As the proud owner of Design Theory, I am thrilled to share a significant milestone in our journey. We have recently been certified as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) by Orange County Government | Business Development Division. This achievement is opens up our business opportunities not just to Orange County Government, but also to GOAA, Orange County Public Schools, Orange County Library, and several more agencies.
The Business Development Division of Orange County’s initiative is to increase the utilization of minority and woman-owned businesses (M/WBE) in the County’s procurement process. Our certification as an MBE is a step forward in this direction, enabling us to contribute more significantly to our Central Florida economy. I recently attended a couple of meetings where I learned in great detail from the results of a 5 year Disparity Study, how to search through upcoming expiring contracts, and currently available/open contracts. There’s still more work I am responsible for like identifying closed contracts that our agency may have qualified for, terms, and how much the bids were awarded for. And this is managed through OpenGov.com, also allows you to see other MBEs who are interested in open bids as well as save and favorite agencies (to name a few features). There’s also an eBook OpenGov published called “The 2023 State of Local Government Report” and I would highly recommend that everyone reading this downloads a copy.
As our journey continues we’ll continue to share what we’ve learned and opportunities for other business owners to take advantage and participate. The goal for us is to expand our business through this sector and reach new levels of success and growth.
There’s several people that I’ve personally met and worked with and will continue to work with as we grow in this program. Shout out to Kesi, Patrice, and VaSantha! Knowing that we can stay connected If you’d like more information from the Business Development Division, below is their contact information:
Business Development Division
Internal Operations Centre II, 2nd Floor
400 E South Street
Orlando, FL 32801
Phone: (407) 836-7317
Email: BusinessDevelopment@ocfl.net
