Last year, New York City passed Local Law 1. The new law eliminates what had been a $1 million cap on the type of government contracts that count towards the city’s diversity goals.
That means minority and women-owned businesses can use their designation to compete for much bigger deals.
"The pool of contracts has gone from $400 million to $2 billion," Gregg Bishop, deputy commissioner, business development division at the city’s Department of Small Business Services (SBS), told the Daily News.
Since 2008, when the city launched its Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) program, the number of certified city businesses has ballooned from 700 to 3,764.
"We are committed to dramatically increasing that number," SBS Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer told the News.
Want to learn more about certification? Visit nyc.gov/getcertified.