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women or minorities. Many are motivated by company initiatives
regarding inclusiveness, going so far as to inquire about the minority
status of Goldberg’s supplier and decorator partners, too. She believes
certification has allowed her to access companies she would not have
been able to otherwise.
Certification through WBENC has been good for Goldberg’s
business, but it hasn’t been a golden ticket for increased sales. “Within
corporations, there are no set-asides for diverse suppliers,” Goldberg
says. She adds that the most a corporation can do is field a supplier
diversity program to ensure that women and minorities get a chance to
bid, where everything else is equal.
“These companies want you to be able to give them what they
want when they want it. In the way they want it,” says Goldberg. “If
you can do all that and have a good company, and a good product at a
good price, there are opportunities.”
But Goldberg knows that seeing opportunities for success isn’t the
same as acting on them. Twenty years ago, she took a leap and bought a
friend’s unused screen-printing machine. Goldberg was running her fam-
ily’s vending business at the time, but still had room in her schedule for a
new endeavor—preferably one that she could own and operate herself.
“I approached it from the business perspective,” she explains. “I
started selling t-shirts to big companies that had little offices in
Indianapolis. I came up in the vending business, so I knew those were
companies that gave away a lot of t-shirts.”
While building her business, Goldberg always believed that things
were possible if she put her mind to it. Once she realized she could
sell more of the same items to companies outside of Indianapolis and
combine orders to save clients money on screens and films, her busi-
ness began to blossom.
“It’s not inspired, but I knew from having worked for a long time
that if I could build the orders—I didn’t know they called it getting to
scale—I could consolidate, and then eventually I got clients to plan
ahead so we could get even more group orders and put them all
together so everybody benefitted,” she says.
Now she finds herself dreaming about just how far she can take the
business. “I invested pretty heavily in brand-store technology, which
didn’t exist when I started, and technology is the great equalizer. When
you put technology together with great people, you can really expand
the reach of what you have,” she says.
Currently, OmniSource Marketing has approximately 35 employ-
ees. Lately, new client acquisition has led to adding a new recruit
about every other month. “You will not find a creative bone in my
body,” Goldberg says. “I know this, so I needed creative people to help
me present the solutions that I knew would work and do it in a cre-
ative way. Part of what I’ve done is build an outstanding team.”
As the business grows, Goldberg is busy on boarding new clients
and making sure existing customer relationships continue to thrive.
“In many ways I feel like I’m just hitting my stride,” Goldberg
says. “I want to be in the top tier, and to be a good company that fil-
ters into all the stakeholders—the vendors, the customers and the
employees. We’re all in it together, and it’s a pretty cool thing.”
JUNE 2015 •
PPB
• 11
12
Safe In The
Comfort Zone
EYE ON APPAREL
17
Pay To Play
QUESTION
20
Greatest
Companies
To Work For
FEATURE STORY
BE A WINNER!
PAGE 104
Janie Goldberg collaborates with Casey Cooper, a junior designer
on OmniSource Marketing’s creative team. The distributor has
approximately 35 employees, but it’s growing so quickly more are
added almost every other month.
Curious About
WOMEN’S BUSINESS
ENTERPRISE (WBE)
Certification?
Things to know before diving into the process:
• National certification can be attained through groups such
as The National Women Business Owners Corporation
(NWBOC) or The Women's Business Enterprise National
Council (WBENC). To attract local clients, consider certifica-
tion on the state or city level.
• Collecting and submitting documents for certification is an
arduous process. In-person interviews and on-site visits are
also required.
• Certification is a marketing tool only and does not guaran-
tee new clients.
• WBE certifications expire after one year. Renewal is more
streamlined, but if certification lapses one must start the
application process again.