Never, Never, Never Give Up

Mary Sit — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:41:00 GMT

Jose Jimenez, METRO's new director of small business compliance, likes to quote Winston Churchill to small businesses that might be overwhelmed by the way this huge agency does business: Never, never, never quit.

Jimenez speaks from experience. A former small business owner who ran a construction firm, Jimenez did work for Housing and Urban Development and the Houston Independent School District.

"For me, my inability to get into places like METRO was that I quit trying. I went to what was easiest. It is perceived to be hard," says Jimenez, who nevertheless, built a successful company.

Now that Jimenez is on the inside, he wants to encourage small businesses to get on board and learn how to do business with METRO.

First, sign up for bid alerts. This is a bid alert system that notifies you of the day-to-day requirements of the organization. Anyone can sign up. You don't have to be a certified small business, a minority-owned or woman-owned business.

Second, if you qualify, get involved with METRO's Small Business Program. "Any small business, regardless of the owner's race or gender, is eligible to participate," says Jimenez.

To be eligible, an owner must own 51 percent of the company; have a personal net worth less than $750,000, excluding his or her home; and not have gross revenue sales above the maximum allowed by the Small Business Administration for three consecutive years. The maximum gross revenues vary, depending on the industry.

For example, general construction or heavy construction cannot have more than $28.5 million in sales per year, while accounting/bookkeeping cannot have more than $6 million in sales.

"Being in the Small Business Program gives you a competitive advantage," explains Jimenez. "Being a certified small business creates a limited competition when contracts have a small business goal, and the prime contractors are looking for small businesses."

Click here for an application to apply for certification as a small business.

In addition, we have internal advocates within our Small Business Program who will train and guide small businesses on how to maneuver within METRO.

There are two ways to get certified as a small business:

METRO's own small business certification which we are certified to offer
Certification through the City of Houston or Small Business Administration.

If your business qualifies as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE), you can become certified through the City of Houston or the Texas Unified Certification Program.

Third, register for the METRO Solutions Snapshot bid alert program. This is separate from METRO's regular bid alert system. "METRO Solutions is a unique, independent program of engineering and construction services directly focused on light-rail projects," says Jimenez.

Click here for a Snapshot application. If you are already certified through the METRO Small Business Program, you will be automatically registered in Snapshot.

Jimenez admits that skepticism among small businesses is alive and well when it comes to doing business with METRO. "Our department is an advocate for the small business, but we can only do as much as the small business owner is willing to do," says Jimenez. "How can your services make our life - the government agency - easier? Sell the benefit of contracting with your services. Be special, make yourself different from the pack."

Best tip? Learn to play by the rules.

"We have many requirements - local, state and federal - that dictate the way we do business. If a company is willing to understand what rules we have to live by and able to adapt to our rules, it will succeed in our procurement process," says Jimenez.

corridors and an Intermodal Terminal, the agency is doing all it can to encourage and equip small businesses to participate in the project.

Every small business involved in METRO-approved training will be issued a smart card - a plastic card with an embedded computer chip that will track the courses, the approval and the completion of any courses entrepreneurs take.

"No one has used this in training before," said Margarita Dunlap, compliance & program advisor manager. "We'll issue free smart cards to businesses involved in training and make it easier for them."

This way, companies won't have to turn in paperwork to prove they've taken a course. If they show up at Houston Community College, for example, to take a METRO-approved course for additional training, they can simply swipe the card. The card will indicate that that person is registered and approved to take that course, explained Dunlap.

Training will range from a four-hour seminar to a series of courses. Businesses that are in the METRO Solutions Snapshots database will be assessed by the Washington Group Transit Management Corp.'s program advisor, Qualified Women in Construction (QWIC), to see if they need more training.

Some of the training will be project-specific, customized courses taught at METRO, and others will be from existing courses in community colleges, universities and local institutions. "If small businesses want to have their employees trained so they can move forward in the future, we'll be doing that," said Dunlap.

Courses will range from business courses to technical ones, including such topics as how to read plans; how to do a cost estimate; how to do right-of-way; and labor issues.

A "small business" is defined as any business that does not have assets of more than $750,000, excluding one's home and business.

"We're calling for more businesses to come forth," said Dunlap. "The major project is yet to come - the construction phase. We definitely need more companies, and we want to make sure we have them on our database."

To get on the Snapshots database, where you'll get an e-mail alert if a bid is coming up, simply go here and register.

We'll need vendors who can provide everything from windshield wipers to Web design.

"It's all about accessibility," said Dunlap.

For more information or to get your small business involved, contact Tracy Agha, program director at QWIC. Phone: 713/652-7981. E-mail: tracyagha@msn.com.

Write On METRO : Snapshots

Never, Never, Never Give Up