Are You Ready to Start a Business?

A Creating Good Work Entrepreneur Orientation Event

Entrepreneurs4Change and VAMBOA.org (Veteran and Military Business Owners Association) would like to invite you to a free Entrepreneurs Orientation Event – Are You Ready to Start a Business? If you’ve always thought about starting a business, or if you have a business idea you’ve always wanted to launch, or if you’ve already begun a new business venture that needs help, join us for our free introductory entrepreneurial session.

The event will be held on Tuesday, September 11th, from 2-4:00 PM at Ventura County Community Foundation, United Way Community Room, 1317 Del Norte Road Suite 150 Camarillo, CA.

This 2-hour introductory event is specifically for those entrepreneurs who are:

• Launching a new business effort

• In need of the education and training to start a business

• In need of access to the capital to make it happen.

If you’re starting a business or if you have a business idea you’ve always dreamed about putting into action, join us on September 11th and see if this is the opportunity you’ve been looking for. The actual Creating Good Work Entrepreneurial Workshop, again free to all Vets, will be held the last week in September.

Space is very limited. RSVP, today at info@E4C.net.

The Orientation Meeting is free to all respondents and open to all Veteran entrepreneurs by invitation only.

Click image to enlarge.

The California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) has increased its support for California Small Business/Microbusiness (SB/MB) over the last three years, approved awarding more than $9.5 million in SB/MB contracts in FY 2011-12. That represents more than 28% of CalVet’s total contract dollars.

In addition, CalVet awarded more than $2 million in Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) contracts, which accounts for more than 6% of the Department’s total SB/MB contract dollars.

CalVet’s contracting performance has exceeded the State’s 25% SB/MB goal and more than doubled the State’s 3% DVBE goal. CalVet’s contracting efforts also exceeded its own more stringent 5% DVBE goal.

“These numbers directly reflect CalVet’s strategic goals because support of small business and Disabled Veterans Business Enterprises means jobs for veterans,” said CalVet Secretary Peter J. Gravett. “It took a lot of work on the part of everyone involved in the procurement process for CalVet to make this happen, and I’m enormously proud of my staff.”

CalVet credits its success to a DVBE/SB first policy which requires buyers to first seek out certified DVBE and SB vendors for any purchases and contracts.  This policy requires an approved waiver prior to contracting with other vendors.  Management support of this policy, and the DVBE and SB programs in general, is also critical to exceeding these performance goals.

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CalVet: Carolyn Ballou
916-653-1355
Jaime Arteaga
916-657-9329
August 1, 2012

Washington, D.C. – Today Chief Counsel for Advocacy Dr. Winslow Sargeant praised Congress’ repeal of the three percent contractor withholding requirement. The requirement would have required federal, state and local governments to withhold three percent of nearly all payments made to contractors, placing a burden on numerous small businesses. By a vote of 95 to 0, the Senate passed the Government Contractor Withholding Repeal Act. The House has already passed a similar piece of legislation. The Office of Advocacy has consistently worked with small businesses for the elimination of this unfair burden. The Chief Counsel called for its elimination in May of this year.

“The repeal of the three percent withholding requirement is a victory for small business,” said Dr. Sargeant. “For small businesses to thrive in government contracting they need an environment that is clear, transparent and predictable.”

The three percent withholding requirement would have adversely affected the accounts all small businesses that provide services to government entities. Most of the small businesses would have had to increase their debt level in order to ensure sufficient cash flows and thus pass these additional expenses on to their government customers. If small firms were unable to secure additional debt, the three percent withholding requirement might force them out of the Federal contracting market.

The three percent provision was included in the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 in an effort to ensure that individuals and companies that receive new payments from the federal government did not accrue tax debt. The law mandated that federal state and local governments with expenditures of more than $100 million withhold three percent of payments for products and services worth more than $10,000. The requirement was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2013.

The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent voice for small business within the federal government. The presidentially appointed Chief Counsel for Advocacy advances the views, concerns, and interests of small business before Congress, the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state policymakers. Regional advocates and an office in Washington, D.C., support the Chief Counsel’s efforts. For more information, visit http://www.sba.gov/advocacy, or call (202) 205-6533.

$98.8 Million Contract Awarded

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a $98.8 million contract to build a new rehabilitation facility located on the campus of the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.

“This new Polytrauma-Blind Rehabilitation Center will allow VA to better serve our Veterans and active duty Servicemembers in a state-of-the-art facility, which will support the exceptional clinical care currently delivered through both programs, ” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.

In 2005, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System was designated a Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center. Since then, the program has been housed in an existing facility originally constructed in 1960. The Western Blind Rehabilitation Center, which began in 1967, has been housed in a building constructed in 1977.

The $98.8 million contract was awarded to Walsh/DeMaria Joint Venture V of Chicago, Ill., on Sept. 30. Construction is scheduled to be completed in spring 2014. The three-story facility will be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver equivalency.

This will be VA’s first and only Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center to be combined with a Blind Rehabilitation Center. At 174,000 square feet, this new facility is the largest consolidated rehabilitation center in VA. The Rehabilitation Center includes 24 beds for the polytrauma program, 32 beds for the blind rehabilitation program, and 12 beds for the polytrauma transitional rehabilitation program.

The center will also have an outpatient physical therapy/occupational therapy clinic, an outpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic, and clinical programs for Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans. In addition to the new Polytrauma-Blind Rehabilitation Center, a 600-car, four-story parking garage will be constructed adjacent to the new facility to support the growing demand for onsite parking.