2013 is ‘Year for Women Contractors,’ Declare SBA, WIPP & AMEX OPEN

By Jennie L. Ilustre

Lauding a recent law that removed the $4 million and $6.5 million caps on government awards to women business owners, the US Small Business Administration (SBA), American Express (Amex) OPEN and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) recently launched a new partnership called “ChallengeHER.”

“We’ve never seen opportunities like they are today,” American Express Vice President for Federal Government Affairs Antonella Pianalto told women business owners at the luncheon program. She challenged them “to step up and seize the opportunity.”
Throughout the year, the “ChallengeHER” initiative will involve “free events and workshops, online curriculum, mentoring and access to government buyers to provide women entrepreneurs with the knowledge and connections they need to successfully compete in the government marketplace.”
The federal government awards $500 billion in contracting business every year, most of it in the Department of Defense. Three out of ten small business owners in the country are women.

Yet women business owners “only got $150 million out of the $500 billion available–with the new law, women now have an even playing field,” Emily Murphy, Senior Counsel in the House Committee on Small Business in the US Congress, pointed out at the launch, held at the Ambassador Court Hotel in the nation’s capital.
For their roles in helping steer the bill to passage, the “ChallengHER” leading partners thanked her and the House committee chairman, as well as the top aides on the Senate side and their senators.
SBA Deputy Administrator Marie Johns noted that last January 3, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act. The law removed the $4 million and $6.5 million caps on eligible federal contract awards under the SBA Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contracting Program.

“You employ 16 millions Americans,” she told the women. She added, “The administration recognizes that you create jobs.”
The government’s goal is to give at least 5% of the contracting dollars to women-owned small business every year. The leading partners involved in “ChallengeHER” vowed not only to meet the 5% goal–“we’re gonna exceed it!”
“With improvements to the WOSB program and our new partnership with the SBA and American Express OPEN, 2013 is the year for women contractors,” Barbara Kasoff, president of WIPP, said, echoing the day’s theme. WIPP is a national non-profit advocating for nearly 1 million women business owners.
Ellie D’Sa, president of dsa designs in Maryland, was among the attendees energized by the speakers. “I hope to generate more business this year,” she said. She urged potential clients out there to contact her at dsa@dsadesignsinc.com.

Opportunities
American Express OPEN Director of Small Business & Start Up Development Benjamin Stone said in an interview, “Women business owners now have more awareness of the opportunities out there.” He noted the company’s annual programs.
Since 2009, Amex OPEN has provided free mentoring to small business owners. For this year, participants can receive 10 to 12 peer-to-peer sessions and one-on-one mentoring with a government contracting expert over a four-month period. For more information, visit www.open forum.com/governmentcontracting/resources/mentor.

Speakers at the luncheon program urged women-owned small business (WOSBs) and economically-disadvantaged women-owned business to visit the SBA website (www.sba.gov/wosb) “for amazing amount of information that will help you succeed,” stressing it will not only open doors for opportunities in government, but also in corporations.
The schedule of the “ChallengeHER” free events and workshops across the country follows: June 12 in Phoenix, Arizona; June 17 in Seattle, Washington; and July 16 in Denver, Colorado. Other events are scheduled in New Orleans, Louisiana; Atlanta, Georgia, San Francisco, California and New York.

In New York, American Express OPEN President Susan Sobbot, issued a statement for the occasion: “Participation in federal contracting can be a lucrative revenue booster and a way for women entrepreneurs to create a high-growth business,” she said. She cited her company’s research which found that about half of women-owned business contractors generate revenues exceeding $1 million.
She urged all women entrepreneurs “to offer new innovative ideas and products to government agencies and push their annual revenues past the million-dollar mark.”
SBA Administrator Karen Mills also issued a statement, saying, “Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest-growing segments of new business in our economy.”
She stressed. “At SBA, one of our top priorities is making sure that more qualified women-owned, veteran-owned and minority-owned small businesses have access to government and commercial supply chain opportunities.”

 

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