GETTING THE MOST OF YOUR WBENC CERTIFICATION______ Back To Main Page


The Importance of Networking:  A WBE's Personal Experience

by Lynn Griffith

Six years ago, I applied for certification as a woman-owned business. I was stunned at the size and the detail of the application and took weeks to complete it. Like many other WBEs I really thought this was the ticket. I was going to be certified and corporate America was going to be beating my doors down to give me their business. At the point of my certification I had already been in business for 18 years and my client base was exclusively corporate America. Certification seemed to me to be the perfect avenue for immediate growth of my business.

Not being a “quitter” I recertified every year, just knowing that the big windfall of corporate business based on my certification was around the next bend.
And then something happened. The WIB conference came to town. And I joined the Miami Host Committee. It was the first time since my certification four years prior that I had even met another WBE. I know that everyone’s focus was on the upcoming Miami WIB conference, and how we could get some business out of the organization’s visit to Miami. But, as they say, “an interesting thing happened on the way to the conference!”.

As it happened, my company was awarded the WIB contract for shuttle transportation and décor and coordination for the welcome event and silent auction. But that was just a small stop on the journey that began in those committee meetings. The friendships forged from that committee endured as
I participated in a “Now I’m Certified” meeting, a dinner honoring Nancy Allen
and an Office Depot sponsored session to work on press savvy and “elevator speeches”. The ladies that I met through attending all of these events banded together to pool our resources and sponsor a “Mojito Madness” party at this year’s WIB conference in California.

In the two years since I chose to become “engaged” in the WBE world, I have:

• Worked with Annette Taddeo at Language Speak to provide simultaneous translation for one of my corporate groups in Miami
• Contracted Terri Hall at Doubletake Studios to re-design my website, locate some logoed umbrellas for my company and assorted other graphic design type tasks
• Referred business to Victoria at Victoria and Associates when a staffing request from a corporate client was more than my company could accommodate
• Sharpened my marketing messages and press-savvy with media training and PR direction from Lynthia Romney at RomneyCom

I am currently collaborating on a huge project with Terri Hall and Martha Yavers
of Yavo Enterprises to provide some extensive services to a Swedish client
coming to Florida with 700 European men in December of this year.

And it is not just all business I am providing to other WBEs! Marguerite Gonzalez
from Accubanker hired my company to provide transportation for an event that
she was having. And my company moves ever closer to doing business with
Shari Wallack at Buy The Sea and Gina Meyerson at Landry & Kling.

I have:
• A group of new found friends
• A group of peers that I am comfortable with calling and who help me explore solutions to business challenges.
• A larger power base from which to recommend services to my customers
• A HUGE sense of professional and personal growth from just being around other like-minded entrepreneurs.

Please join us. Get engaged. Come discover all the rewards (even the more hidden ones) that your certification can provide. Join us in December 1st for our First Annual Holiday Party hosted by Welcome Florida.  Stop by and say hello while you're there!

Lynn Griffith is the owner and President of Welcome Florida an Event Planning company with 20 years in business.  If you would like to contact Lynn, please send her an email at lgriffith@welcomeflorida.com or visit her at www.welcomeflorida.com for more information about her services.