Our Letter to You. (Yes. You!)

Hi There!

Did you know that getting certified can cost $2,000+ — and that’s only the cost to work with a consultant to apply for one. The application fee is $350-$500 AND THEN there’s an annual membership fee anywhere from $200-$500.

As a company owned by 2 women, we figured it only made sense to get certified. But those numbers drew us up short. Isn’t the point of programs like this to give a boost to more diverse business owners, from minorities to veterans, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community? So why on earth is the government charging for this process and making you jump through hoops?

At the end of the day, our clients don’t care if we have a certification. They want to work with us because they enjoy the swan experience and maybe the fact that they’re supporting a woman-owned business in a male-dominated industry (like most industries, let’s be real) is a perk. So while we’re not fans of the execution of this certification process, we do enjoy and celebrate the diversity in our own small business community. We love working with a variety of clients with different viewpoints and we love celebrating the different styles of boss-ness that each group brings to the table.

So we’re ditching the fees, 20-page RFPS, and barriers to small business owner certification. BUT we still want to celebrate being woman-owned and to acknowledge other woman-owned businesses. So we made our own certification!

What will this certification get you? If we’re talking tangible benefits, then nothing. No one is going to hire you because your Woman-Owned Certified Swan badge ticks the box on their diversity requirements. But it’s a way to celebrate the unique viewpoint you bring to the small business community without shelling out several grand.

Join us, you beautiful swan, you!

*Disclaimer

If you plan to contract with big organizations or the government, you probably still want the official certs. Get in touch with our good friend Towanda over at Livingston WoRX for help. But don’t worry, with or without them, you’re still Swan-Certified to us.