Women-Owned Business Atmosphere in Utah and Women’s Leadership LIVE

Women-Owned Businesses need help in Utah.

I got a unique opportunity this week to help some amazing women.  These women help other women, like me to start and operate businesses by giving them direct access to the tools they need to succeed.  I am so amazed by their accomplishments, and I look forward to their conference.

I started thinking about what the atmosphere in Utah looks like for the Woman-Owned Business.  Progress has been made, but I found the statistics disturbing and really see the need for mentors like the amazing women of Women’s Leadership Live (womensleadershiplive.com)

Women’s Leadership LIVE (WLL), creates a place for learning, collaboration, guidance and understanding called THE Different CONFERENCE©.  WLL’s attendees are business leaders who get things done.  Inspired and empowered women who are catalysts for change.  WLL has three great

women leaders:

• CEO Linda McMahon is the Co-founder and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and a former Republican Party candidate
• Stacey Schieffelin, is a former FORD model and founder of ybf (your best friend) beauty, #1 selling color cosmetics line offered on TV shopping channels worldwide
• Debbie Saviano, transformed herself from a former school principal to a social media strategist.  

THE Different CONFERENCE© is coming to Salt Lake City, Utah on October 13-15 and is the premium event for Women Business owners to attend.  The keynote speaker for THE Different CONFERENCE© is none other than Kevin Harrington.  

Kevin Harrington has been a successful entrepreneur for the last 40 years. He is an Original Shark on the ABC hit, Emmy-winning TV show, “Shark Tank.” He is also the Inventor of the Infomercial, As Seen On TV Pioneer, Co- Founder of the Electronic Retailers Association (ERA) and Co- Founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).

The  Women’s Leadership LIVE business leaders are ready and able to help Women-Owned Businesses in Utah.

The “Wasatch Front” has some amazing women business owners.  I have lived in Utah my entire life, born in a small town on a farm, in Morgan, and raised by my mother, who was a single mom raising four children.  In Morgan, Utah it is difficult to find diversity, and even more difficult to be different.  Morgan is a small, predominately Mormon, town, in which there are certain expectations of the role of a woman.  Men are regarded very highly in the Mormon religion.  Women in Morgan are expected to be a homemaker, handling all of the responsibilities of taking care of a loving home.  

On average, along the “Wasatch Front”, women own 36% of the businesses and make 29% of the earnings their male counterparts do.

Navigating to American Fact Finder, and utilizing a small learning curve allowed the metrics to be downloaded and aggregated.  "Wasatch Front" was not a census distinction, so Davis County, Salt Lake County, Summit County, Utah County, and Weber County were chosen.  I realize that the last Census was done in 2010 and these are just estimates for 2014 but in my mind are fairly accurate for estimates.   (See note below for more information about data)

	Male		Female		Percentage of Women Business Owners relative to Men Business Owners	Percentage of Women Business Owner Earnings relative to Men Business Owner Earnings
	Male Business Owners	Median Earnings (dollar) Estimate	Female Business Owners	Median Earnings (dollar) Estimate
Davis County, Utah	6,898	$96,248	4,326	$29,810	39%	24%
Salt Lake County, Utah	28,491	$87,029	15,428	$36,482	35%	30%
Summit County, Utah	2,228	$118,432	1,083	$66,950	33%	36%
Utah County, Utah	13,048	$89,463	7,709	$26,598	37%	23%
Weber County, Utah	5,208	$76,861	3,048	$31,579	37%	29%
Total	55,873	$468,033	31,594	$191,419	36%	29%

A bar graph of this data shows the following for the number of businesses in these counties:

2014 Census Data - Business Owners by County in Utah

The Women’s Leadership LIVE (WLL), in particular, The Different CONFERENCE© allows Women-Owned businesses to have access to tools and mentors that have been very successful in their business endeavors.  Please register for the conference now at womensleadershiplive.com.

NOTE ABOUT DATA:  Women-owned businesses, as defined by the U.S. Census, are businesses in which women own 51 percent or more of the equity, interest, or stock of the business. Men-owned businesses are defined as men owning 51 percent or more of the equity, interest, or stock of the business. Equally men-/women-owned businesses those in which the equity, interest, or stock of the business is shared 50-50 among men and women owners. Publicly held, foreign-owned, and non-profit businesses are not included in this data.

All calculations are based on the SBO 2012 classification of "all firms classifiable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status" rather than "all firms." Therefore, "publically held and other firms not classifiable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status" are not taken into account in the current calculations.

The data came from the S2408: CLASS OF WORKER BY SEX AND MEDIAN EARNINGS IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS (IN 2014 INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS) FOR THE CIVILIAN EMPLOYED POPULATION 16 YEARS AND OVER.  2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.

SBA Final Rule concerning Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) and EDWOSB

My company is DynaGrace Enterprises (DGE).  We are a certified 8(a) (Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB)) as well as 8(m) (Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) / Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB)).  We have been in business since 2006 and the 8(a) is a great program but DGE will eventually graduate. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a final rule authorizing federal agencies to award sole-source contracts to women-owned small businesses eligible for the WOSB Federal Contract Program. It was published in the Federal Register September 14, 2015, and was effective October 14, 2015.  The rule levels the playing field for WOSB across the federal contracting marketplace.

