Resource Guide
Methods that Work for Creating Corporate Clients: A Resource Guide for Women Business Owners
The Center for Women’s Business Research finds great inspiration in the stories of women business owners who have built successful relationships with corporate purchasers. This guide sets out the strategies they and corporate purchasing professionals identified, page by page.
Contents
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This resource guide is made possible thanks to the generous support from the PepsiCo Foundation.
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The following sponsors and advisors shared their insights and suggestions on the scope and content of our study: Access to Markets: Perspectives from…
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It is with great pride that the PepsiCo Foundation (“PepsiCo”) supports the publication of Proven Strategies and Corporate Perspectives: Methods that…
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What Is A “Women’s Business Enterprise”?
The statistics used throughout this handbook are drawn from research conducted by the Center for Women’s Business Research in 2002, and published in…
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competitive product or service – and, you must know your market. This means women business owners need to understand the relationship between the…
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Getting Your Foot in the Door
Finding the point of entry is fundamental for creating access, but where do you start? According to the women’s business enterprises surveyed,…
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What are Corporations Looking for From Women-Owned Businesses?
Corporations are looking for the same thing from women’s business enterprises that they seek in any business negotiation: a good price and high…
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Mary Kay Hamm, founder and president of Linden International, an IT and healthcare staffing firm located in the Philadelphia area and certified as a…
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Get on the list
An overwhelming majority of women’s business enterprises credit their corporate success to a relationship with a key corporate decision-maker – but…
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What are these…
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Matchmaking meetings are often considered an efficient way to meet potential clients, as the pre-event application screening connects suppliers with…
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Form Strategic Alliances The formation of strategic alliances is also a trend emerging in response to “bundling.” Bundling is the practice of…
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Relationships Can Make All the Difference How does a company get on a preferred vendor list? On one hand, it is simply a matter of submitting an…
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Subcontracting is a strategy with a number of payoffs, according to Nancy Connolly, president and founder of Lasertone, Corp. in Littleton, MA.…
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Certification is important because it validates that your firm is a majority woman-owned firm and is a woman-operated company. A number of…
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How to Become Certified Becoming certified as a women’s business enterprise requires an application process through a third-party organization. There…
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Rebecca Boenigk is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Neutral Posture, a manufacturer of office chairs located in Bryan, Texas. She points to the use…
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Strategy Number FIVE: BE RESPONSIVE, BE COST-EFFECTIVE, BE CREATIVE, AND PERSEVERE
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The willingness to start small allowed Terri Hornsby, president of T.L.C. Adcentives in Katy, Texas, to turn a $30 contract with Texaco into $90,000…
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The corporate environment is in a constant state of transition. An unpredictable economy, breakthroughs in technology, and increasing globalization…
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What’s Next?
Women business owners are successful at launching, managing and increasing the revenues of their firms – the numbers make that clear. They are major…
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Certification as a women’s business enterprise means that at least 51% of a company is owned by a woman or women, and that a woman or women manage…
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CERTIFICATION: What is Required?
There are a number of documents and materials required in order to confirm that a business can be certified as a women’s business enterprise. The…
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VI. Legal Structure For Sole Proprietor Assumed Name Documents
IV. Management Information Copies of the following documents that are both currently active as well as any initiated within the three years prior to…
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For Corporations Certificate of incorporation Articles of incorporation Minutes from shareholders’ first organization meeting and from first…
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The following resources to help women entrepreneurs and others explore the issues of access to markets and corporate purchasing do not comprise a…
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PURCHASING and SUPPLIER DIVERSITY
ISM is a communication link with more than 48,000 purchasing and supply management professionals. ISM is a progressive association with a mission to…
Citation
Center for Women’s Business Research. “Methods that Work for Creating Corporate Clients: A Resource Guide for Women Business Owners.” Washington, DC.