What is WBE Certification?
WBE Certification stands for Woman Business Enterprise and denotes that a woman (or women) has majority ownership and control of a business entity. The WBE Certification Program is not an endorsement of applicants goods, services, pricing, or profitability.
Women business enterprises are 51% owned, operated and controlled by women.
Why is WBE Certification Important?
Obtaining WBE Certification is an important business development strategy for women business owners for two primary reasons:
First, most local and national government purchasing agencies track and/or have programs for doing business with women business owners. Having WBE Certification is the only way the purchasing agents have confidence that a business representing itself as woman-owned is, in fact, woman-owned and controlled.
Second, many publicly-held corporations, as well as larger private corporations, also track and have programs for doing business with women-owned vendor companies. They, too, rely on WBE Certification.
Currently, the 5% federal goal was established in 2000 with the Women’s Equity in Contracting Act that gave the contracting office the ability to restrict competition for women-owned firms that have WBE Certification — up to 5% of all contracts. The intent of this program is to encourage procurement officers to utilize women-owned firms at a higher level in both the number of firms awarded contracts and the dollar amounts awarded to them.
Businesses must comply with Title 23 USC 140, FHWA 1273 and Executive Order 11246 in order to be eligible for WBE Certification.
Information above was obtained by http://www.wbenc.org/certification-faqs/. Please refer for more information.
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