Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | July 22, 2024 | wbjournal.com e Mass. Supplier Diversity Office is amending citizenship requirements to help immigrant-owned businesses obtain diversity certifications Breaking down BARRIERS PHOTO | MATT WRIGHT BY MICA KANNER-MASCOLO WBJ Staff Writer K elly Mittal founded my- KidzDay in 2012 aer her first daughter was born. Once she dropped her crying, months-old baby off at daycare in the morning, Mittal had no clue how her daughter's day was going until she picked her up, and only aer Mittal spent the day stewing over questions of when she had stopped crying or if she had a nap. So, Mittal, who immigrated to the U.S. from India in 1999 and is now an Amer- ican citizen, developed the Westbor- ough-based childcare app for daycares, designed for parent communication, attendance tracking, and center manage- ment. Now, myKidzDay has more than 40,000 users in the U.S. and Canada. "I really had to literally wait till the end of the day just to find answers to those simple questions. And I was like, you know, imagine if someone had sent me a picture of her smiling, that would have made my day," said Mittal, who is now the company's CEO. Mittal wanted to take her business to the next level and sought to have my- KidzDay certified as a diverse business through the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office. Companies owned by people who are a racial minority, woman, veteran, service-disabled veter- an, have a disability, or member of the LGBT community can receive this certi- fication. Obtaining a diversity certifica- tion adds credibility to a business' brand while enhancing its opportunity for new revenue streams from firms receiving government funding, which have a por- tion of their spending benchmarked for utilizing SDO-certified businesses. As Mittal found, the process of obtaining SDO certification is very cum- bersome, and it is currently impossible for businesses owned by immigrants who are not naturalized citizens or per- manent U.S. residents. "Not being able to go through a pro- cess like this or have that certification, in some instances, can be an impediment for them to grow the business further. So we don't want to impede growth, we want to encourage it, and I think they could do that with a reasonable amend- ment," said Timothy Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. ose difficulties in achieving SDO certification may soon become a thing of the past, or at least become easier. As part of the effort to make diversi- ty certifications more accessible to immigrant-owned businesses, the SDO plans to amend its citizen requirement to allow immigrants with a legal status to qualify. "One of the SDO's primary missions is to identify and remove barriers for diverse and small businesses trying to participate in the state's bidding process. We see the requirements for citizenship as one of those obstacles," Bill McAvoy, executive director at the SDO, wrote in an email to WBJ. Removing barriers A strong proponent of removing citizenship requirement is the Asian Business Empowerment Council, a Boston-based statewide not-for-profit. In June, ABEC released a report showing Asian-owned businesses, particularly those operated by immigrants, were struggling more than the typical busi- ness. One of its proposed solutions is the removal of the mandatory citizenship Timothy Murray, CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Kelly Mittal, founder and CEO of myKidzDay, said barriers to access, such as the SDO citizenship requirement, are part of what keep some immigrant entrepreneurs from succeeding in business.

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