Dawn Ackerman, far left, and George Pieper, centre right. Credit: NerdWallet
OutSmart Office Solutions is certified by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), a support group for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender)-owned businesses.
The group markets its office supplies to the Fortune 500 partners of NGLCC, who have pledged to work with diverse suppliers, NerdWallet reported.
OutSmart was set up in 2007 and sells office supplies and EcoSmart Toner Cartridges, the company’s environmentally-friendly toner cartridges. It is also works with other companies in designing, setting up and moving into new offices.
Owner George Pieper said: “We’re coming out as business owners every day, we don’t have to be in the close to serve our clients.” Being a part of the NGLCC will help the company market itself to other minority-run businesses as a “diverse solution”.
The company is small, with Piper based in Seattle, while co-owner Dawn Ackerman works in San Francisco and another employee is in Portland. Office supplies are sourced from vendors rather than held in its own warehouse. The proprietors try to work with other minority-owner enterprises, as the NGLCC recommends.
Ackerman said: “Before I got certified, I was just doing business. I wasn’t really thinking how or who I was doing business with.”
The NGLCC has 140 corporate partners, including IBM, American Airlines, FedEx and Google, as well as numerous other big internationals. Certified businesses become part of a database that the partners can access when looking for diverse suppliers. There are mentoring opportunities for certified enterprises and they can attend networking events with diversity representatives and other LGBT-owned businesses.
The chamber estimates that 1.4 million LGBT-run businesses exist in the country, yet only 650 have the certification. Ackerman and Pieper were among the first entrepreneurs to be certified, and Ackerman said their business grew by 50 percent in its first year because of the certification, with 75 percent of its 2014 gross revenue coming from interaction with LGBT chambers.
The first few years of Ackerman and Pieper’s business endeavours were difficult, as the recession hit their sales. As Ackerman said: “Funding is always a problem, you can sell and sell and sell and you’re making a profit, but cash flow is a very different story.”
OutSmart Office lost three months’ worth of orders as clients stalled on office furniture orders. The lack of lending from the banks forced the company to rely on credit cards and individual lines of credit for funding. It was impossible for a small business to approach the bank “without tying your personal house to it”, Pieper commented.
Ackerman has filed an application for a microloan, supported by the US Small Business Administration through Working Solutions, a San Francisco-based non-profit lender targeted at low-income and female- and minority-owned businesses. Securing the money will allow the franchise to complete a large contract it recently won with the University of Washington.