3rd Annual Veteran Entrepreneur Training Symposium, June 10-13, 2013

Vet Entrepreneurs Focus on Leadership and Community

Veterans Symposium Releases Action Packed Agenda

Washington, DC, May 2013 – The Federal market is shifting due to shrinking budgets, new regulations, and the changing missions of agencies. At the 3^rd Annual Veteran Entrepreneur Training Symposium (VETS2013) in Reno, Nevada, June 10-13, Vet Entrepreneurs will receive the latest news and information on how these trends will impact their business and identify ways to protect their company. 

The focus of this unique Veteran Business Development event is the extraordinary variety of educational content for Veteran small business owners to choose from to meet their needs. As such, VETS2013 offers sessions for start-up/emerging Business owners with little or no experience in Federal procurement and/or business ownership, as well as for mid-tier/mature Veteran business owners who have already broken into the Federal marketplace and are seeking knowledge to grow. Hot Topics Breakouts include:

For Start-Up Businesses

·       Introduction to Federal Contracting

·       VA Verification Financing Options for Your Small Business

·       GSA's Multiple Award Schedule Program 

Ideal for Mature Businesses

·       2014 Healthcare Reform: Are you Paying or Playing? 

·       Growth Beyond Size Standards 

·       Identity Theft: Impact on Your Company

 Breathtaking keynotes who have redefined leadership:

·       Justin Constantine, Inspirational Speaker, will discuss the value of a positive attitude, teamwork and community values in overcoming adversity.

·       Commander Kirk Lippold, USN (Ret.) tells us why integrity is key to success and how his Five Pillars of Leadership can help get the most out of your workforce.  

·       Tony Jimenez, President and CEO, MicroTech, tells his story on how he has grown his 9-year old business into a profitable quarter-billion dollar company.  

·       Andre Gudger, Director, OSBP, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, shares the DoD OSBP goals and changes in DoD acquisition policies that will impact your Veteran-owned small business.   

Power Networking: VETS Connect:

One-on-One Business Sessions - Schedule face-to-face business meetings. Suppliers may request 15-minutes meetings with potential Buyers of their product or services.

Industry Networking Roundtables: Informal, interactive discussions provide you the opportunity for learning, and professional networking with your peers from around the country. Share opinions, strategies, and tactics.

Other exceptional program highlights at VETS2013 include:

·       Awards Luncheon: Celebrate the Champions of Veteran Enterprise that met or exceeded the 3% SDVOSB goal.

·       Mobile Vet Center: The Reno Mobile Vet Center joins us to provide Veterans with vital, on-the-spot treatment and resources.

2 Strategies to focus on when starting a business

If you are in business or thinking about starting your own business soon, there are two strategies you should take into consideration when thinking about how your business will be successful in this competitive business environment.

1. Differentiation Strategy – with this first strategy your main goal should be to come up with a product or service that is able to differentiate itself from your competitors. Create something that no one else offers or add a little extra something to your products or services that adds value to them that make them different.

2. Low cost Strategy – the second strategy to think about is how you can eliminate costs when developing your product or providing your services in order to charge lower prices compared to competitors. Customers are always looking for the lowest prices in town. With this strategy, you will be able to have higher profit margins that will make up for the low prices provided.

 

This is how you can use Pinterest for your business

Pinterest is a pin-based social media website where people and businesses share photos about all sorts of personal and business related things. It is a great way for businesses to engage with customers about products, services, events and much more through photographs.

The following video gives you a short explanation about this trending social media and you can use it for your small business. And note: Pinterest has a higher click through rate to websites than Facebook and Twitter put together! Check it out!

"A business is simply an idea to make other people's lives better. If you can make people’s lives a lot better, you've got a really good business." - – Sir Richard Branson

Partnerships? How do you structure them?

A lady writes to Inc Magazine asking them for business advice. She is opening an art gallery and pottery studio, but she isn’t doing it alone...she is partnering up with another artist. Is this a good idea? How do they structure the business, as a partnership or S Corporation?

You may be in the same situation if you’re thinking about starting a partnership with someone else. The following article answers the lady’s questions, and also says there are 2 very important facts you need to consider before entering into a partnership.

First, you never know what the person is like until you have worked with him/her for a couple of years; and second, the more complicated you make the partnership structure at the outset, the harder it is to get out of it if things don’t turn out the way you thought.

Take a look at what Inc Magazine advices the lady about her partnership and how to structure her business.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201209/norm-brodsky/partnership-or-s-corporation.html?nav=featured

10 questions to ask when you are ready to hire

You are already in business and it is starting to expand, so it may be time for you to hire your first employee or maybe add another one to your team. Sometimes it may be hard to accept that you need help, and as entrepreneurs delegating different tasks to others is hard to do. You want to be in control and do it all, right? The answer to this is yes, but asking for a little help shouldn’t be scary.

However, you have to be careful with who you hire, because hiring the wrong employee can become a burden to your team and can drag everyone else down. So be smart about it and ask the right questions before you hire!

This article gives you 10 questions you should answer first to make sure you’re ready for another addition to your team, and to determine what type of employee you need to fill that open position.

The Cheesecake Factory started out as a small business too.

Most of us probably know what The Cheesecake Factory is and have probably eaten there before. Just like any other business, this company started out very small many years ago. The original recipe came from the CEO’s mom in 1940. She started making cheesecakes in her basement and did so for 25 years. After this, her son saw a potential in the business and decided to give it a shot and open their first Cheesecake Factory restaurant. Ever since they opened they have had a line out their door.


This video should be an inspiration to all of us small business owners or anyone who is looking into starting a small business. You have to start somewhere to get somewhere. Usually, businesses start out small and build their way up; and this is what The Cheesecake Factory did.

If they can do it, so can you!