Allen Taylor, Editor, Lending Times, in a recent post on VetLikeMe wrote “Is Veteran-Owned Entrepreneurship Headed Toward Extinction?” He asked: “Where is the system broken?” followed by the article: “An Overall Decline of Entrepreneurship – Why?” Lending Times then outlines many of the VOB business obstacles.
These articles directly confirm why we organized the National Veteran Business Development Council (NVBDC).
We established NVBDC to address the growing need to identify and certify both Service Disabled and Veteran Owned Businesses (SD/VOBs) for the commercial marketplace. Our initiatives are focused on being the Veteran business certifying authority providing reliable revenue and management information to the business community. “U.S. Veteran Owned Businesses (VOBs) are an essential component of our overall economy”, Allen writes, to further corroborate the NVBDC mission and goals.
The leading challenge for VOBs, as stated in the article, is access to capital. This challenge is also recognized in the uneven pendulum for financing between VOBs and non-VOB’s written in the article “Financing Their Future”: Veteran Entrepreneurs and Capital Access” by the collaboration of SBA Office of Advocacy & Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
“NVBDC never discounted the financial hurdles but instead embraced these challenges,” said Brigadier General (ret) Dick Miller, President, NVBDC.
NVBDC initiated the Veteran certification process 6 years ago by addressing the growing need of corporations to identify certified Service Disabled and Veteran Owned Businesses (SD/VOBs). NVBDC provides a certification that is recognized and accepted by industry with access for SD/VOBs to diversity spend opportunities within procurement practices. This was reinforced by the acceptance of the NVBDC as the only veteran certification organization to meet the Billion Dollar Roundtable (BDR) audit standards and match their mission to drive supplier diversity excellence. $80 billion is the estimated spend of Corporate America with Veteran and Disabled Veteran Businesses. NVBDC certification contributed to strengthening these opportunities for SD/VOBs to achieve business connections with Supplier Diversity Professionals and ultimately grow their business. The proof is in our accomplishments.
“Since our certification, many exciting opportunities have already come about. Literally in just the first month, suppliers have now allowed Fulmer to begin bidding on services. These organizations include the likes of Kellogg’s, Dana Business Holdings, Flex N Gate and Whirlpool, just to name a few. These are organizations that bring potentially huge opportunities and I cannot express my excitement enough to finally be in a position to compete for some of this business!” said Jessica M.
In 2019 our growth was across the board with over 700+ Certified SD/VOBs, 80+ corporate members with an annual spend of $2 Billion + with NVBDC Certified SD/VOBs and the introduction of our 3rd generation database with the launching of the Veteran Owned Certification System (VOCS). This success is attributed to our networking events, educational sessions, 1:1 matchmaking, “Veteran Business Mentoring Program, and on-site training, further validating NVBDC leadership.
The NVBDC National Veterans Business Matchmaking Conference held in Columbus, OH, in November was rated the best Veteran event by both our corporate members and our certified veteran owned businesses for business opportunities. Hundreds of attendees participated with a mix of SD/VOBs, NVBDC Corporate Members and Resource Partners during the 2-day conference.
The system is not broken, our veterans are looking in the wrong place; the real opportunities are with the NVBDC and our corporate members. We have many companies willing and able to help finance our certified veteran businesses, especially if they have pending contracts with our corporate members.