Providence, RI – Nominations are now being accepted by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for the 2012 Rhode Island Small Business Person of the Year and other small business awards. Winners will be honored during the Rhode Island Small Business Week celebration in June.

Awards will be presented in 10 categories. Any individual or organization dedicated to the support of the small business community may submit nominations for these prestigious awards. Award guidelines and nomination forms are available from the SBA Rhode Island District Office by calling (401) 528-4561, or by visiting the SBA Website at www.sba.gov/ri. The Nomination deadline is Thursday, November 10, 2011.

The other awards include: Entrepreneurial Success Award, Jeffrey Butland Family-Owned Business of the Year, SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Small Business Exporter of the Year, Financial Services Champion, Minority Small Business Champion, Veteran Small Business Champion, Home-based Business Champion, and Women in Business Champion.

The Rhode Island Small Business Person of the Year will also have the opportunity to participate in the National Small Business Week activities and meetings with government officials in Washington, DC, and will compete for the National Small Business Person of the Year Award.

Champion awards are presented to persons who have used their professional skills or personal talents to further public understanding and awareness of small business. Candidates must have taken an active role in creating opportunities to promote the interests of small business. Persons nominated for Champion awards need not be an entrepreneur.

For more information about the SBA Small Business Awards, contact Faith White at (401) 528-4561, or by e-mail at faith.white@sba.gov.

VAMBOA would like to congratulate Wendy Matheu for being named one of the DiversityPlus Top Women in Power award winners. Ms. Matheu, the Supplier Diversity Manager at Amgen, was responsible for Amgen’s sponsorship of the Power Your Business Conference in April, and she also served as Emcee of the event.

WASHINGTON – In just four years the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Patriot Express Pilot Loan Guarantee Initiative has provided more than $633 million in SBA-guaranteed loans to 7, 650 veterans to start or expand their small businesses.

Patriot Express, a pilot loan product, with streamlined paperwork, and based on the agency’s SBA Express program, offers an enhanced guaranty and interest rate on loans to small businesses owned by veterans, reservists and their spouses.

“As Independence Day arrives it is only natural for us to reflect on America’s veterans – men and women who have the leadership skills and experience to become successful entrepreneurs and small business owners,” said SBA Administrator Karen Mills.  “The impact of this program the last four years has meant thousands of veterans and their families have had the resources to pursue their dreams as entrepreneurs, and at the same time create jobs and drive economic growth at a critical time for our country.”

Patriot Express was launched June 28, 2007, to expand upon the more than $1 billion in loans SBA guarantees annually for veteran-owned businesses across all its loan programs.  SBA also offers counseling assistance and procurement support each year to more than 200,000 veterans, service-disabled veterans, reservists and members of the National Guard and their spouses.

Patriot Express loans are offered by SBA’s network of participating lenders nationwide and feature one of SBA’s fastest turnaround times for loan approvals.  Patriot Express loans are available for up to $500,000.

The Patriot Express loan can be used for most business purposes, including start-up, expansion, equipment purchases, working capital, inventory or business-occupied real-estate purchases.  Local SBA district offices can provide lists of Patriot Express lenders in their areas.  Details on the initiative can be found at www.sba.gov/patriotexpress.

To learn more about additional opportunities for veterans available through the SBA, please visit the website at www.sba.gov/vets.

Washington, D.C. – Fourteen major contracts to transform information technology in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have been awarded for an estimated program ceiling of $12 billion. The Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology program, known as T4, will consist of 15 prime contracts, including seven awards reserved for service-disabled Veteran small businesses and Veteran-owned small businesses.

“This five-year program will help VA transform into a 21st century organization and enable us to deliver the high-quality health care, benefits, and services Veterans have earned,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “In addition, it opens an opportunity for Veterans in business to grow and claim a share of VA’s business.”

