Flex-Line Automation, Inc.’s Post

Well, it's official. Flex-Line Automation, Inc. is a certified woman owned small business. It was a long and painful process, which is why it took 40 years for me to pursue it. I usually try to steer clear of anything that has to do with any part of our government, but Lauren Van De Mark and Rhett Rinne finally convinced me that we needed to do it. I filed the application in January after spending months amassing all of the required documents. They finally got around to reviewing it in July. They nitpicked it to death and several times I told Lauren, "See, this is why I never wanted to deal with the government ". I got an email from the SBA at 4:50 pm Friday evening notifying me that I had correspondence waiting in the portal. My heart dropped. What now? I didn't want to open it because I didn't want to deal with jumping through another hoop, but I figured I would just worry about it all weekend so I might as well look at it. I logged in and low and behold the correspondence was our approval letter. I was so relieved that it wasn't a request for more bureaucratic bs. I immediately called Lauren, our attorney Paul, my sister, and finally Rhett. I was so excited that the process was over. Rhett was too, because he was tired of hearing me complain about it. He even took me out to dinner to celebrate. I'm still celebrating while already dreading the renewal process in 3 years. Nothing about it is easy. I hope that our efforts bring value to our customers that have diversity requirements. Something had better make this process worth while because it was a major pain!