How Veteran-Owned Small Businesses Keep America Strong

Image:  Nerdwallet.com

“MILITARY TIMES”

“Veterans are 45 percent more likely than non-veterans to start a small business.
Today, veterans own 2.52 million small businesses — nearly 1 in every 10 — while employing 6 million Americans and generating $1.14 trillion in receipts.

Veteran-owned small businesses have always been a pillar of America’s economy, but they are in a generational decline.

More than 1.1 million veteran business owners are over the age of 65, and in 2014, only 4.5 percent of Post-9/11 veterans started a business,   according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When considering that nearly half of World War II veterans and 40 percent of Korean War veterans started businesses, the differences are stark.

As an estimated 200,000 service members transition from the military every year, the Small Business Administration knows how imperative it is to connect service members, veterans and military spouses with the tools and resources they need to become business owners — and what the nation risks losing if they don’t.

Starting a successful small business is a tough mission. It requires tenacity, discipline and adaptability — all character traits found in a veteran, alongside many other skills. But being your own boss doesn’t mean going it alone.

Transitioning service members and veterans need ready access to business assistance services, resource networks, capital and market opportunities to ensure success. Empowering and regenerating America’s veteran entrepreneurs is one way to help reverse our declining trends in entrepreneurship while also facilitating the economic revitalization of small towns and rural America.

The SBA’s Office of Veterans Business Development works to formulate, implement and promote policies and programs that equip members of the military community with counseling, training and education, as well as access to capital to start their own businesses and assist them with contracting opportunities. 

Since 2013, 50,000 transitioning service members and military spouses have participated in the Boots to Business program as part of the Defense Department’s Transition Assistance Program. B2B provided — for the first time since World War II — a strong, visible pipeline of potential veteran business owners.

Boots to Business provides free entrepreneurship training in more than 200 military installations and military communities. Graduates of these programs are 53 percent more likely to start a business, and 91 percent are still in business after a year, according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

Resources like the Veterans Business Outreach Centers provide entrepreneurial development, counseling and mentoring, and referrals for eligible members of the military community. The Service-Disabled Entrepreneurship Development Training Program supports organizations that deliver entrepreneurship training to service-disabled veterans, and the Veterans Institute for Procurement is an accelerator-like program that focuses on procurement.

In addition to the resources listed above, female veterans, active duty, and military spouses can also access resources through Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship, or V-WISE.

Surveys of Post 9/11-era veterans show as many as 25 percent would like to own a business after leaving service. However, lack of seed capital can be a challenge. There are no grants for veteran-owned businesses, traditional SBA lending programs are not for new businesses and the SBA’s micro-lending intermediaries do not focus on veterans, leaving veteran entrepreneurs more likely than nonveterans to rely on personal savings and credit cards to fund their businesses.

Seeking to bridge the seed capital gap, Congress proposed the Veterans Entrepreneurial Transition, or VET, Act of 2016. It proposes an SBA program that would evaluate the use of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits as seed capital for starting a new business, similar to the World War II era-GI Bill, connecting B2B and other technical assistance programs to GI Bill grants by leveraging existing SBA infrastructure and administration.

The SBA activates the entrepreneurial potential of military and veteran entrepreneurs. Recognized through the SBA’s annual celebration during National Veterans Small Business Week and beyond, generations of these brave women and men have answered the call to start their own small businesses. The Post-9/11 era of veterans represents the next great generation to continue this legacy of success.”

Veteran Owned Small Business Keeps America Strong 

Who’s Really Accountable For Interoperability Between DOD And The VA On E-health Records System?

“FEDSCOOP”

“The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs both have billion-dollar modernizations in progress for their electronic health record systems. And they’ve each identified who is accountable for the success of those programs.

But the more important question might be: Who is ultimately accountable for seeing that the EHR systems, when fully developed, work together seamlessly as members of the military retire and becomes veterans?”

________________________________________________________________________

“House lawmakers pressed this point this week during the first hearing held by the Veterans Affairs’ Subcommittee on Technology Modernization. They examined the role of the DOD/VA Interagency Program Office (IPO), stood up in 2008 for the exact purpose of ensuring seamless transfer of records. So far, though, that office has no real authority over the interoperability of the two programs —VA’s EHR Modernization and DOD’s MHS GENESIS, both of which are based on Cerner’s commercial EHR platform.

Lauren Thompson, the head of the office, told lawmakers that despite the intention of the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act to make the IPO the single point of accountability for the interoperability of the two departments’ EHRs, “at this point in time, we make recommendations. We do not have the decision-making authority.” IPO is based within DOD.
According to the law, said Carol Harris, director of IT management issues for the Government Accountability Office, “the IPO is supposed to be the single point of accountability. So that would include responsibility, authority and decision-making responsibilities. I think that [the office’s current operation, as described by Thompson], is in conflict with the expectation set out by law.”

