Small and minority owned businesses need certifications in order to bid on government contracts at the local, state, and federal levels.
The City of Augusta’s Compliance Department is holding a workshop to help small business owners navigate the process of being certified to compete for government contracts.
“I created the workshop to cover all types of certifications,” Dr. Yolanda Jackson, interim director of the Compliance Department, explained for ABD. “I do go over federal, state, and local certifications. How those benefit them and who the certifying agencies are.”
The goal is to help participants understand the individual certification options and the benefits of each to help set them up for future successes.
Jackson added that she will also walk them through two programs offered by the City of Augusta. Those are the Local Small Business (LSB) and Minority-owned and Women-Owned (MWBE).
“How they can benefit them, and I go into a lot more detail on those two certifications, basically walking them through the certification process, the documents that are required for them to submit to put in an application, what we look for when we’re reviewing those applications,” she detailed.
She said prime contractors can benefit from having those certifications because they know up front they must use small businesses that are certified through the city’s programs.
Knowing how to select certifications that will be most beneficial to an individual business will also be explained during the workshop.
“First, do your research and find out if the particular certification you’re thinking about is going to be something that will complement your business,” said Jackson. “That is because there are so many different certifications out there that business owners can get, but if it’s not going to benefit you, then you’re just wasting your time and your effort getting certifications that are not going to be of use to you.”
Jackson said changes in the federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, particularly those dealing with transportation, will have an impact on securing a contract.
“So, highway work, airport work, transit, those projects used to have a DBE goal on them. With that change, we can no longer place DBE goals,” she said. “That could open up the door for some smaller businesses that have our certification. But the one caveat with that is, if it is federally funded, we cannot put our local goals on those programs. It won’t deter them; now they will have more of an opportunity to work on some of those projects, because now there is no goal stuck to those anymore.”
The following week, Jackson’s department will offer a business law workshop. Attorney Rachel Ray with Enoch Tarver will explain how to make sure that they have certain things legally in place to protect them and their business.
“Any small business owner in the CSRA, I encourage them to attend these workshops, because we are offering these workshops free of charge,” Jackson said.
The certification workshop is on May 14th. The legal workshop is on May 21st. Both workshops will be held from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at Accelerate Augusta at 600 Broad Street.
Enrollment for the certification workshop is at: https://form.jotform.com/250973707800156
Anyone interested in the legal workshop can sign up at: https://form.jotform.com/260156143105142
Workshop details are as follows:
Date: Thursday, May 14th
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Accelerate Augusta
600 Broad Street
Augusta, GA 30901
“I look forward to helping local businesses better understand the certification process and the opportunities available to them,” said Dr. Yolanda Jackson.
