There are many benefits to those who choose to gain certification as a woman owned business. It adds credibility to your business and distinguishes you from other businesses, as many companies seek out certified businesses for various tax and social benefits. Additional benefits to the certification include access to loans, access to databases (both to be identified by customers and for you to identify prospective customers), networking opportunities and access to education and training opportunities.
When you first start to explore certification the first thing you learn is that there are multiple certifications that a woman can obtain and several different third-party organizations to use for certification process. Each certification has different requirements and are designed to target your key clients and the needs. Each is designed to provide confidence that a third party has reviewed all aspects of the business and certifies that the business meets all key requirements to be a woman owned business. This includes one or more women must unconditionally and directly own at least 51% of the business and the management and daily business operations must be controlled by one or more women. The number of documents required to support these claims is substantial and therefore the more organized you are the easier this process is. During the process, I submitted 36 different documents to the examiner for review over a 4-month period.
After successfully obtaining certification I can personally declare that any business that obtains and maintains one of these certifications has gone through a rigorous process and you can be confident that all aspects of the business have been thoroughly reviewed.