The SBA's Veteran Business Outreach Centers (VBOCs) offer assistance in outreach, assessment, long and short-term business training, counseling, directed referring, and online assistance to veterans, service disabled veterans, and Reserve business owners and entrepreneurs.
According to the FAQ of one of AGi's local VBOCs, the services provided include "assessing their entrepreneurial needs and requirements, developing business plans, entrepreneurial training and counseling to include accounting, marketing and other business functions."
Over at Veteran Journal, there's an interesting interview with Tom Leney, the Executive Director of Small and Veterans Business Programs with the Department of Veterans Affairs, regarding the upcoming National Veterans Small Business Conference. We blogged upon the convention in a previous post. Click through to read the whole interview, and bear this fact in mind when thinking about attending:
We did [a] survey with over 70 respondents from a conference we did in Detroit, and 25 percent of the survey respondents from the 2012 [National Veterans Small Business Conference] said they received a contract award based on someone they met there or information they received there. That’s a pretty significant return on investment.
Washington Post has reported on a study completed by American Express. After surveying 684 small business owners, they issued their report findings indicating that it’s getting more expensive to bid on a contract, and that a drop in government contracting dollars has contributed to a decline in the number of bids that small businesses make.
Some other interesting facts:
- "The largest companies in the survey, those with 50 or more employees, spent $257,098 seeking contracting opportunities in 2012, well above the $37,172 that businesses with fewer than 10 employees spent"
- "The number of bids that contractors have submitted has fallen sharply since 2007. The survey found that between 2010 and 2012, companies made an average 5.5 bids on contracts on which they would be the primary contractor, and 3.6 bids where they would be the subcontractor"
- A factual error indicated that "First-time contractors are winning that initial contract faster than their counterparts did in the past. In 2012, it took companies two years and 4.7 unsuccessful bids to score that first contract. Just a year earlier, contractors said it took them 16 months and 4.4 unsuccessful bids." However, as a savvy commenter noticed, that indicates that first-time contractors actually took longer.
As a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, AGi believes strongly in provision of resources for entrepreneurs and small business owners with disabilities. Stefan Töpfer at the Small Business Blog has rounded up some great links for entrepreneurs with disabilities relevant those those in the UK. He reports that "there are over ten million disabled people in the UK and about half of these are working age. Statistics show that 24% of disabled people in employment were self-employed and 45% of those chose to be self-employed because they could not find alternative employment."
In the States, the SBA targets a number of resources towards those with disabilities:
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Entrepreneur Resources for People with Disabilities Details important considerations for potential entrepreneurs with disabilities.
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Important Considerations for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Outlines important considerations for potential entrepreneurs with disabilities.
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Online Seminar: Self-Employment for Individuals with Disabilities Introduces some of the critical factors in considering business feasibility, developing financial resources, basic business plan development and the identification and access to community small business resources for disabled persons.
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Small Business and Self-Employment Service Provides access to information such as the pros and cons of starting a business as a disabled person, counseling, and referrals regarding self-employment and small business ownership opportunities for people with disabilities.
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START-UP USA Contains self-employment information and resources for individuals with disabilities.
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State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies Lists programs that help people with disabilities become employed, including self-employment.
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Ticket to Work Program Connects Social Security Disability Insurance and supplemental security income beneficiaries with employment networks for training and other support services needed to achieve your employment goals, including self-employment.