There are more than 37,000 veteran-owned business enterprises (VBEs) registered in the government's contracting database. Fifteen percent of the nation's 25 million veterans and reservists are successfully self-employed. Studies by the U.S. Office of Advocacy show that as entrepreneurs, vets have the highest rate of success of any group of Americans.
"Veterans carry a quiet pride that plays into how we approach business, the people we do business with, and the people we employ," says Bill Elmore, associate admin for veteran business development at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA, Washington, DC).
Elmore believes the veteran community is the one "entirely diverse and inclusive" community in America. "In the military you learn a lot about yourself and how to live in a diverse community."
At the SBA, Elmore is responsible for policies and programs as they affect small business concerns owned and controlled by veterans, service-disabled veterans (SDVs) and self-employed members of the reserves and National Guard.
Resources for VBEs
Partly because of Elmore's efforts, the business community is finally waking up to VBEs. "I'm pleased that this value-added side of veterans — as business owners — is now being recognized," he says.
Info about resources for vets as entrepreneurs is listed at www.sba.gov/vets and www.sba.gov/reservists. Each of the sixty-eight district SBA offices has a vets affairs officer, and the SBA partners with other agencies on inreach and outreach initiatives and urges companies to work with vets.
Individual assistance and guidance is also available. "They are building bridges to transition our warriors to entrepreneurs," Elmore says.
SBA's Patriot Express
The SBA recently launched a new Patriot Express loan initiative for the military community (www.sba.gov/patriotexpress), says Steven Preston, SBA administrator. The initiative includes new and enhanced financial, procurement and technical assistance programs and services like streamlined loans based on SBA's express loan program.
Patriot Express is intended for military folks who want to establish or expand small businesses. They include vets, SDVs, active-duty service members participating in the military's transition assistance program, reservists and National Guard members. Also eligible are their spouses, and the spouses of service members or vets who died during service or of a service-connected disability.
MicroTech LLC: in the top 100
MicroTech LLC (Vienna, VA) is one of the fastest growing small businesses in the nation. Diversity-Business.com, a multicultural Internet site, puts the company on its list of the top 100 SDV business enterprises in the U.S.
MicroTech provides network and IT services. Its specialty is infrastructure and integration: systems to support large networks, and new network designs for companies and federal, state and local government agencies.
The company is a Microsoft gold certified partner, a credential that's widely used in Federal agencies. "Microsoft has programs to help small businesses like ours," says Anthony (Tony) Jimenez, president and CEO.
Jimenez attributes his success to his staff. "We are dedicated to hiring and training veterans and service-disabled veterans," he says.
Technical skills learned in the military are not always recognized in the civilian world, Jimenez explains. "Ongoing training makes our employees better at what they do and certification makes them more competitive." MicroTech helps its workers get certified in Microsoft, Cisco, EMC, Symantec and more.
Jimenez was a career officer in the U.S. Army and a program manager in a corps specializing in IT acquisitions. He worked on and managed large development projects for the federal government.
After twenty years as an officer, Jimenez joined Unisys in 2003 as director of enterprise solutions. He worked with companies involved with network and infrastructure support. In 2004 he left to start MicroTech. "I decided to help fill the void in quality small businesses that can support companies like Unisys," he says.
Largest contract ever
Among MicroTech's kudos is the largest contract the federal government ever gave an SDV. "The Department of Veterans Affairs recognized us as a premier IT services company and gave us an opportunity to compete on that quality contract," Jimenez recalls with pleasure.
MicroTech's customers are nationwide but 90 percent of its workforce remains in the Washington, DC area, providing support remotely. Jimenez has a lot of repeat customers, including one that has contracted with him seven times. "For every contract we've had, we've had options exercised to keep us on," Jimenez says. "It's good to know they want us to stay."
In establishing and growing his business, Jimenez has taken advantage of the Center for Veterans Enterprise of the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs (Washington, DC) and the department's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization. They've helped him network with other entrepreneurs and develop new business opportunities.