Calling the program T4, VA awarded 14 prime contracts together as a tool to close gaps in acquiring IT services to integrate systems, networks and software. A fifteenth contract is pending resolution of a protest filed with the Government Accountability Office. The companies selected will have a fair opportunity to compete for work under T4 over five years. Their services and products may cover the life cycle of a computer system, and include program planning and management, systems and software engineering, cyber security, operation and maintenance, and support to facilities.

One of VA’s main goals is to provide timely access to benefits and high-quality health care to Veterans over their lifetimes, from the day they enter military service until the day they are laid to rest. T4 will be a major tool enabling VA to meet those goals by closing gaps in transforming programs.

The combined contracts will allow the most efficient use of technology to reduce the backlog of benefit claims and delivers real value to America’s taxpayers.

The T4 program will be a single focal point for managing the multiple contracts; give VA access to the best industry capabilities without the traditional long acquisition lead time; and help the department meet its Veteran small-business goals.

Unsuccessful competitors will be notified once the fifteenth, final award is made. They will be given the opportunity to receive a debriefing about their respective proposals and learn how they might improve their future submissions.

By Allison Bruce

There hasn’t been a better time for securing government and corporate contracts if your company helps meet diversity requirements, but that doesn’t mean those business owners can sit back and wait for customers to come to them.

Instead, those small business owners need to pursue certification, register as potential suppliers with organizations and companies, and do their research — on the contracts they are pursuing, on their competitors’ capabilities and on what they can offer to set themselves apart in an increasingly competitive market.

That was some of the advice speakers offered and repeated throughout the day to the roughly 200 people in attendance at the “Power Your Business” supplier diversity conference at Amgen’s conference center in Thousand Oaks on Tuesday. The day, which targeted minority, women, veterans and gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender business owners, covered topics from securing government contracts and corporate business to personal finances.

There are legal requirements in place that drive certain government agencies and corporations to pursue diversity in supplier relationships, but that’s not all.

Johnson Controls, which has spent more than $1 billion each year since 2002 with woman- and minority-owned suppliers, pursues diversity because it strengthens the company’s supply base, makes it a good corporate citizen and builds the bottom line, said Lorenzo Bell, supplier diversity manager for the company.

“The No. 1 reason why we do it is because it makes us money,” he said. “If we make money, our customers make money and our suppliers make money.”

It also lets the company differentiate itself when it approaches its own customers in the automotive, battery or building efficiency industries, he said.

Corporate representatives said it was important that suppliers have certification that recognizes that they meet the requirements as a minority- or woman-owned business.

For veterans, certification is a more muddled process, which includes certification through Veterans Affairs to handle certain government contracts; through state programs, which aren’t recognized at the federal level; and through the Small Business Administration.

That can be a challenge and a headache, as some attendees noted their own experiences with the lengthy process and dismay at not having a single certification recognized across agencies.

There are efforts, such as a single website that would pull together information from across departments and agencies for veteran entrepreneurs, that might help, said William Elmore, associate administrator for veterans business development for the Small Business Administration.

Being certified as a minority-, woman-, veteran- or LGBT-owned business is a quick way to show that a business meets all of the requirements of that certification, but business owners should take advantage of other resources available through the certifying organizations, such as trade shows, networking and directories, said Candace Waterman, senior director of compliance and alliance relationships for the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

“Certification is like a gym membership,” she said. “If you don’t use it, it’s not going to work.”

Other speakers agreed that the certification is necessary, but it’s not what gets a foot in the door as a supplier. That comes from setting the business apart from the competition, building a relationship with companies and agencies and honing — and specializing — a quick pitch on what the company can do based on the demands of the contract.

Diane Esqueda is an account manager with Agnew, a translation agency based in Westlake Village that is WBENC-certified. Esqueda said certification often is the added element needed for the opportunity to bid on an account.

She and other attendees said they were at the conference to learn information that would help their businesses and network with others.

“Amgen is one of our clients, a number of organizations here presenting are our clients and the room is filled with potential clients,” she said.

Steps of Success