Speaker 2 00:18:25 It's like one of our new taglines at the time, I only have three kids. And I was thinking, yeah, a lot of yuck in my house with three kids like and I'm thinking. And my head, I realize I'm thinking. And she also has three kids, so she's not going to tell me he's a product that's not safe. And oh my goodness, this is how it works, right? Because 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. 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 quote all the time, Janice Bryant Howard, who runs who owns Act one, it's like a billion. You know, she's one of the first billionaires out there.

Speaker 2 00:19:09 But she said, every time I recertify my billion dollar company as a woman in minority owned business, I take away the perceived risk from every other woman and minority owned company and elevate them as well.

Speaker 3 00:19:20 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 00:19:21 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.

Speaker 1 00:19:33 Heather cox your website is certify my company.org. When somebody goes there what would you recommend they do. I know you've got resources here. Certainly. some opportunities to engage with you and, and just have a question or have a conversation to see if this makes sense.

Speaker 2 00:19:50 Yeah. Yeah. Well my scheduling link is on the calendar is on the website for sure. The website's going to be changing soon, so keep an eye on that as well. but you can still find my calendar link on the website. And yeah, if you're interested in finding out this is a good option for you, you can shoot me an email and you can go through that.

Speaker 2 00:20:04 I'm on all the social media at at certify my Co. You can also like 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 options. And 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.

Speaker 3 00:20:28 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 00:20:29 Heather Cox again, president co-founder of certify my company again the website. Certify my company. Org. Heather, it's been a great conversation. Thank 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.

Speaker 1 00:21:08 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 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I'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 6 to 8 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 up my influence comm 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. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day.

Speaker 1 00:22:17 Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur movement.