[Hidden-tech] SDO

[Herb Singleton]

I’ve been through the SDO process (MBE and DBE). First off: yes the application process is an incredible pain in the butt. 

As for the business opportunities - they are there, but it really depends on what your business does and what public sector contacts you have. The program is really geared toward construction contractors and once you are listed in the directory, you’ll be bombarded with notices from general contractors looking for subs to pour concrete, provide ironwork, lay asphalt, etc. 

That said, if you have contacts with public sector workers or contractors, they will probably through some work you way if you can fill a need so they can meet their MBE/DBE goals. If you don’t have any contacts you’ll have to do a lot of networking. It will pay off, but it will take a while (meaning a year or two). The vast majority of DBE/MBE work we’ve received has been through networking and contacts. We’ve gotten a few jobs through primes finding us in the directory.

That said, the great thing about getting a contract is that you *will* get paid and if a prime wants to start playing games with contracts and payment terms, the SDO is a resource that can help navigate through it all. 

From your website it looks like you do web design? I don’t have a feel for the opportunities in that area (we’re acoustical engineers that work on the engineering/environmental side of DOT and DCAMM capital projects). Lot’s of state projects have websites and do website development, but I don’t know how much is developed in-house vs given to preferred contractors vs competitively bit. The SDO does have periodic networking functions, you can always go to one of those, talk to primes and see how much demand is there.

Herb

> On Dec 16, 2015, at 12:00 PM, hidden-discuss-request at lists.hidden-tech.net wrote:
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2015 18:21:08 -0500
> From: Tess Gadwa <info at yesexactly.com <mailto:info at yesexactly.com>>
> Subject: [Hidden-tech] SDO
> To: Hidden-Tech Tech <Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net <mailto:Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>>
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAPA4ta6pcxy6RFyJbsuGhN__P44nvmZVcKjmafhMHjP2PU6r7g at mail.gmail.com <mailto:CAPA4ta6pcxy6RFyJbsuGhN__P44nvmZVcKjmafhMHjP2PU6r7g at mail.gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> 
> Does anybody have experience with the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity
> Office?
> http://www.mass.gov/anf/budget-taxes-and-procurement/procurement-info-and-res/procurement-prog-and-serv/sdo/state-cert-prog/ <http://www.mass.gov/anf/budget-taxes-and-procurement/procurement-info-and-res/procurement-prog-and-serv/sdo/state-cert-prog/>
> 
> Are the business opportunities worth the time and hassle of the application
> process?
> 
> -- 
> 
> 
> Tess Gadwa
> 
> Chief Executive Officer
> _______________________________
> 
> Yes Exactly, Inc. | yesexactly.com <http://yesexactly.com/> | 413.325.8251

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