West Shore Chamber of Commerce

Does Your Company Qualify For The Small Diverse Businesses Program?

If so, you can add this information as a searchable category on our online membership directory and add one of the following images to your business listing! Just email wschamber@wschamber.org with your certification or a link to your website with the accreditation, and we will add it to your profile.

The Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion & Small Business Opportunities (BDISBO) verifies self-certified Small Businesses that wish to participate as Minority, Woman, Service-Disabled, LGBT, and Disability-Owned Business Enterprises through the Small Diverse Businesses program.

If you would qualify, but don’t currently have the third-party certification, the pa.gov website provides the information below on where to get certified, though costs and requirements differ.

Disability-Owned

Disability:IN: Certifies disability-owned, veteran disability-owned, and service-disabled businesses.

 

LGBTQ-Owned Certification

NGLCC: Certifies LGBTQ-owned businesses.

 

Minority-Owned Certification

NMSDC: Certifies businesses owned by qualified minorities, including Asian-Indian, Asian-Pacific, Black, Hispanic, or Native American individuals.

SBA 8(a) Program: Certifies socially and economically disadvantaged businesses.

Unified Certification Program: Certifies disadvantaged businesses.

Women-Owned Certification

WBENC: Certifies women-owned businesses.

SBA 8(a) Program: Also certifies socially and economically disadvantaged businesses.

Unified Certification Program: Same as above.

Veteran-Owned Certification

SBA VetCert: Certifies veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses.

Disability:IN: Also certifies veteran disability-owned businesses.

Also, if you are the main contact for your membership, you should have received an email in the past month to verify your listing information is up to date. It is important to go into your online member portal on our website to check as this is the information that the community and your fellow members see online.

It is also important to make sure that your employee count is correct, especially if you have added any members to your team so that they can attend events on behalf of your company. Your employee count, which your membership rate is based on, is for your total count of full-time employees at the location(s) you are signing up for.

All you need to do is log in through the member portal of our website and click “edit this profile” to update the information and submit the changes to us. It does take 24-48 business hours for those changes to be approved by the staff, so keep that in mind as to why the updates aren’t online immediately.

Items that may need to be updated:

  • new address
  • new phone number
  • new employees and their contact information or current employees’ information that needs to be updated/corrected such as new last name or email
    • Please Note: employees listed are not visible in your online listing as only the main contact is listed publicly. However, this will allow these employees to be related to your company and attend events.
    • If you would like additional employees to also receive communications from the Chamber please email Krystin@wschamber.org to have her add them to the list.
    • a new billing contact or address
    • new social channels
    • your company logo
    • your website URL

You are also able to have up to three category listings at no added cost to you! Are you a restaurant that falls under the “Restaurant”, “Catering” and “Food Service” categories? Create a listing for each one of those with a different description for each of how your services fall into the category. Make sure to use keywords that would help individuals find your business as well within the listing description.

Questions? Contact our Chamber staff via email, and we can help you get everything all set!