A step-by-step guide to the MBE certification application

Enter the legal name of company, not the DBA (Doing Business As) name.

If your company is a subsidiary of a holding company, enter the name of the holding company here.

Please indicate if your business is located in your personal home residence.

Enter your mobile number or home number.

Federal Employee ID number (EIN) is the number indicated on your company’s federal income tax filing. For sole proprietors only: If you are a sole proprietor of your business (the only owner of a legally incorporated company) and do not have an EIN, please enter your social security number in addition to your EIN.

In 225 characters or less, describe the exact products or services that your company provides. Please keep in mind that corporations will search for your capabilities using the keywords that you enter in this field, so the more descriptive you can be within the 225 word limit, the better.

List all of the people who have ownership in the company (i.e. “stakeholders”). If you are an LLC, owners will sometimes be described as “members.” Anyone who owns stock in the company is considered a Corporate Shareholder.

The Key Contact is usually the principal or the minority owner with the highest percentage of ownership in the company.Other Contacts can be vice presidents or administrative assistants within the company.

North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes are six digit numbers used to describe the specific products and services that a company provides. Each company completing an application may choose to have up to 5 codes associated with their company. If you don’t know which NAICS codes apply to your company, you can visit http://www.naics.com/search.htm to look up the appropriate codes.

Please only choose one category that describes your business.

Please indicate the legal structure of your business.

Please indicate whether or not your company is affiliated with another state’s regional Minority Supplier Development Council (a non-Michigan council affiliated with NMSDC).

If you don’t know the exact year that your company previously applied, please provide an estimate.

8(a) is federal classification by the Small Business Administration (SBA) designed to help small and disadvantaged businesses compete in the marketplace for federal contracts. If you are 8(a) certified, please indicate so here and include your 8(a) identification number.

Please enter the total volume of business that your business has done in the past 3 years. Please note that this number should be your gross revenue, not gross profit.

The Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number is a unique nine-digit identification number provided by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). It is not required to provide this number, but it is looked upon favorably to do so. The Federal government requires that all applicants for Federal grants and cooperative agreements with the exception of individuals other than sole proprietors, have a DUNS number.

Check the box that most accurately describes how you acquired the business and enter the date that you become the owning party of it. If your business was established in 1990 but you didn’t acquire the business until 2004, you would enter 2004 as the Date of Acquisition.

Please provide more specific demographic and profile information of your ownership members. You can locate ownership and voter information within the shareholders’ agreement, operating agreement, or bylaws of your organization. The owner (one individual or married couple) must have an ethnic origin that falls under one of the following categories:

If your business is located in your personal residence, you should select Home Based. Otherwise, please indicate whether you own or rent your current business location.

Geographic Market refers to the reach of your business’ products or services. Please indicate whether or not your business serves just the local market or if you serve the larger region, national, or international markets.

Please indicate the owners’ initial investments into the business at the time of acquisition or at the time of the business’ founding.

Please provide current information about your licenses, if any, that allow your business to operate legally.

Please disclose whether or not any of the owners listed on this application is connected or affiliated with any other business or company.

Please list the people who run the day-to-day operations of the company.

Some companies, especially in the construction industry, require bonding insurance. If your company has bonding insurance, please indicate so here.

When providing a customer reference, we recommend using either a current or recent customer.

Please list the name and contact info for the banking institution that provides banking services to your business.

Please list the value of items for sale that are being housed in your Michigan warehouses/locations.

Manufacturers should list the major types of equipment they own, such as machinery, and whether or not you own or lease that equipment. If you are not a manufacturer, you may skip this question.

Please complete this section if you are in the building or construction industries. If not, you may skip this question.

Please complete this section if you are in the trucking or transport industries. If not, you may skip this question.

Answer “yes” if your business is part of a larger group of companies. Otherwise, select “no.”

If the persons listed in question 26, or any other third parties, have additional operational or management agreements in place with your company, please indicate so by answering “Yes” to this question. If no other agreements exist, you should select “No.”

Fill in the first blank with the word “Michigan.” Next, please indicate how you first learned about the MMSDC.

Financial statements include balance sheets, income statements and federal income tax filings. You are required to submit these documents in order to earn certification. Without them, certification is not possible. If you have been in business for less than 1 year, you can submit an opening balance sheet and projection of income or a statement provided by a certified public accountant. In this instance we also request the 2 most recent years of your personal tax returns.

You must agree to the terms and conditions listed on this page when submitting your application. Therefore it is critical that you read the entirety of this page and agree to the terms stated within before proceeding to the Signature Page. Also note that the $350.00 registration fee must be submitted with your application and that this fee is non-refundable.

Please obtain dated signatures from all of the controlling members of your company on this page. Then, be sure to have the page notarized by a licensed Notary Public. IMPORTANT: The date of the signatures should be identical to the date of the notarized seal.