Veteran Small Business Procurement Conference

I am writing this article from my hotel room at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas attending the 6th Annual National Veteram Small Business Conference and Expo!  I know it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it.  I am hear to attend a 3 day 

conference hosted by Veteran Small Business Federal Interagency Council to talk about veteran small business opportunities with Federal contracting.  Over 3,000 veteran owners of small businesses and service Disabled veteran small business owners are here along with over 200 Federal government contractors and consultants.  

The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center works very closely with veteran owned businessesin the state as well as with current military personnel, especially National Guard and Reserves who are considering starting a business.  So it made sense that someone from the ASBTDC network be on hand to find out exactly what opportunities exist for our state veterans with Federal procurement contracting, both as prime and sub-contractors.  

There is no question that government agencies are making a concerted effort to push federal contracts to veteran owned small businesses.  In the past year: 

• The U.S. Department of the Army awarded over $1.7 billion in contracts just to SDVOSB (service disabled veteran owned small businesses)
• 16.3% of the Department of Veteran Affairstotal procurement dollars went to SDVOSBs
• The U.S. Department of the Navy exceeded$713 million PRIME contracts to SDVOSBs
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded:
  • 1,774 contracts worth over $482 million to Veteran Owned Small Businesses and
  • 552 additional contracts worth over $211 million went to SDVOSBs

But what I plan to find out and bring back to Arkansas veteran small business owners is EXACTLY what’s involved in the process, what “hoops” do they have to jump through and can getting involved in Federal Procurement programs really help their bottom line.  I attended the opening session last night and met with a number of first time and “seasoned” attendees as well as with several government contractors with some very interesting stories.  As I progress through the conference I will be posting the information here as well as on the Arkansas Veterans Webportal, the Arkansas Veterans Facebook page and twitter.  

Veterans: Critical to the Strength of our Nation

If you are a veteran owned small business and want to know more leave a comment or if you have specific questions post them here and I will get answers before I lose all my money and have to come home!  So stay tuned.

Tagged as: Federal Contracting, Procurement, service disabled veteran owned small business, veteran owned small business