Fifty-five small business owners joined in to listen to Kelly Ireland, CBT, and Barbara Myrick, B & M Construction talk-story about their experiences with certification as a Women Owned Small Business (WOSB).
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the March 16 presentation was titled Certification as a Women-Owned Small Business: What’s in it for you?
Kelly Ireland, the Founder, CEO and CTO of CBT, an award-winning IT solutions provider with a roster of Fortune 50 clients.
Kelly has won numerous accolades including 2020 Women Presidents’ Organization’s 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies; 2015 HP PartnerOne Solution Provider of the Year Award for Cloud; CRN’s prestigious Triple Crown Award in 2016 and 2019; Boeing Performance Excellence awards; and more. She is proud to own a WBENC-Certified Women’s Business Enterprise and takes an active role in mentoring young female entrepreneurs and technologists.
Barbara Myrick is the President of B&M Construction, Inc, and is currently fulfilling her 3rd appointment with the State of Colorado for the Minority Business Office, Office of Economic Development, and International Trade. Barbara is the Chair of the Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce’s and a National Forum Chair with the National WBEC in Washington D.C. The honorably discharged Army Veteran has obtained many awards in her industry with the most recent award being the 2021 Top 100 Titan CEO Program and she was nominated for The Colorado Springs Business Journal as a Woman of Influence 2020 Enterprising Women of the Year.
WBEC is one of the official WOSB Certifiers for SBA Women Owned Small Business certifications. Businesses can get certified as being a 51% owned and operated (Minority, Women, Veteran) in order to qualify for special consideration in government and private contracts and to participate in a sponsor company’s Supplier Diversity programs. Companies such as Disney, Intel, AT&T, Major League Baseball, and MGM have requirements to include a certain percentage of purchases from diverse suppliers.