12PointFive
Track Your Spend Workbook
12PointFive
Congratulations, you're interested in seeing how you're doing in terms of spend with diverse suppliers and how you can do more! This workbook will give you what you need to get started.
You know that it's important to be intentional about your spending. This workbook will give you a chance to actually count your spend to see how many diverse business owners you are spending with and give you ideas on how to improve your spend. You don't have to spend more to spend with diverse owned companies.
Thanks so much for taking the time and intention to direct more dollars to diverse business owners in your community. You vote your values with your dollars! Let's get started.
Liz Whitehead
Liz Whitehead
You vote your values with your dollars. When you spend with diverse suppliers you invest in companies owned by women, the LGBTQIA community, People of Color, People with Disabilities, and Veteran Owned Businesses. This workbook will guide you through making that investment, tracking your metrics, and communicating that investment to customers and clients.
We'll go over some questions to start thinking about why you want to direct your dollars to diverse business owners. This will help in your internal and external communications around the initiative.
Why do companies spend with diverse suppliers?*
How do companies measure value from tracking spend?
What is a good motivator for you to track your spend with diverse suppliers?
Answer here
What is a good motivator for your team to track spend? (Pick from above or fill in)
Answer here
Describe in a few sentences WHY you want to track spend with diverse businesses?
Answer here
* Top results from large purchasing organizations as reported by Coupa and The Hacket Group.
Describe what people should write in the box below
Answer here
All the acronyms for diverse suppliers can make you feel like you're wading through alphabet soup. Use this glossary to demystify the terms and gain clarity on next steps.
Local, state, federal, and/or third-party certifications awarded to eligible diversity-owned businesses/suppliers through programs designed to help promote diversity and inclusivity with businesses who meet specific diversity criteria, thus aiding fairer and more leveled business competitiveness in the corporate and government procurement/purchasing processes.
A company that is 51% owned and operated by a member or members of the new majority:
A diverse supplier that has completed the certification process by a third-party agency to confirm eligibility for diversity certification. Certified diverse suppliers are differentiated by the following acronyms as opposed to self-identified diverse business owners.
Company that assigns itself as belonging to a particular group or category.
A non certified group. Not having earned certification.
Local, state, federal, and/or third-party certifications awarded to eligible diversity-owned businesses/suppliers through programs designed to help promote diversity and inclusivity with businesses who meet specific diversity criteria, thus aiding fairer and more leveled business competitiveness in the corporate and government procurement/purchasing processes.
A company that is 51% owned and operated by a member or members of the new majority:
A diverse supplier that has completed the certification process by a third-party agency to confirm eligibility for diversity certification. Certified diverse suppliers are differentiated by the following acronyms as opposed to self-identified diverse business owners.
Company that assigns itself as belonging to a particular group or category.
A non certified group. Not having earned certification.
Liz Whitehead
Liz Whitehead
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DOBE: Disability-Owned Business Enterprise
LGBTBE: LGBT Business Enterprise
MBE: Minority Business Enterprise
VOB: Veteran Owned Business
SDVOB: Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business
WBE: Women Business Enterprise
Company that assigns itself as belonging to a particular group or category.
A non certified group. Not having earned certification.
I make an infographic each year that helps communicate my wins and challenges!
Now we know why we want to track our spend and what we hope to achieve. Who do you need to help you?
Who in your company reviews expenses, monitors finances and accounts (ie. Me, my bookkeeper, etc.)?
Answer here
Who in my company has authority to make large purchases (travel, contractors, etc.)?
Answer here
Who in my company does the marketing (graphic design, communications, social media?)
Answer here
If on the previous page you answered "Me" in every box -that's OK! Just get help where you need it. Check the last page for resources. For example, I use Canva, a woman-owned business for my design work on the infographic.
Alright now you know who's going to help you track this spend. Now let's get them together to create 1)Benchmarks (ie. what is our spend now) and 2) Goals (ie. where can we improve). Hint: Before this meeting, send them this workbook!
Agenda for the meeting
Who is responsible for each next step?
Answer here
1. Tracking Diverse Spend (read the workbook)
2. Largest spend categories
3. Which vendors are diverse?
4. Where are the opportunities?
5. How do we measure success?
6. What's Next?
It's next year and we achieved our goals. What do the headlines say about our success?
Summarize the results from the meeting:
What are the 3 Largest Spend Categories? (Travel, Insurance, Marketing, etc.)
Which companies are our current diverse suppliers?
In which categories are there opportunities for diverse suppliers?
How will we measure success? (Hint: check the overview for ideas.)
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Case Study 2020: From the 12PointFive Blog
Women-Owned Wrap Up 2020: Counting Spend with Diverse Businesses
It’s not too late to spend more with diverse businesses! I sent holiday gifts this year from a local, women-owned business and a certified WBE who puts together packages with a purpose, sourcing sustainable items for truly responsible gifting.
Counting my spend
Every year I count my spend with diverse businesses and review what went well and what I could do better. 2019’s wrap up showed an increase from 11.5% spend with diverse business owners in 2018 to 24.8%. It was pretty good growth but I still had work to do with categories other than woman owned businesses. I also know that to go far, you have to go together. I was looking forward to initiating partnerships with other companies that could help me get there.
The 2020 Effect
2020 did throw a wrench in my goals but in unexpected ways. I increased my percentage of spend with diverse businesses to 47.9% all with women-owned businesses. While I did find some new businesses, I simply wasn’t spending as much- period. That said, I did not cut any spend with diverse businesses and do not regret that decision one bit.
For example, last year I talked about working out of Hera Hub, a co-working space in Tenleytown. While there wasn’t much call for co-working – the community of women business owners there proved invaluable to me. I received exposure nationally on the blog, by conducting a webinar, and through the membership, I’ve gained meaningful connections.
In the category of legal and professional services, I continued to work with my bookkeeper, Sharon Gubinsky at Platinum CFO and my marketing team, Social Light. I was happy to be able to take my own advice about continuing to market and come up with new ideas when my business owner clients needed something different.
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Collaboration is the New Competition
In terms of partnerships, I’m proud to announce that I found some awesome people to partner with and some really cool businesses to buy stuff from. Partnerships can be tough but I’ve been able to initiate several this year. In fact, one partnership led to several others:
Acting Intentionally when you can’t spend with diverse businesses
Not surprisingly, my percentage spend on supplier diversity events was about half as much as last year at 2%. What is a surprise is that I still managed to spend a lot on travel. Because the major airlines and hotels that host events do not tend to be diverse owned, that spend was mostly Act Intentionally spend. Act Intentionally refers to spend with companies that support and buy from diverse owned companies.
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Goals for 2021
There is still work do with other diverse business categories – Black owned businesses, LGBT, and Veteran owned. My spend with Black Women Owned businesses was 7.6% and given all the resources I have at my disposal, that number should be higher. I’d like to add other diverse business categories in the areas where I plan to spend more like insurance and personal items and gifts.
I look forward to continuing to challenge myself to walk the walk when it comes to supplier diversity. In the meantime, I hope you have a warm and wonderful holiday season and consider diverse businesses for those last minute gifts!
Why Women Owned Wrap Up and not Diverse Owned?
I'm so glad you asked! Most of my spend has been with women owned companies. I'm still intentional and inclusive in the other categories but see Tip #3- I can still improve!
If you find you are doing GREAT it one area, you can start to look at other diverse categories.
I'm happy to chat with you about next steps for your company. Maybe you have a bigger company and need more advice? Or maybe you just need additional resources to find diverse business owners. Let's talk about it!
