If you want to do business with State or Government entities, you want to register as a minority or woman-owned business with the State (e.g. of Florida).

If you want to do business with private companies, you want to register with the organizations that certify your business status with private enterprise. You will therefore want to certify your company with an organization like the Florida Minority Supplier Development Council or the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

How do you, as a new business owner, make your way through a stream of spam, advertising all types of certifications and “sure thing routes to riches”… if you pay up!

1) Understand what you do, and your value proposition. Why would anyone want your product and/or service? Read more »

Few people understand how hard it is for purchasing and supply chain people to meet enough vendors. They “shop for a living” but it’s not that easy to meet their objectives of getting the best and most innovative deals for their companies, and to build a strong base of reliable, high-quality and diverse suppliers.

Many of us have to sell our business products and services, and it sounds much easier to have the power to authorize purchases. However, purchasing people usually work within tight regulations and under management scrutiny. It is also much harder than it sounds find and develop suppliers to build a fair, transparent, competitive process. Read more »

The Florida Minority Supplier Development Council  (www.fmsdc.org) serves the North, West, Central and Space Coast regions of Florida.

This organization registers minority owned businesses, and also works with large corporations to establish supplier diversity programs that save them significant costs all along their value chain.

Hilton Ross-Munro helps businesses to register with FMSDC if they do not have the time or skilled (wo)manpower to do the paperwork. Read more »