The departments and the IPO are trying to sort out the interoperability governance now that VA and DOD each has a massive EHR in development. Though they both are developing instances of the same Cerner platform so that interoperability will be easier to achieve, there are still myriad technical and functional decisions that must align so that the data ultimately matches as it flows from one system to the next. VA, DOD and the IPO are in the process of developing new governance bodies and a new structure with the hope that things can be dealt with at the lowest level possible.

“Clinicians talking to clinicians, technicians talking to technicians,” said John Windom, VA’s acting chief health information officer and program executive officer for the new Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization. When disagreements happen, the issues are elevated to new governance boards, but the goal is to avoid that, he said.

Windom explained that the governance process is “evolving,” and it will take time to get there. “The as-is state of the enterprise with the VA is different than the as-is state of the enterprise within DOD. … Now we’re understanding the gaps between how we sought to implement and how DOD is implementing. And so those gaps have to be reconciled, and they have to be reconciled through governance.”

But even with that model, lawmakers were unhappy because there is no single person or organization accountable. “There’s really no one there to break the ties or resolve the differences,” Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., said, pushing for action from the president or Congress to spark the change. “The only person both agencies report to now is the president of the United States.”

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., said perhaps there’s a place for the IPO in the process, but either the DOD or VA should be given the ultimate decision-making authority.

Harris agreed that a “single executive-level entity that is the point of accountability” with decision-making authority and that binds both departments at the deputy secretary level or higher is “essential.”

She doesn’t have much faith in the IPO, though, at least in its current form — and really for no fault of its own.

“They never had to clout to mediate and resolve issues between DOD and VA,” Harris said. “The IPO was never set up to succeed there because neither of the departments were willing to relinquish control.”

Harris called the IPO’s ability to drive the necessary interoperability “lackluster” in the past decade. “In the past situations, what we’ve seen historically is that when everyone is responsible, no one is responsible. I think that’s what has led us to where we are today,” she said. “Accountability has been so diffused so that when the wheels fall off the bus, you can’t point to a single entity who’s responsible. And that’s a problem.”

https://www.fedscoop.com/dod-va-ehr-interoperability-hearing/

U.S. Small Business Administration Offers Help to Veterans

"MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE"

"The U.S. Small Business Administration has resources available for veterans who want to start their own businesses or for small businesses that may have been affected by employees who have been deployed.

The numbers are substantial, according to the SBA: Nearly one in 10 small businesses in this country are veteran-owned; veterans are 45 percent more likely to be self-employed than non-veterans; and businesses owned by female vets have increased 297 percent from 2007 to 2012.

The SBA’s website has collected a list of programs that can offer help, especially in navigating the complexities of returning home for members of the Guard or Reserve after being deployed.

It has information on starting a business, financing, mentoring and training and selling to the government. It can be found on the website Veteran Owned Businesses

One example of a resource is the Military Economic Injury Loan, which provides funds to eligible small businesses to meet operating expenses when an essential employee is called to active duty. The filing period for businesses to apply begins on the date the essential employee is ordered to active duty and ends one year after the essential employee is discharged or released from active duty.

Another aspect to consider are laws that make federal contracting more attractive to veterans, particularly those with a service-connected disability. The Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999 established an annual government-wide goal of awarding at least 3 percent of all federal contracts to small businesses owned or controlled by service-disabled veterans.

There’s also Boots to Business, a two-step entrepreneurship training program open to service members and their spouses. The two-day course introduces participants to the opportunities and challenges of business ownership. An eight-week online course allows participants to work through the fundamentals of developing a workable business plan."

SBA Offers Help to Small Business

THE UNITED STATES VETERANS ADMINISTRATION - PROGRESS AND PROCLIVITIES

INTRODUCTION

We have noted improvements in the medical element of the U.S Veterans Administration with significant advances in patient care, records keeping and service to soldiers in need when they return from war or fall into circumstances in which they require assistance:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1376238,00.html

We believe the VA medical care veterans are receiving, and the associated facilities are top notch.  We base this belief on having received this care  ourselves and observing the results from others receiving VA medical services around us.

As the US has continued its war fighting incursions into foreign countries, the VA has been required to expand exponentially in terms of coverage, organization, programs and budget from the tax payer coffers. The most current budget request by the Administration for the VA tops $140 Billion for the next fiscal year.

This growth has resulted in administrative and management challenges due to the broad swath the VA must cover across the spectrum of our society and the transitions in which it must participate within people’s lives from the aging vet to the returning combatant.

RECENT DISTURBING TRENDS AND OCCURRENCES

At this juncture it must be noted that the VA is falling into several of the traps that other large federal agencies have encountered.  The government is in the business of spending money, not making it and growth of the type the VA has undergone requires strong management and oversight. 