Jimenez notes that you can't start a business like his "on a credit card." Even if you have a contract the day your employee is hired, so that he or she can go right to work, it still takes months for the revenue to start coming in. "You have to be willing to make sacrifices," he says.
Information Innovators: knowing the customers
When Steve Ikirt thought about retiring after almost twenty-one years as an Army signal officer, he and his wife decided to build a business on what they already knew. Between them they had thirty years experience providing IT support and services for Federal space agencies. "We knew the customer base and expectations," he says.
In 2001 they founded Information Innovators Inc, a professional services company that provides strategic planning, enterprise services, program and project management, information assurance, security management and more. They targeted a few Federal agencies they knew well. "Our vision was to anticipate their needs and be there for them as they grew," he says.
The company grew, too, from $2.6 million in 2001 to $21 million last year. It's ranked 102 on the Inc. 500 list of the nation's fastest growing privately held companies.
"We're taking care of 110 employees and their dependents. That's a lot of people depending on what you do as a decision-maker," Ikirt says.
"Our model is to treat our customers like family members, the way we want to be treated ourselves, and provide services that we're proud of."
Ronald Greenwood: lobbying for the ASDV
Ronald Greenwood served with the infantry in Vietnam for two years. He was discharged with a medical disability after being wounded in combat in 1969.
He has never severed his ties to veterans. After his discharge he went to school on the GI Bill, earning a BA and a law degree. He established a law practice and began working on behalf of veterans. "Once you're in combat, giving back gets ingrained in you. It's natural to continue serving," he says.
About two decades ago Greenwood was recruited by John K. Lopez, chair of the Association for Service Disabled Veterans (ASDV, Stanford, CA and Washington, DC). Lopez had established the nonprofit, public-benefit organization in California, and he wanted Greenwood to help lobby for its nationalization.
The premise was that entrepreneurial programs could show SDVs how to supplement their disability income and increase their quality of life.
Today the national ASDV creates opportunities for SDVs nationwide to achieve and maintain their rehabilitation through entrepreneur development and managed employment. The association has initiated ten business development legislative acts in Congress, all of them now public laws.
Global Energy & Technology: model company for SDVs
In 1993 Ronald Greenwood set out to build a model company. "I wanted to show SDVs how to take advantage of the business development legislation the ASDV initiated, and how to manage a company properly. My wife and I had already built one successful business and we knew we could do it again," he says.
Global Energy & Technology (Ventura, CA) distributes connectivity and smart convergence technology products to the telecom industry. That includes a range of voice and data products including fiber, cabling, security, network infrastructure, power products and battery backup systems.
One of Greenwood's first customers was SBC (now part of the new AT&T). SBC's chair had made a commitment to the ASDV to lead corporate America in working with companies owned by SDVs. "That opens the door, but you still have to perform," Greenwood says.
Today Global has a seven-year 99-percent track record for getting products to the right place on time, and an enviable record on customer service calls. In fact, Global earned an AT&T "best of the best" award for customer service among its suppliers. "We're the only SDV-owned and the only distribution company to have won that award," Greenwood states proudly.
Greenwood serves on the board of the Ventura County, CA Economic Development Association, which promotes doing business locally and with VBEs.
Technology Research Consultants keeps the choppers flying
The demographics of the military are changing. Today 15 to 17 percent of active personnel and 7 percent of vets are women. "In line with increased participation, we anticipate that the number of woman VBEs will also increase," says the SBA's Bill Elmore.
January Dennison is already there. She launched Technology Research Consultants Inc (TRC) in 1998, focusing on logistics management and IT for flight avionics. Today TRC's specialty is obsolescence mitigation for the Department of Defense (DOD). "We have re-engineered, qualified, and are currently manufacturing multiple Black Hawk, Chinook and Kiowa avionic subsystems," Dennison says.
