In the beginning of my business I never really thought about getting special treatment. I knew that there would be situations where the fact that I am a woman would be a disadvantage, especially in male dominated businesses but I wasn’t really concerned. It wasn’t until I had a call from a client who was looking for a partner but the partner had to be a certified minority or HUB business that I gave it any consideration. My research revealed that there are many opportunities, especially when doing business with government agencies and many medium to large businesses, for HUB certified businesses.
Not only were there opportunities, but in many situations I could be even more “disadvantaged” because I wasn’t “certified underutilized” by the state government. All things being equal in the bid, I could lose to another business because that business was a certified historically under-utilized business and I was not.
I rarely mention this status to my current clients because I figure that if it is important they will ask. A few weeks ago an email from a very important client asked the question. “Are you a minority or certified HUB?” I replied that I was and nothing more was said.
Just before Christmas I made a delivery to this same client. Earlier in the day I had attended an HUB meeting at UNT (University of North Texas) Denton so in casual conversation I asked about the earlier HUB inquiry. It boiled down to this…my client didn’t require HUB vendors but some of their large clients required their vendors to use them and if I hadn’t been a HUB, they would have had to give a large portion if not all of their business to another HUB. On that day, I was glad I had already gotten that certification!
So, yes, I am a Texas certified HUB.
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