Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Growing Your Small Business Through Supplier Diversity with Kathey Porter

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Growing Your Small Business Through Supplier Diversity with Kathey Porter · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Trust yourself, at least give yourself that opportunity to go for it at least one time.
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  If it doesn't work out, you can always go back and get a job, but at least one time in your
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  life Trust yourself and go for it.
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  Hi.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady host of the small bizchett podcast.
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  I want to serve you.
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  This pandemic has been so hard on America's small businesses and on just America in
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  general.
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  If you're ready to start your dream business, boy, do have a great offer for you.
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  I am giving away 1000 copies of my best selling book.
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  Become your own boss in 12 months.
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  Over a hundred thousand people have this book.
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  It's been printed in multiple languages around the world, and I wanted to find a way to serve
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  America's small businesses in this pandemic.
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  And so I am giving away a 1000 copies of my book.
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  All you have to do to get your copy is head over to begin my biz.com/freeoffer to, you
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  know, sign up for your copy.
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  All you have to do is pay shipping, and we will mail one out to you I am so excited about this.
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  I wanna serve you.
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  Grab your copy today.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's the small Biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  The small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and I would like to welcome you to the tonight's
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  small biz chat podcast.
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  The small biz chat podcast is a peer to peer interview show that gives small business owners
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  a way to get invaluable business insights our mission is to end small business failure.
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  The goal of the small biz chef podcast is to give our small business audience an opportunity
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  to hear sage advice, then grow your business and take it to the next level.
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  And now I'm so excited to have with us.
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  My next guest, her name is Kathy Porter, and Kathy is a small business strategist, supplier
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  diversity expert, and highly sought after subject expert and collaborator as president of
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  Porter Brown Associates.
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  She provides management, scientific, and technical consulting for governmental agencies
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  and corporations.
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  Her books have been a reference guide for thousands of supplier diversity professionals
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  and small businesses.
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  She also has an online training program businessfabacademy.com, and she's been a very,
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  very long front time friend of mine.
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  So, Kathy, welcome to the small business chat podcast.
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  Thank you so much, Melinda.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  Oh, well, I just wanna jump in because you are such a wealth of knowledge So now that the
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  world's opening back up, how is he is it to get a corporate contract?
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  Well, I I wouldn't say that it is It tremendously easy, but it's not impossible.
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  I think every business should have an institutional acquisition strategy in IAS.
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  Every looking at incorporating doing business with large scale organizations, governmental
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  agencies, corporations, as a part of their overall business strategy.
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  This is how you scale a business quickly.
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  This is how you grow your business.
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  So I will say, with everything that's happened over the past year and and the social unrest,
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  and just the heightened sensitivity towards diversity.
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  A lot of organizations, a lot of corporations are really doubling down on their efforts to do
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  business with a diverse group of vendors and and businesses.
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  This includes minority businesses, women owned businesses, veteran owned businesses, and small
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  businesses, and the like.
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  And so in order to prepare yourself, you first want to have an actual business, but really
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  also study and look at what these institutions and what corporations might need.
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  It doesn't make sense just to start a business and say, hey.
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  I'm ready, and I'm open for business.
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  You also wanna have something that these organizations need.
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  And once you do the research, you'll see that these organizations, they buy 1,000,000,000 and
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  1,000,000,000 of dollars of goods and services every single year.
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  And so when I hear 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 and
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  1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of dollars of goods and services every single
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  year,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, That means from a strategy perspective, I can
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  find something to sell and something to service to to a customer.
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  And so finding out exactly what they might need and what your organization might be able to
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  supply that need, getting certified, is a great start.
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  This helps to differentiate your business.
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  It doesn't mean that you're guaranteed to win a contract, but it might help to open doors and
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  and open that line of communication so that you can at least get in front of the decision
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  makers and get in front of people who are making those types of decisions.
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  Well, let's talk about that for a second because I gotta be honest
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  with you.
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  I've been in business for 22 years.
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  I probably haven't been
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  certified as a minority of woman owned business.
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  For maybe 5 or 6 years because no one asked me for the certification anymore.
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  Like, I haven't been asked for it certainly by a corporation in probably 6 or 7 years.
