You may have heard of WBEs or WBENC certification, but are not sure what exactly it means to be certified and how certification will help you. This post aims to clear some doubts and will help you determine if you are eligible to apply or qualify to be certified as a WBE.

Q1 – Do I qualify as a WBE?

A1 – A Women’s Business Enterprise, or in short a WBE, is an independent business that is at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more women who are U.S. citizens or Legal Resident Aliens; whose business formation and principal place of business are in the U.S. or its territories; and whose management and daily operation is controlled by a woman with industry expertise.  If you said yes to all of the above, you are eligible to apply for certification.  Also note that a WBE is the business, not the individual.

Q2 – What is the purpose of getting WBENC certification?

A2 – WBENC certification offered specifically to women-owned businesses is one of the most broadly recognized and esteemed certifications in the US. The certification is accepted by hundreds of corporations nationwide including  a number of federal, state, and local government agencies.

Often there are procurement opportunities reserved for WBE’s and getting certified means you get a chance to apply to these contracts not available to you if you were not a WBE.

Also by getting certified you can display a badge of certification on your website making it an important marketing tool for expanding your company’s visibility among decision makers in corporate supply chain diversity and procurement organizations.  Getting certified also gives you access to other WBE’s to do business with or partner with for joint ventures.

Q3 – Do I apply to WBEC-West directly and what are the fees?

A3 – If your business is registered in Arizona, Southern California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming or Guam you can contact us directly to start the certification process. For other States click here to see which territory you fall under and contact that RPO directly.

Fees are determined individually by each RPO so if you fall under the WBEC-West territory please contact us directly for fee details or any other questions you might have about the certification process at: http://wbec-west.com/contact-us/