The heavy use of helicopters in Afghanistan and Iraq has created a demand for more spare parts than the Army has in inventory, and in many cases the parts are no longer available from the original manufacturers. So TRC's re-engineering of these avionic subsystems is filling the gap until the next new technology is released.
"Our ability to quickly re-engineer, prototype, qualify and produce critically needed spares has been invaluable to our men and women in uniform," Dennison says.
Dennison grew up in Seoul, Korea. Her parents were career Army civil servants. After high school she joined the U.S. Army for four years as a Korean linguist, then went on to a BSEE in math and an MBA. She went to work for General Electric (Schenectady, NY) and attended the company's leadership school.
Today she's a recognized business strategist throughout the DOD hardware market segments. Her company was named an Army Materiel Command small business success story by the commanding general.
Technology Research Consultants has earned SBA 8(a) status as a VBE, a WBE and an Hispanic MBE. "I see these certifications as a strategy to make it easier for the military to do business with TRC," she says.
Dennison was recognized as Florida's 2006 SBA "person of the year." She has established the TRC Foundation which offers engineering scholarships for underprivileged young people and assists the Sunshine Foundation and other charities.
Corporate support for vets
Supplier diversity is a critical part of AT&T's business strategy, says Joan Kerr, executive director of supplier diversity programs. The new AT&T (San Antonio, TX), she notes, brings together the best supplier diversity practices of three companies: AT&T, the former BellSouth Corp and Cingular Wireless.
In 1993 AT&T established its program to promote contracting opportunities for SDVs. Last year the company spent $60.6 million with SDVs out of its approximately $5.15 billion spent with diversity-owned businesses of all kinds. "We work hard to increase business opportunities for M/WBEs and SDVs by providing corporate support, leadership and innovation," says Kerr.
At Manpower (Milwaukee, WI), North American president Jonas Prising notes that the company has "built a powerful supplier diversity program made up of hundreds of business partners. We deliver on the diversity promise every day in workplaces across the country."
First Energy (Akron, OH) is a Fortune 500 diversified energy company. Its seven electric utility operating companies comprise the nation's fifth largest investor-owned electric system, serving 4.5 million customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Supplier diversity coordinator Chad Heyman notes that First Energy spent about $20 million with VBEs last year. "We deal with more than 100 veteran-owned businesses every year," he says.
Targeting VBEs in Ohio
Heyman says one of the factors that limits FirstEnergy's interaction with VBEs is that there is no organized local veteran business presence to help corporations locate them. So he's working to create a business council for VBEs, partnering with the committee that organizes the annual northern Ohio veteran-owned business symposium.
It will be an advocacy organization like NMSDC and WBENC, he explains. "We want to help vets and service-disabled vets compete for business with large and small businesses."
The council will also be a verifying organization to ensure that the business enterprise is veteran-owned and has the capability to do business with the federal government and corporate America. And, of course, it will be a directory of qualified VBEs for interested corporations and government agencies.
So far the committee has targeted some 300 VBEs in northern Ohio. Many of them are small local or regional companies, and many lack e-commerce capabilities to interact efficiently with big companies. So another aim of the council will be to offer training that helps VBEs do business with large firms like FirstEnergy.
Announcement of the vet business council is planned for the next VBE symposium and Heyman anticipates strong interest. The one-day event, scheduled for November 29 at Lorain County Community College near Cleveland, OH, brings VBEs together for training, networking and sharing information.
"Women suppliers are vitally important to us," says Kevin Beirne, manager of business diversity development for Pitney-Bowes (Stamford, CT). "We've been working with women suppliers informally for forty years, and the relationship has been formalized in the last decade."
Women suppliers also play an important role in the supply chain at Allstate Insurance (Northbrook, IL). Margaret Klinsport, director of procurement, notes that "A woman's unique perspective and approach bring us a greater diversity of options to achieve business results."
D/C
Back to Top |
