We're Officially a NYS Certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise!
New York State Certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise!
Sidekick has proudly been a majority women-owned business since we opened our doors in 2017 — and just a few weeks ago New York State made it official by giving us our Women-Owned Business Enterprise Certification! New York’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) Program is committed to advancing minority- and women-owned businesses by offering resources to certified businesses to pursue State-funded opportunities and requiring that State Agencies and Offices contract with qualified MWBE’s whenever possible.
Why is this program offered through the State? We recently attended New York State's Annual MWBE Forum and heard many speak about why this program exists, why it's worth the wait to get certified (it took us over a year and half!), and how far the program has come.
One morning we attended a panel led by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, who spoke with a panel of high-powered women. She asked them what had been their biggest hurdle in business. Elizabeth Moore, Senior VP at Con Edison and former Counsel of the Governor, said being underestimated as a woman has been her biggest hurdle. She shared how once, when she was Counsel of the Governor, she walked into a meeting room and the people in attendance asked her when Counsel would arrive. When she shared this story the room gave an audible sigh. It was a situation we had all experienced before. One would hope that if they were to advance in their career as far as Elizabeth had, they would no longer have to deal with those sort of assumptions.
The women on the panel also shared their struggles with imposter syndrome (not feeling like they were good enough), caregiving when it comes to their family and career, and finding a work/life balance (does it exist?).
When asked how the women overcame these hurdles they responded with a few great rules to live by:
Never underestimate yourself
Walk into a room like you own it
Take all the opportunities
We’re pretty sure we’ve got that last one down. Kelli and I are lucky enough to have a business partner that treats everyone with respect and advocates for women’s and human rights — go Will! Grace, our graphic designer, is talented, strong, kind — and woke. And we have a community of family, friends and clients that are just good people.
Our recent WBE Certification has us thinking about all the great and successful women that we work with at Sidekick. The savvy business owners — Danielle from the Daily Squeeze, Rachel from Rachel’s Spice Company, Kate from Advokate, and Stephanie from Hot Yoga Queensbury just to name a few! We’ve also connected with so many amazing and successful women like the animator, Caitlin Cadieux, and fine artist and art educator, Jenny Hutchinson. We know we’re missing so many incredible women — but we celebrate you all!