We started this firm because small businesses deserved better.
In 2013, we saw the same problem everywhere: business owners who wanted to compete for government contracts but had no real path to doing it. Not because they lacked capability, but because nobody had helped them build the systems they needed to compete. Certified Impact exists to close that gap.
Business owners were jumping into contracting markets without the infrastructure to survive them.
They thought they could start bidding on open RFPs and figure out the rest as they went. What they did not have were the systems to produce the work and back it up. No capability statements. No pricing structure. No operational infrastructure. No understanding of how procurement decisions actually get made.
They had no real chance of winning. Not because they were not capable, but because the foundation was not there. And nobody was helping them build it.
The industry helps with registration. Almost nobody builds the system.
The government contracting support industry is full of people who will help you get registered, get certified, and write proposals. Very few will tell you honestly whether your business is actually ready to compete, and fewer still will help you build the systems that make you ready.
The result is businesses spending money on proposals they cannot win, certifications they cannot leverage, and advice that sounds right but does not connect to how their business actually works.
That is the problem Certified Impact was built to solve. Not with more advice. With systems, operational, organizational, and strategic, that produce measurable results.
Four beliefs that shape
everything we do.
Joanne Tica
Joanne Tica spent her career before Certified Impact at the intersection of finance, business development, and organizational capacity. As a national commercial real estate banker, she provided capital and strategic support to firms acquiring and developing commercial property. As Director of Business Support Services for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program in Chicago, she helped launch new program locations across the Midwest and worked directly with small business owners navigating complex growth challenges.
What she observed consistently in both roles was the same gap: business owners with genuine capability and real ambition, held back not by effort but by the absence of the right systems. The financial system was not in place. The operational infrastructure was not built. The organizational capacity was not there to support the work they were pursuing.
She founded Certified Impact in 2013 to close that gap, starting with government contracting where the systems problem was most acute and the consequences of getting it wrong were most costly.
Joanne is an expert in public and private business certification, capacity building for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, adult education and training facilitation, and financial literacy for business owners pursuing growth, capital access, and brand expansion. Her work is grounded in systems thinking and adult learning principles. She believes real change happens when people understand how the pieces of their business connect, not simply when they receive advice about individual parts.
Systems thinking in practice,
not in theory.
Ready to find out why your business
is not winning the contracts it should be?
The first conversation is a systems assessment, not a sales call. We will tell you honestly where your business has gaps, whether we can help close them, and what that would look like. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.
