Attendees gathering important information from event (Photo by Robert A. Bell)
On Thursday, June 26th, more than 170 women business owners from the Greater Milwaukee area attended the ChallengeHER Milwaukee event to learn about growing their businesses through government contracting.
ChallengeHER is a joint initiative from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) and American Express OPEN designed to help women business owners learn the ins and outs of federal contracting and provide an avenue for government agencies to meet qualified women-owned contractors.
At the event, attendees learned about the SBA’s signature Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program, which is helping women get their fair share of government contracts.
In fact, a recent survey by American Express OPEN reveals that two thirds of women-owned firms (67 percent) find the WOSB certification useful in seeking contracting opportunities – up dramatically from 37 percent who found the certification useful two years ago.
A series of panels also provided attendees with tips and advice from local female contractors as well as insights from the SBA about working with government agencies.