Last month the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) finalized a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Commerce to collaborate on key Department initiatives. Among other things, the partnership will help identify, foster, and promote contracting opportunities for certified LGBT owned small businesses, similar to the Department's work with other U.S. small businesses and women and minority-owned business enterprises.
"This MOU is a key step forward in furthering the relationship between certified LGBT-owned businesses and the Department of Commerce and will no doubt help the Department reach its small business contracting goals," said Justin Nelson, co-founder and president at the NGLCC. "We are eager to open up the $13.8 billion Commerce marketplace to U.S. taxpaying LGBT-owned businesses and we are excited about our partnership with the Department."
Nelson noted that the Department has a broad mandate to advance economic growth, jobs and opportunities for the American people, specifically in the areas of trade, technology, entrepreneurship, economic development, environmental stewardship, and statistical research and analysis.
"It is the primary mission of the Commerce Department to help spur economic growth that can create good jobs in America," U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. "And I'm delighted to see our shared interest formalized in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Chamber and the Department of Commerce."
Another major part of the partnership revolves around President Obama's National Export Initiative (NEI), and his goal to double U.S. exports over the next five years. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke told an audience of LGBT business owners late last year at the NGLCC national conference in Washington that ninety-five percent of the world's consumers live outside the U.S.
"We live in a global economy and small businesses, many of them LGBT owned, need help understanding how to break into foreign markets," said Chance Mitchell, co-founder and CEO at the NGLCC. "LGBT entrepreneurs are innovators and through this partnership we will be able to equip them with the tools they need to understand the exporting process and be successful in finding customers in their backyard or an ocean away," said Mitchell.
NGLCC noted that the organization would be hosting its second South American trade mission this fall to help connect LGBT and allied owned businesses with potential distributors and end users. The 2011 target country is Colombia.
Click here to learn more about becoming a certified LGBT owned-business.
Click here to read about last year's trade mission to Argentina.
