MRS seeks women-owned business enterprise (WBE) certification
When deliberating names for our company, we settled on “MRS”, the initials of our first names, because it alluded to the business being majority women-owned. Sean knew that going into business with two women guaranteed him reliable partners, so he embraced his new title as “Mr. Mrs. Metal Fab”.
We wanted to get certified as a Women-owned business at the end of 2007, but the California Contractors State License Board (CSLB) required the licensed contractor (in our case, Sean) to “maintain ownership of shares evidencing at least 51% of the corporation” in order to reissue his individual license number to the corporation. We took this to mean he must always own 51% of the company- it didn’t occur to us at the time that the word “maintain” is obviously very vague… and could be open to interpretation? When we finally spoke with the CSLB in June 2008 they explained this requirement pertained only to the ownership structure at the time of transfer!
So here we are nearing the end of 2008. After a redistribution of shares, we are back to our original intent of being equal owners and MRS Metal Fabrication, Inc. is thus majority women owned! Despite Jennifer Beals (Flashdance) inspiring many women to take up welding as an artistic hobby, there are very few women employed at actual ironworks let alone owners. Therefore, we recognize that getting certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) as a Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE) is potentially a great market niche for MRS.
The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is the nation’s leading advocate of women-owned businesses as suppliers to US corporations. It also is the largest certifier of businesses owned and operated by women. Because many corporations and government agencies are required to award a fair share of work to minority business enterprises (MBE’s) and women’s business enterprises (WBE’s), achieving certification should help MRS win contracts as the ornamental metal sub-contractor for larger construction firms.
We’ve been working on the very lengthy application and will submit it the end of this month. Rachael and I are also going for the first time to a meeting for the Oakland chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction. We’ll let you know how it all goes!
Molly
PS: Here’s a pic of Rachael on Halloween!