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  And I did have an opportunity to do business with the city of Philadelphia and they made me
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  get certified in order to do business with him, but it wasn't it wasn't anything that I don't
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  see corporations asking for these certifications as much as they once did, let's
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  say, 15 years ago.
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  Well, so it it asks twofold.
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  So if you the relay relationship, building the relationship should always be the 1st point of
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  action.
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  And that's really what you strive for building that relationship Once you have that
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  relationship, then and and they know who you are.
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  They know your ability to provide service.
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  That's when the certification may not matter as much.
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  But when they don't know who you are, when you're going in cold, you're going in new to a
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  new entity and trying to build that relationship, the certification helps to
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  differentiate yourself from other vendors.
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  I will tell you a personal story when my firm I had my firm for maybe a year, We got certified
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  first as a veteran owned business because at the time, that's what was they were really
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  looking for veteran owned businesses.
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  And within six months, we won a contract that was valued at over a $1,000,000.
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  And they said that it was the they called me because I was certified as a veteran owned
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  business.
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  And so it doesn't always happen that way.
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  But more likely and more often than not, now organizations are looking at and making an
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  intentional effort to work with those firms that fall into those groups.
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  And so having that certification helps to ensure that they're looking at you and you're
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  at least getting that consideration.
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  That's a very good point.
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  So can you talk a little bit about what is supplier diversity and and, you know, why it
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  become like the the 4 digit right now?
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  Well, supplier diversity in a nutshell is is, the the diversity and supply chain in the
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  procurement process.
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  And so what that is is just an organization.
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  They have a supply chain, they're buying good, a number of goods and services, and their
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  intentional efforts to diversify that supply chain and ensure that they have diverse vendors
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  that fall into those categories, minority, women owned, veteran owned, whatever that might
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  be, that they have an opportunity to participate in that supply chain and that those
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  procurement efforts.
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  Okay.
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  So do you think that there is sort of like with all of the stuff that's happened, all this
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  diversity inclusion?
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  Has that made supply diversity you think more of a priority?
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  Absolutely.
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  I think at the heart of everything that has happened over the last year, economic inclusion
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  is is right there at the forefront.
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  And when you talk about an entree into a large organization, a multimillion dollar,
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  multibillion dollar company, you can't just knock on the door and say, Hey, I wanna sell
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  you something.
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  I wanna do business with you.
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  That supplier diversity professional is there to help you navigate that landscape and help
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  you make the right connections so that your time to from entering and interfacing and to
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  get into an actual contract is shortened.
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  They're here to help you to navigate those waters because it can be very tricky.
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  It can be a very complex process in trying to get and navigate through an organization and
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  supplier diversity professional, they're there to help with that.
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  And so they could be your first entree into an organization.
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  They could be the person that helps you actually break through and and cross that
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  bridge and get to a contract opportunity.
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  So, absolutely, they are a very important piece to this because they help to ensure economic
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  inclusion.
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  Now prior to COVID, supplier diversity programs kinda had become They kinda gotten a bad rep.
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  Like, they had started becoming these things where people were going these websites and
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  putting all this data And it kind of felt a little bit like a black hole, right, and, like,
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  never did they get any opportunities, but then had to keep you know, paying to maintain
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  certifications.
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  Do you think that that is is legit, or or is it just isolated, you think?
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  No.
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  I I think that's an absolutely legitimate assessment.
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  And it's one of the reasons why I created the supplier diversity training Institute When you
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  think about the path to a career in supplier diversity, there's no real career path.
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  Most us people don't go to college and say, hey.
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  I want a major in supplier diversity.
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  It's kind of one of those functions that you you fall into by happenstance in your
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  organization.
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  And so because of that, there's no background for it.
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  There's no training ground for it.
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  And so you end up with all the job training, if you will.
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  You're going to outside conferences and networking events, and getting information from
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  other people, but there's really no real training ground for that skill.
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  And so what ends up happening is just as you said, they have these vendor, go to our vendor
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  portal register as a vendor.
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  And as a small business, you're thinking you're magically gonna get all these contract
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  opportunities, but that doesn't happen.
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  And so it really depends on the supplier diversity professional to ensure that they're
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  creating opportunities with their programs.
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  I see.
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  I see.
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  So in your business, I know that you previously were as client diversity manager, but now
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  you're on the other side of the table helping people figure out, you know, how to navigate
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  you know, government and institutional organizations.
