It’s difficult enough for a company to join the ranks of corporate America. Small business owners, particularly veteran owned businesses (VOBs) face overwhelming challenges. Fortunately, caring corporations have created Small Business Administration (SBA)-like programs to help veterans. Here are some of the ways corporations are helping veterans grow their businesses.
Four 2017 Goals for Your Veteran-Owned Business (And How VOBRT Can Help)
It’s 2017. This is going to be a great year to maximize your business opportunities and increase your profits! If you take advantage of membership in VOBRT (Veteran Owned Business Roundtable), that will be your first step in the right direction, and you don’t need an NGA* map to find us. For over 10 years, VOBRT has connected and helped develop alliances between U.S. ex-military businesspeople and government agencies/international corporations.
Participating in VOBRT Events 2017 – and Beyond
One of the main benefits of membership in the VOBRT is access to specialty events. These VOBRT-community events not only make it possible to network with other veteran business owners in 2017, but you can also gain valuable insights and knowledge in problem areas you as a veteran business owner may have. Everyone who takes part in VOBRT activities is in it to grow their own businesses and to help other veterans be successful. So, if you’re still considering membership in or just joined and want to know more about services offered, here is exactly what it means to participate in VOBRT events.
Exploring Mentorship Opportunities with the VOBRT
As veterans were committing a portion of their lives to protecting our nation’s interests, many of their civilian contemporaries enjoyed a significant head start in their careers. Some veterans even paid the greater sacrifice by sustaining service-related disabilities that could severely hamper their ambitions. Fortunately, federal and state governments, along with our U.S. Supreme Court, have taken an active position to remedy any competitive disadvantages that veterans incurred when they committed to military service.
Benefits of Listing your Business in the VOBRT Business Directory and Mobile app
As a business owner, you understand the importance of networking. The more you connect with other business owners and players, the greater your growth potential. Connecting with other businesses can be challenging without help. As a military veteran, you have access to the Veteran Owned Business Routable (VOBRT), a national association designed to “Serve those who have served.” Membership connects you to those who can help you open doors, grow and prosper. There are several benefits of joining and listing your business in the VOBRT business directory and mobile app.
How You Can Grow Your Business by Enrolling in the Exclusive Vet Connect Member Program
Being a member of the Vet Connect program offers a number of benefits to business owners. It helps increase your reach while also earning you a positive reputation within your community. The ability to participate in special local Veteran Owned Business Roundtable events is also a valuable part of the program.
Interview with a Small Business Owner—Who also Happens to be a Military Spouse
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Veterans Business Development (OVBD) is proud to support veteran, service member, and military spouse entrepreneurs during National…
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of VOBs & SDVOBs for Contracts
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Veterans Administration must continue to follow the ‘Rule of Two’ when awarding contracts to Veteran Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs) and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). Journalist Robert Barnes of the Washington Post provides the details of the decision and how it affects Veteran-owned small businesses doing business with the VA:
By Robert Barnes June 16 of the Washington Post
Opportunities for VOBRT Members – A Testimonial
Being a member of the Veteran Owned Business Roundtable has many benefits and advantages. Networking opportunities, training courses, legislative advocacy, the list is long. But, one of the most important benefits is the opportunity to compete for, and secure business contracts with global organizations that are partners and supporters of the organization. One of our members, Tony Tarkowski, expressed the opportunity he received with Ford Motor Company as a result of his membership in the VOBRT. Read his testimony to get a better understanding of how being a member of the Roundtable can help your business as well.
Helping Veteran Business Owners Achieve Success
The Veteran Owned Business Roundtable was established by veteran business owners for their comrades to advocate for their interests. Those interests include access to business opportunity, protection from counterfeit parties representing themselves as veteran business owners and to encourage honorable business practices by veteran entrepreneurs pursuing these interests. The small band of brothers who several years ago resurrected the Roundtable from dormancy realized that opportunity for veteran business owners was great with some federal government agencies but greater still with our nation’s private sector and the corporations whose prosperous commerce had been made possible by the vigilance of the men and women who stood in harm’s way to defend it.
Much criticism is leveled at our country today by those who see the glass half empty; but those of us who have served hold a higher regard for the principles upon which our nation was founded. We see the promise of our nation as one of freedom to pursue opportunity as far as our individual energy, genius and enlightened self-interest will carry us. That enlightened self-interest is mindful of the rights and obligations of full citizenship in the United States, guided by the virtues of honesty and industry. Veterans do not seek a handout. We seek only a chance equal to those who were building enterprises during that period when the veteran put his or her interests on hold to serve our country. The veteran’s claim to a position in the marketplace is a moral one and reflects an obligation incumbent upon our country to make room for the returning veteran as he or she returns to the private sector to serve his or her country as an entrepreneur.
The Veteran Owned Business Roundtable is manned and managed by an all-volunteer group of veteran business owners who selflessly dedicate themselves to the cause of ‘serving those who have served.’ None of those who work as officers, directors or committee chairs and members are paid for their service to that cause. They are the superior men and women who answer the call to serve their fellow veterans in the private sector as faithfully as they served our country in the military. We welcome any and all veteran entrepreneurs, large and small, to join us in this noble cause and while we expect that real opportunity will be available to those who commit to our efforts the greater reward will be in a membership in that group of Americans who know the value of service to others.
If you are a honorably discharged Veteran and you own a business, we invite you to join the Veteran Owned Business Roundtable.