Here is a link to the rule as it appears in the Federal Register on September 14, 2015. https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/09/14/2015-22927/women-owned-small-business-federal-contract-program

It appears that for now, the current list of applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes published by SBA for WOSB and EDWOSB contracting set-asides will remain in force, and will be used to facilitate sole source awards until superseded by new data.  This NAICS code list can be found here:

2012 WOSB-EDWOSB NAICS Codes

DGE has past performance in the following NAICS codes:

237130	EDWOSB	Power and Communication Line and Related Structures Construction
238210	EDWOSB	Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors
238990	EDWOSB	All Other Specialty Trade Contractors
541330	EDWOSB	Engineering Services
541511	EDWOSB	Custom Computer Programming Services
541512	EDWOSB	Computer Systems Design Services
541519	EDWOSB	Other Computer Related Services
541990	EDWOSB	All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
561621	EDWOSB	Security Systems Services (except Locksmiths)
561990	WOSB	All Other Support Services
811310	EDWOSB	Commercial, Industrial Machinery/Equipment (except Automotive & Electronic) Repair & Maintenance

This new regulation is great news and represents an opportunity for woman-owned firms.  If you are interested in working with DGE, please contact us.

As a Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) who should I market?

Government contract awards need to meet socioeconomic goals.  The fact that DynaGrace Enterprises (DGE) is both a Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) as well as an 8(a) makes DGE count in multiple socioeconomic categories for these objectives. Formal goals are in place by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to ensure small businesses, like DGE, especially those with socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, get work from the Government. Marketing the socioeconomic advantage to customers as a way for them to meet their SBA goals is an important marketing strategy. DGE utilizes several places to determine socioeconomic marketing targets:

1. The SBA produces a scorecard for 24 agencies required to report the socioeconomic goals of their procurement activities. For Fiscal Year 2014 the document is titled FY 2014 Scorecard Summary by Prime Spend with Sub K and Plan Progress Document and is represented in the following graphic. 



FY 2014 SBA Scorecard Summary

According to the data, DGE should market the following agencies:

Agencies that did not meet their WOSB goals

• Department of Defense
• Department of Energy
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• National Science Foundation
Agencies that did not meet their SDB goals

• Department of Energy
• Department of Education
2. DGE utilizes the Small Business Dashboard to analyze potential marketing targets. The data can be up to 90 days delayed in posting, but it still gives a visual picture of socioeconomic percentage trends. The following represents a partial listing of this data. According to the Small Business Dashboard, DGE will target the following agencies:
Agencies that did not meet their WOSB goals

• Department of Defense
• Department of Energy
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Agency for International Development
• Executive Office of the President
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• Railroad Retirement Board
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Federal Trade Commission
• National Gallery of Art
• Agency for International Development
• National Transportation Safety Board
• Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board
Agencies that did not meet their SDB goals

• Department of Energy
• Department of Education
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Peace Corps
• Millennium Challenge Corporation
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• Railroad Retirement Board
• Equal Employment Opportunity
• National Gallery of Art
• National Transportation Safety Board





Small Business Dashboard

Once marketing targets are identified DGE queries the Federal Business Opportunities, FedBizOpps (FBO) and discovers procurement opportunities by Agency and then further defined by North American Classification System (NAICS) code. DGE can approach the procurement official about utilizing WOSB or 8(a) set asides for their procurement effort to meet their socioeconomic goals. Also, physical visits or digital email by DGE business development personnel and attendance at agency conferences is a must for the socioeconomic marketing plan to succeed.

For further information please visit the DGE web site.

What? A radio interview? Me?

Being a serial entrepreneur I started networking as a means to get out and meet people.  My primary market was not entrepreneurs but the poor federal employee with little to no budget.  These employees are visited by me and other defense contractor business development sales people on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.  I found myself working at a home office a lot and missing the water cooler talk so to speak.

My adventures into networking took me to a group called SLCircle (Formerly known as Entrepreneur Circle).  I have been involved with this group for over two years and I am on the board for this large networking group located in Utah.

I got the chance to speak on Women in Business and that led me to my latest adventure, a radio show.  Tysen Webb of the GoForItShow.  How does one prepare for a radio show?  With Tysen it was easy.  He guided me through the questions and I just answered them off the cuff.  I arrived at his recording studio in his basement and he put headphones and a microphone in my face.  We took a selfie of course.

 

We talked about my early beginnings in a small Utah town called Morgan.  How I started my first entrepreneur effort.  We talked about my new company BigSexyWords.  Listening to it later I realized I did have some ums and pauses but it was super fun.

Please listen to the podcast here -> http://www.goforitshow.com/59/

I am extremely grateful that I get to influence other entrepreneurs through my life story and get to meet people like Tysen Webb.  So many talented people in the universe!

Richard Schwartz, Effective Networking

I have the opportunity to serve the Entrepreneurs Circle meetup.com group by being on the advisory board.  This week we had the greatest opportunity to hear from our founder, Richard Schwartz, Phd. on Secrets of Effective Networking in Business Development.

The most important parts of business development are relationship, visibility and trust.  He described some common Utahisms:

• Expect something for nothing
• Afraid to say no directly
• We stay in our little silos
• Different is bad
• Afraid to commit
• 20 miles is too far to go to build my business

Wow…isn’t this the truth!  Being a native Utahan I have totally done some of these things well except the driving…I am constantly driving.  These don’t just apply to business development either.

Another important concept I took from the meeting is to value your weak connections.  Now what is a weak connection?  This person is more like an acquaintance.  The weak connection can get you in front of the right people or know about the right opportunity.  They are not your closest friend but they know you or of you.

Richard is unselfishness in his networking.  He encourages pay it forward concepts and helping others.  He has been a success story because as he describes it…he was one of those geeks and has obviously taken himself to another level of public speaking and mentoring.  Because he is a geek he has analyzed networking groups all around Utah and has taken the best concepts from each of them to form a fantastic networking group.

The meeting had intense synergy and I took many things from the meeting and encourage other Utah entrepreneurs to join this proactive networking group.