Below are examples of areas outside the medical care elements of the organization that are never the less posing substantial risk to the care of our veterans.

Blatant Issues in Handling Veterans Care Application  Backlogs

As noted by Time Magazine:

“The Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general reported that paper had piled so high at the VA’s regional office in Winston-Salem, N.C., that it “appeared to have the potential to compromise the integrity of the building.”

http://nation.time.com/2012/08/10/guess-the-va-does-have-a-paperwork-problem/

Mismanagement of Human Resources and Training

As noted by DOD Buzz:

“The chairman and ranking members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee are demanding a complete accounting of where and how the Department of Veterans Affairs has spent money on employee conferences since 2009.

The latest demand comes as the committee’s senior members released additional information gleaned from a preliminary VA Inspector General’s report on two Orlando, Fla., conferences held for VA human resources employees in 2011.

Among the findings, the VA spent $52,000 producing two 8-minute videos in which an actor portraying Army Gen. George Patton laid out the role of VA human resources personnel and exhorted them to meet their mission. A shortened version of the video is available below.

The department also spent $84,000 on VA-branded promotion items, including up to $25,000 for pens, highlighters, post-it notes and hand sanitizers.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., want three years worth of data because they say past VA testimony on conference costs has been contradictory, ranging from $20 million in both 2011 and 2012, to $100 million.”

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/08/22/va-accounting-questioned-after-ig-report-2/

Mismanagement of Small Business Set-aside Programs

As noted by POGO:

“A new report by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (IG) has found another large business improperly benefited from federal small business contracts. The offender this time is Health Net,  ranked 221 in the most recent Fortune 500 with $11.9 billion in revenue last year.

As POGO takes great pains to point out, the contractors themselves aren’t entirely to blame for misconduct in federal small business contracting. In this instance, the IG found that VA personnel responsible for administering the contracts were fully aware that Health Net, not ETS, was performing all of the work. The VA also did not properly justify its decision to award the contracts as SDVOSB set-asides rather than through full and open competition.”

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/08/inspector-general-finds-contractors-government-both-responsible-for-small-biz-contracting-violations.html

CONCLUSION

The areas noted above must have management correction, be controlled and brought to the same standards of performance as the medical arm of the Veterans Administration Community. 

The proclivities involving  lax administration, wasteful human resources process and abuse of small businesses, many of which veterans themselves run, must be corrected. 

Doing so will insure an acceptable level of focus on assistance to the men and women who have served in our armed forces.    

CONTINUED GOVERNMENT EMPHASIS ON SERVICE-DISABLED, VETERAN-OWNED BUSINESSES

Since 2004 after a presidential mandate to contract 3% of all federal contracting dollars to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, federal agencies have struggled to meet that goal.
Now renewed emphasis has been placed on the matter by the GSA and the Veteran's Entrepreneurship Task force (VET-Force) with the signing of an agreement on Tuesday,19 August 2008. Under the memorandum of agreement, VET-Force will use its network of veterans to expand training and information on federal opportunities for these firms.

VET-Force is composed of more than 200 organizations and affiliates -- many small businesses -- representing thousands of veterans. It was organized in 1999 to lobby for the Veterans' Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act, which became law, and provide assistance to veterans who are starting businesses.

"GSA welcomes the opportunity to work with the VET-Force and other organizations committed to helping veterans and service-disabled veterans who are entrepreneurs," said GSA acting Administrator David Bibb. "This is a point of honor, but it is also a point of common sense. When we expand economic opportunities for veterans, we're drawing on men and women who know teamwork, discipline, cooperation and mission accomplishment."

In fiscal 2007, GSA spent 2.2 percent of its procurement dollars on businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. In announcing the agreement, officials said preliminary data for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 shows GSA has increased that figure to 3.2 percent, surpassing the statutory goal.

The agreement was part of GSA's 21 Gun Salute initiative, led by the agency's chief of staff, John Phelps. GSA works with other agencies, veterans and industry to meet the 3 percent spending target.

GSA also drew up the first government-wide acquisition contract set-aside exclusively for small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

The Veterans Technology Services GWAC, through which agencies can procure systems operations and maintenance and engineering services, was the first contract vehicle reserved for service-disabled veterans. The contract was awarded in 2006 to 44 businesses and has a $5 billion ceiling.

Veteran's can obtain assistance in the details of entering federal government contracting at:

http://smalltofeds.blogspot.com/2006/12/registering-your-small-business-for.html

For additional information on the disabled veteran's contracting initiatives please see the following links:

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080820_3219.php?zone=ngtoday

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080821_5928.php?zone=ngtoday

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041021-5.html