Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | June 10, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 21 Diversity certification is worth it for your business BY JULIA BECKER COLLINS Special to WBJ I 'm proud to be part of a women-owned and -operated business celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, but it's only in the last few years we got our Women Busi- ness Enterprise certification from Massachusetts. While the application process can be long with exhaustive documentation and wait times, the opportunities it unlocks absolutely make it worth it. e Supplier Diversity Office of Massachusetts runs the Supplier Diversity Program, which allows businesses to apply for certification as a Minority, Women, Veteran, or Portuguese business enterprise, as- suming you meet the qualifications of 51% ownership and dominant control of the relevant group. Businesses receiving funds from the state or federal governments – contractors, nonprofits, organizations, etc. – have some of those funds earmarked for spending with these SDP-approved businesses. By completing this process, not only are you entered into the database of the SDO, but any company you work with that has this government funding can expand its budget with you. For us, it's helped immensely, with existing clients and finding new clients, as we have a quality helping us stand out from the competition. So, what's the catch? Assuming you meet the qualifications, you'll need to cut through a lot of red tape. e process took me about a year. During and aer getting the certification, I was surprised to learn how many people I talked with didn't know this program existed, even businesses easily meet- ing the requirements of being minority-, women-, or vet- eran-owned. While they don't need the state recognition and piece of paper telling them what they already know, the doors it opens up cannot be overstated. If you're thinking about pursuing the SDP, to do these three things: 1) Before you start, gather as much docu- mentation as you can supporting the required ownership and control. 2) Be prepared for the long haul. Before you can even start, you'll need to attend a two-hour seminar, which only happens a few times a year. Aer that, the process will be a lot of back-and-forth, including phone calls and emails. 3) Start exploring the opportunities before and during the process. Talk with current clients who might get state funding and potential candidates to approach aerward. You can use the SDO database to find potential projects to bid on. By doing these things, you'll put yourself in a great position to leverage these into more sales, connections, and opportunities, including partnerships you'd nev- er thought of. If you meet the qualifications, take the plunge; it's more than just a feather in your cap. Julia Becker Collins is the chief operating officer of Northborough marketing agency Vision Advertising. Huge healthcare investments Julia Becker Collins I n early June, UMass Chan Medical School unveiled its long-awaited, $350-million New Education and Research Building in Worces- ter, constructed to be a hub of medical educa- tion, research, and health care. On the same campus just about a block away, UMass Memorial Health is expanding its acute care footprint with the $125-million renovation of the former Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center into a state-of-the-art facility with 72 beds, which will bring the total number of beds close to 900. ese significant investments in healthcare and research facilities will have far-reaching impacts in the Central Massachusetts community for years to come. UMass Chan is already a giant when it comes to research hubs, studying a wide variety of diseases and treatments and spinning off startup companies aimed at commercializing that research. In fiscal 2023, the school received 353 grants from the National Institutes of Health alone, totalling $179 million. With the construction of its newest building, UMass Chan will not only enhance its work around treatments for diseases like Alzheimer's and bird flu, but it will be a hub for the life sciences industry with new amenities like the Mass Spectrometry Facility. Younger companies in the region without the deep pockets of the more established players will have access to the facility, which will help bring their own research closer to commercialization, as WBJ Staff Writer Mica Kanner-Mascolo points out in her "Breaking new ground" story on page 8. UMass Memorial's new North Pavilion – as the Beaumont renovation is called – is a direct response to the rising need for more hospital beds in Central Massachusetts. Worcester County has a growing pop- ulation and already has the least number of hospital beds per capita of all the counties in Massachusetts, so an expansion of the acute-care system is very nec- essary, Justin Precourt, interim president of UMass Memorial Medical Center, says in the "Breaking new ground" story. e beds at the North Pavilion will have new technologies like interactive televisions, which will help better coordinate care and patient communication, as well as facilitate telehealth visits, which have become a growing staple of the health- care delivery system. Health care is already the largest industry in Central Massachusetts when ranked by employment, and bioresearch – and really the entire life sciences sector – is the target industry economic develop- ment officials are looking to attract. e healthcare system here and throughout the country is still in the midst of multiple crises with employee burnout, shaky finances, and layers of bureaucracy imped- ing healthcare delivery. While neither of these new facilities will solve the industry's problems, they will go a long way to making each organization more efficient and positioned for growth.e combined half a billion dollars being invested in the two new facilities are solid steps in the right direction and further strengthen Central Massachusetts as a center of excellence in the healthcare sector. W The above Editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board. The Viewpoint column, the A Thousand Words cartoon, and the Word from the Web commentary represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WBJ or its staff. WBJ welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Send them to bkane@wbjournal.com. W

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