MOVING FORWARD

Party Planners West is just one of the NFL contractors who will utilize the Business Resource Guide for Super Bowl XLV

By Judy Howard Ellis

Thursday, September 9, 2010 - 1:44am

You attended the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Emerging Business Workshop Series. Check.

You’re in the Emerging Business Resource Guide. Check.

Now you wait. Check, check, check.

Getting listed in the Business Resource Guide as a certified minority- or women-owned business for North Texas’ first-ever Super Bowl is a vital step, but it’s just another step in the overall bidding process.

NFL contractors, also known as procurement entities, search through the Business Resource Guide on specific dates and then contact vendors who can meet their project needs and invite them to bid.

As an emerging business owner, keep your game face on as you wait. By being published in the guide, you placed your firm into a select field of play — not just for Super Bowl XLV, 
but for future business opportunities in 
North Texas.

One of the first NFL contractors seeking bids is Party Planners West, Inc. in Los Angeles. The Feb. 6, 2011 event will be the firm’s 29th Super Bowl, and Party Planners West will work closely with the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee during the bidding process.

“As we approach each local market, 
especially markets where we have never been, like North Texas, we especially rely on the expertise and the established relationships within each market and within the local Host Committee,” said Leah Linke, Director, Event Coordination at Party Planners West.

“The Emerging Business Resource Guide serves as an invaluable extension to our normal researching avenues, and as a connection to a special and eclectic market within each venue.”

To be considered during the bidding process with Party Planners West, businesses must be listed in the Business Resource Guide by the dates listed in the blue box to the right. Invitations to bid will be sent to businesses within two weeks of these dates, Linke said. Requests for Proposals (RFPs) will outline 
specific services for each bid category.

“Mostly we look for established, reputable vendors who have superior and unique 
products,” Linke said. “The biggest mistake that vendors have made in the past is misrepresenting themselves, or over-committing themselves; hence providing a subpar product.

“It is important that a vendor read our RFP entirely and ensure that they can satisfy the bid and the services we are requesting before they respond,” she said. “If they believe they can, then they should respond to the RFP as we have requested, and make sure all paperwork is returned on time. Bids sent in late will not be accepted. Vendors must also ensure their licenses and certificates are updated, valid and current.”

Businesses also should know that “honesty and communication are the best qualities to have when submitting a bid,” Linke continued. If firms “cannot satisfy an entire bid, but are confident they could satisfy a partial bid, and they let us know,” she said, Party Planners West “has in the past split bids between two companies in order to ensure the best product.”

Linke also offered a word of caution. “It is important that every emerging business understand that just because they are in the guide, they are not guaranteed business. This will be a very competitive year for emerging businesses, and it is important that all emerging businesses manage their expectations about the amount of business they will generate during the 
Super Bowl.”

Working with emerging businesses during the Super Bowl is a satisfying experience for Party Planners West, she said. The firm itself is one of the 20 largest woman-owned businesses in Los Angeles County.

Regardless of the outcome of the bidding process for individual emerging businesses for Super Bowl XLV, the Business Resource Guide will help keep them competing for future business beyond the Feb. 6 game.

“The opportunities are exponential beyond Super Bowl XLV and even the NFL because (businesses) are in this guide,” said Indria Hollingsworth, a member of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee’s Emerging Business Action Team. “This guide can be used going forward for organizations to utilize to get in contact with emerging businesses.”

As the Supplier Diversity Manager at Parkland Health & Hospital System, Hollingsworth used the Business Resource Guide to get emerging businesses to participate during the bidding process for an event planning project as part of the hospital’s diversity efforts.

It turns out that a number of emerging businesses listed in the Emerging Business Resource Guide were asked to submit a proposal in the event-planning project.

“It’s an excellent guide,” Hollingsworth said, “because it’s a one-stop shop.”