UTICA — The Women Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) has certified M3 Placement & Partnership of Utica as woman-owned. WBENC notified the Utica firm of its certification in January. Founded in 1997, the Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit WBENC is the “largest third-party certifier of businesses owned, controlled, and operated by women” in the U.S., according to […]
UTICA — The Women Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) has certified M3 Placement & Partnership of Utica as woman-owned.
WBENC notified the Utica firm of its certification in January.
Founded in 1997, the Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit WBENC is the “largest third-party certifier of businesses owned, controlled, and operated by women” in the U.S., according to its website.
Founded in 2011, M3 Placement & Partnership is the d/b/a name of M3 Business Service Network.
The WBENC certification follows M3’s certification as a New York minority and women-owned business enterprise (MWBE) in 2013, says Mary Malone McCarthy, founder, CEO, and sole owner of M3 Placement & Partnership.
The MWBE certification provides an “added value” for companies that seek its staffing services and need to work with a woman-owned business in the process.
McCarthy spoke with CNYBJ on March 25.
After securing the statewide certification, M3 opted to pursue national certification, says McCarthy.
“We decided to go on to the national certification as we’re looking to grow our footprint, and to work with organizations that would value the certification,” she adds.
McCarthy describes M3 as a “boutique executive-search firm,” which also focuses on professional services for … temporary, contract, and temp-to-direct hires.
The firm recruits and places employees in the health care, finance, manufacturing, technology, hospitality, and nonprofit sectors, she says.
To qualify for the WBENC certification, a firm must demonstrate that 51 percent of the company is “owned, managed, and directed by a woman or women on a daily basis,” according to a news release M3 issued on March 1.
The process included “extensive” documentation and an on-site visit. The process lasted about nine months, she says.
Miranda Curtis, program manager, for the Women Presidents’ Educational Organization (WPEO) traveled up from New York City to interview McCarthy “to confirm whether or not I’d be eligible for the certification.” McCarthy says.
WPEO comprises two of the 14 regional-partner organizations of the WBENC, according to the WPEO website.
The certification wasn’t the only recent change for M3 Placement & Partnership in recent months, according to McCarthy.
M3 moved into its new office at 110 Lomond Court in Utica in October after initially operating at 4350 Middle Settlement Road in New Hartford.
About M3
The firm operates in a 1,500-square-foot space at its Lomond Court location. M3 leases its space from property owner Brian Gaetano.
“Because of the growth and my employees, I had to expand it,” says McCarthy.
M3 has four full-time employees, including McCarthy. She hopes to hire one additional full-time employee to handle recruitment and placement duties in the coming months.
McCarthy declined to disclose how much revenue M3 generated in 2015, but notes that the firm “doubled” its sales compared to 2014.
“We’d like to double again [in 2016], but that’s … aggressive growth,” she adds.
McCarthy says that it’s “hard to say” how many clients for which her firm has provided staffing services.
M3 has “thousands” of job candidates named in its database, “many” of whom might currently be working in jobs but are confidentially “wanting to explore new opportunities for growth.”
“So, it’s not a database of people [who] aren’t actively working,” McCarthy adds.
She credits “the trust we were building with our candidates and our clients” for the additional sales in 2015.
“We were getting a lot of referrals and we were getting a lot of continued business from our existing [clients],” says McCarthy.
M3 doesn’t collect a fee from its job candidates, she notes.
Future plans
M3 would like to expand with offices in both Albany and Syracuse and “take our model that’s working well here [in Utica] and grow it into other markets.”
But as of now, McCarthy has no immediate plans for expansion and files the idea under “future plans and goals.”
M3 is also exploring the possibility of starting a human-resources (HR) arm to provide consulting for companies “that aren’t quite big enough to have a full-time HR person on staff.”
Such an option would be a “great opportunity” for smaller organizations that need to fill an MWBE requirement, she contends.
But, unlike the expansion idea, the plan for an HR arm is “sooner than later.”
Origin
Prior to launching M3 Placement & Partnership, McCarthy spent more than 15 years as senior VP at Northland Communications, a company her family owns. She was responsible for the firm’s public relations, marketing, and customer relations.
Before her service with the family business, McCarthy worked as a regional manager for the staffing unit of Olsten Corp. in Albany, which Adecco, a Switzerland–based staffing company, acquired in 1999.
She launched M3 in June 2011.
“I absolutely loved [the work at Northland] but always had that passion to create something on my own, independent of the family business,” she adds.