• Direct the Delaware Economic Development Office to develop a strategic plan to reach out directly to our businesses, large and small, to gather information on needs, challenges and opportunities.
  
  
• Expand training and mentoring programs for small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to start a business
  
  
• Direct DEDO to reach out and coordinate better with the ongoing efforts of the Small Business Development Center, the Small Business Administration and our Chambers of Commerce.
  
  
• Direct DEDO to enhance its current efforts to assist minority and women owned business get started and grow. We need to do a better job of reaching those who are interested in starting a business and those who are in their infancy.

Ensuring Minority and Women Businesses Compete on Equal Ground

• Work with the Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprise to identify and certify more Delaware based businesses owned by minorities and women. There are an estimated 7,000 minority-owned businesses and about 14,000 women-owned business, but only 1,200 of them are listed in the office’s searchable database. We need to find ways to expand outreach to efficiently increase those numbers. The Office has done a great job, doubling the number in less than two years, but we need to keep that progress going.
  
  
• Instruct each member of the cabinet to make certain that each agency within his or her department will develop and maintain a Supplier Diversity Action Plan. The goal of the Supplier Diversity Action Plan is to maximize the contracting opportunities for minority owned, women owned and small businesses that want to engage in business relations with state agencies. Each plan will include:
  
  • A specific proposal to help enhance contracting opportunities for minority owned, women owned and small businesses.
    
  • Someone in the agency who is responsible for participating in all events sponsored by the Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprise (“OMWBE”), including events concerning outreach, recruiting, training and educating the agency about supplier dive
    
  • A yearly Supplier Diversity Plan filed annually with the Office of Management and Budget through the Director of the Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprise.
    
  
  
• Instruct each member of the cabinet to also make certain that each agency under his or her authority will:
  
  • Include supplier diversity strategies in its annual strategic plan.
    
  • Retain, record and forward, at the request of the Director of the Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprise, a list of the under threshold purchases and public works projects and the respective solicited minority and/or woman enterprise.
    
  • Retain, record and forward at the request of the Director of the Office of Minority and Women Business Enterprise all vendors used for under threshold purchases and public works projects who voluntarily divulged minority and/or women business certification or any other like certifications.

Leading by Example in the New Administration

• Pilot five agencies to increase supplier diversity within their respective supply chain. Those agencies purchasing material or services anticipated to exceed $10,000 but less than $50,000 will access the OMWBE online database to solicit quotes from a Minority and/or Women Business Enterprise to satisfy the good faith effort requirements for supplier diversity.