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  How do how do you do that?
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  Well, so I'm I'm actually on both sides of the coin if you will.
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  As a practitioner, I'm still working on that side.
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  I work with corporations and agencies that are looking to develop a supplier diversity program
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  or looking for supplier diversity training.
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  But I'm also a small business as a vendor.
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  And so I'm going after contract opportunities just like other businesses.
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  And I specifically talk about how to help businesses develop that institutional
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  acquisition strategy, how to navigate these waters so that you can do business with
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  organizations?
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  How do you scale and grow And the only way to quickly do that is with contracts.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  Alright.
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  Tell me this.
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  What is the best of business advice you have ever been given?
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  I would have to say trust yourself And it took me a really long time to get to that point
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  where I trusted myself and I believed in myself and and really just went for it on my own.
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  Kind of always had that excuse and held myself back, but trust yourself, at least give
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  yourself that opportunity to go for it at least one time.
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  If it doesn't work out, you can always go back and get a job, but at least one time in your
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  life, trust yourself and go for it.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  The world is still waiting on a better mousetrap.
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  And if you wait still that mousetrap, the world will be to pass your door no matter where your
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  door is.
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  And that's true today as it was 18 months ago, 15 months ago, last week, today, this
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  afternoon, it's all still true.
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  Building a better mousetrap and finding a better customer, hopefully selling it to an
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  institution.
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  That's right.
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  Find a customer with it.
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  Get the contract, get the contract to supply a bunch of mouse traps.
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  We want contracts.
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  We don't wanna sell 1.
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  We wanna sell a bunch of them.
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  No.
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  That's right.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Alright, Cathy.
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  What's your favorite business app?
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  I would say right now, it's it has to be Calendly.
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  I live and die by my calendar.
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  And, just being and I have I'm the one bad person with 2 phones, which I hate, and just
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  being able to do that and and have Zooms and stuff, when I'm in my car, when I'm traveling
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  or on a go, because my calendar is everything.
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  So it's the lifeblood of my organization, Calendly right now.
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  I believe that alright.
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  What is your favorite old school marketing tip?
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  Favorite old school marketing
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  tip?
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  I I'm old schooling that, when I started my career, we all got Franklin Covey Planners.
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  That was kind of our I started my career in marketing.
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  We all got planners, and that was you took your planner with you every meeting everywhere you
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  went.
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  You got called into the director's office.
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  You had your planner to write down notes.
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  So my my old school tip is ringing, be prepared, right, on your notes.
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  And so when I when I had my assistance and my team, when they came to my to my office,
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  Where's your notepad?
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  You need to know you have to bring in some notes.
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  You have to out of well, do I need anything?
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  Always be prepared.
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  Just in case I say something, and you you won't be asking me, oh, I don't remember what you
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  said.
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  Always have your notes.
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  So writing down those notes, always have my notepad.
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  That's my tip.
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  Kathy, what's your favorite business book?
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  Well, I don't know about my favorite, but, we get a lot of books.
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  And, I barely have time to read, but the one that I'm reading right now that I'm really into
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  is, start with y by Simon Scenic.
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  And, Just just thinking, and so using this in my coaching, and this is one of the things that
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  a lot of businesses ask about is their people.
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  Their biggest issue is their people and how to get them on board and and all of that.
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  And they're trying to figure out how to create something or say something that resonates with
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  them.
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  And so we talk about this book a lot.
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  I like it.
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  I like it.
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  That's a great book by Simon Senigan.
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  Of course, My favorite book is Disrupt You by Jay Samet.
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  It's one of my favorite books.
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  I read it a year and a half ago, and I bought that, like, probably 50 copies and giving them
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  to people because I what he believes is that if you wanna disrupt the world, start by
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  disrupting yourself.
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  Alright.
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  Well, listen.
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  This has been awesome.
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  Thank you so much to my guests.
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  Thank you all for joining me for this episode of the small pitch tab podcast.
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  If you wanna know more about how to start and grow your small business, head over to small
• 15:28
  business lady university and sign up for my course, how to sell and market online to get
• 15:33
  your business going, in the right direction.
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  Thank you all for being here with me tonight.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small bisley, your host.
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  Till next time, remember this, you never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
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  Aw bless everybody.
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  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.