WOMEN IN THE NEWS
Agency’s 8(a) Program helps DoverStaffing Inc. Grow its Staff to over 200 Employees
turned to Atlanta in 1996 to start Dover- Staffing Inc., a professional placement and project management firm that has grown to over 200 employees. After graduating from Spelman College
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in Atlanta with a degree in Economics, she spent six years with the Federal Deposit In- surance Corporation (FDIC) in its bank liq- uidation division in Chicago and Midland, Texas. She later held several corporate sales positions in Chicago and spent over two years running her first small business, a wood pallet manufacturing firm in the Windy City. Dover says she first learned about the
SBA’s 8(a) Business Development program in Chicago during the operation of her first small business. Her knowledge of the pro- gram would pay large dividends after Do- verStaffing was certified as an 8(a) and Small Disadvantaged Business in 2003. Since it was certified, DoverStaffing has
received six contracts through the 8(a) pro- gram for a total of $9.8 million. The first of these contracts came in 2006 when the company was named the prime contractor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cotton Division to provide administrative staff and light industrial machine operators. Another 8(a) award calls for the company to be the prime contractor for the U.S. Army Reserve’s Survivor Outreach Services (SOS) program. This contract provides support and financial counselors nation- wide to families of fallen soldiers. The company’s latest contract was an
Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) award for the U.S. Department of Navy’s “SeaPort-e” program. SeaPort-e is the Navy’s electronic platform for acquir- ing support services in 22 functional areas including Engineering, financial Manage- ment and Program Management. “These contracts have been very impor-
tant in assisting the development of our company,” says Dover. “They have allowed us to gain valuable management perfor-
58 PROFESSIONAL WOMAN’S MULTICULTURAL MAGAZINE
ike many entrepreneurs, Sanquinetta Dover paid some dues before she re-
mance that will position us to compete fur- ther in the private and public sector.” There are other benefits to the 8(a) pro-
gram besides having the opportunity to bid on sole-source and limited competition federal contracts. The nine-year program, limited to firms owned by economically and socially disadvantaged individuals, also offers management and technical as- sistance as well as counseling and monitor- ing services by staff located in SBA district offices. When her company joined the 8(a) pro-
gram, its employment level was about 75 people, according to Dover, a native of Greenwood, S.C. Besides its headquarters staff, the company now has employees based nationwide to handle additional con- tracts that include work for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Emer- gency Management Agency (FEMA). Looking to its graduation from 8(a) in
2012, Dover says her company is continu- ally marketing its business to help sustain growth past its current portfolio of con- tracts. Its marketing efforts recently paid off when DoverStaffing was one of one of six
CELEBRATING 11 YEARS OF DIVERSITY
firms that were awarded contracts by the State of Georgia’s Department of Adminis- trative Services to provide 1,000 temporary jobs to state agencies with federal stimulus funds. To help with its development, Dover
moved the company’s main office this year to a HUBZone located on Cleveland Ave- nue in Fulton County. The HUBZone pro- gram establishes preferences for federal contracts to small businesses located in “historically underutilized business zones.”
Dover says the positive influence of her
parents, both educators, helped her reach many of her career goals. Her father earned a PhD degree before he became superinten- dent of schools in Greenwood County, S.C. “Managing money and living within my means are lessons are learned from my fa- ther,” she said. DoverStaffing received the Atlanta
Business League’s “Success Against the Odds” Award in 2005 and the Regional Di- rector’s Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Devel- opment Agency in 2006.
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