Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/177117
Why Women Win continued + + + + + + + + www.hbs.net 800-236-7914 www.avastonetech.com DESIGN TO IMPRESS... BUILD TO LAST... Commercial Industrial Design/Build www.alliancebuilds.com | 920-336-3400 Call today for a FREE estimate! 800-582-2847 4725 Gray Wolf Drive Oshkosh, WI 54904 920-426-2704 800-582-2847 12 | / insight on manufacturing • September 2013 are a woman-owned exhibit house." Prior to her certification, Van Vreede would sometimes get questions from clients asking about her status as a certified woman-owned business, helping to prompt her to proceed with the application process. "The reality is there aren't that many women-owned manufacturing companies in Northeast Wisconsin," Van Vreede says. "So it does put you in a select group, which I'm very proud to be a part of." As a part of that group, Van Vreede has been invited to be a part of roundtable discussions with Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and others in support of women in manufacturing and the Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) in particular. The experience of going through the application process, which is administered through the state Department of Administration's Office of the Women's Business Ombudsman, varies. It's a fairly lengthy process that includes multiple applications asking about tax history, company profit-andloss statements, personal information, goals and objectives, says Van Vreede, who adds that breaking it into bite-sized pieces makes it more efficient. Aurora Manufacturing's main client, Oshkosh Corp., has a small business liaison officer who helped ferry Ceman and Brooks through the certification process. Wanda Sieber, who owns the logistics company Unishippers in Green Bay, Seattle, Wash., and Mobile, Ala., is working on the process of certification, which she has found cumbersome. "If there's one thing I'd like to see is that this process become a lot easier, because it's hard enough running your business and becoming profitable, let alone having a four-month process to get registered," she says. Still, as Sieber works her way through the applications, she's capitalized on being a woman-owned business by w w w.in s i g h t o n m f g .c o m