Connecting Small, Minority and Women-Owned Business to Local & State Contracting Opportunities

Frederick County was the host this year for the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs (GOMA) signature outreach annual event called Ready, Set, GROW!, a procurement connections workshop that provides information about how to navigate the procurement process and connects small, minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses with buyers from state agencies. The event also connect participants with resource partners who can help start, grow, or expand their small business.

Held at Frederick Community College this year, 88 people attended the conference with eight procurement partners and eight vendors. Coordinating partners of the event included the Frederick County Office of Economic Development and the City of Frederick Department of Economic Development.

Three Frederick County companies were recognized during the event by the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs with a Governor’s citation for their economic contribution and continued involvement in the state, the county and their community. The recipients were: Adissa Barry, Owner & CEO of TEI Electrical Solutions; Jason Lee, Owner, Lee Building Maintenance, LLC; and Sue Hough, Owner, Octavo Designs Inc.

GOMA is responsible for connecting small businesses to expanded opportunities in the public and private sectors. The agency operate a statewide outreach program to help small, minority and women owned businesses compete with confidence and provide direct oversight, monitoring, and compliance of three procurement programs across 70 state agencies and departments. The State of Maryland procurement programs include:

According to GOMA, in FY 2017 the state’s Small Business Reserve (SBR) program made $390M in payments to 1,600+ firms in Maryland. The Minority Business Enterprise Program (MBE) also made $1.3B in payments to more than 1,700 firms.

For State & Local Procurement Opportunities

Interested businesses may view what’s in the state’s contracting pipeline by visiting the eMaryland Marketplace or the view the state’s Procurement Forecast. The City of Frederick’s current opportunities are located here and the City’s pipeline opportunities are located here. Current Frederick County solicitations and information about how to become a supplier for Frederick County Government can be found here.

For additional information on procurement opportunities, state and local procurement contacts, please download the Ready, Set, GROW! presentation presented at the conference.

Stay Connected

Stay in touch with GOMA to receive notices of all upcoming workshops and classes at www.goMDsmallbiz.com. For more information about Frederick County’s Minority Business Vision program and networking events held each month, please visit www.discoverfrederickmd.com/mbv