What does MBE mean? MBE stands for “Minority Business Enterprise”. If you are an MBE, you can obtain one or more levels of certification to increase your business sales opportunities.

With an MBE certification, the proper certifying agency confirms that a business is in fact 51% owned, controlled, and operated by one or more minorities. Since there are different types and levels of certification, it is easy to get the levels mixed up with one another. So this article explains the different levels of certification to help make things more clear.

There are some MBE’s that would not really benefit from having an MBE certification. If you don’t sell a product or service that the government or large corporations buy, then it would be a waste of effort to obtain an MBE certification.

Would you like to sell your products or services to these government and corporate clients with deep pockets? If so, then it would be good for you to consider obtaining that MBE certification. An MBE certification can be important, for example, because of the requirement that some government agencies and many corporations MUST award a certain percentage of their business each and every year to MBE enterprises. You can prove that you meet that requirement of being a minority-owned business with your MBE certification.

MBE certifications are available at four different levels, which may be confusing to some people: a. Local Certification b. State Certification c. Federal Certification d. National Certification” Each of these certifications will now be discussed.

Certification at the Local Level: A local government agency awards local certifications. Your business should obtain a local MBE certification if wanting to do business with a particular local government agency and desiring to increase your chances of getting them as a client.

State Certifications for MBE’s: State certifications can be obtained in most states through that state’s MBE/WBE office. If you want to sell to state governments with increase opportunities to get projects from them, you should obtain a state certification. If you want to obtain a state MBE certification, contact the certifying office in the state in which you want to be certified. You then have to submit the application and supporting documentatin that they require.

Certification at the Federal Level: There is actually no formal certification process to obtain a federal certification. Federal WBE certifications are “self-certifying”. When selling to the U.S. federal government, then you “self-certify” that you are an MBE. That basically means that you just state that you are 51% owned, controlled, and operated by one or more minorities. Later, after awarded a project with the federal government, they may ask you to prove that MBE status, but in most cases, they do not. However, dont say you are an MBE if you are not.

With no formal MBE application process for the federal government, this means that you can get started right away in responding to federal government opportunities and leverage your MBE status (once you are registered as a federal government vendor with CCR, etc.). Although the federal government does not have projects that must be set-aside just for minority owned businesses, as a practical matter, they do make significant efforts to award a certain percentage of contracts to minority companies. So there are still incredible advantages with the federal government if you are a MBE.

Certification at the National Level: National certifications are obtained by filing an application with the National Minority Supplier Diversity Council (www.nmsdc.org). Definitely pursue a national MBE certification if you want large corporations as clients. Some of these large corporations will accept a state certification, so before completing a national certification application, you should first check and find out what is required by the specific corporations you want to work with.

Denise Gosnell is an attorney, entrepreneur, and world-recognized author on business, technology, and legal topics. To learn more about obtaining and leveraging minority business certifications, make sure you check out Denise’s FREE MBE certification Starter Kit at http://www.mbecert.com.

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