A VAMBOA PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

VAMBOA believes that this information is important to our membership and all Veteran Business Owners especially those who are Service-Connected Disabled Veteran Business Owners due to Agent Orange.

The Veterans Administration announced two major decisions related to presumptive conditions associated with Agent Orange and particulate matter exposures during military service in Southwest Asia.

Agent Orange

VA will begin implementing provisions of the William M. Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (Public Law 116-283), adding three conditions to the list of those presumptively associated with exposure to herbicide agents, more commonly known as Agent Orange. Those conditions are bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, and Parkinsonism.

“Many of our Nation’s Veterans have waited a long time for these benefits,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough. “VA will not make them wait any longer. This is absolutely the right thing to do for Veterans and their families.”

VA will apply the provisions of court orders related to Nehmer v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which may result in an earlier date for entitlement to benefits for Veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Vietnam War-era Veterans and their survivors who previously filed and were denied benefits for one of these three new presumptive conditions will have their cases automatically reviewed without the need to refile a claim. VA will send letters to impacted Veterans and survivors.

Particulate Matter Exposures

The Secretary recently concluded the first iteration of a newly formed internal VA process to review scientific evidence to support rulemaking, resulting in the recommendation to consider the creation of new presumptions of service connection for respiratory conditions based on VA’s evaluation of a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report and other evidence. VA’s review supports the initiation of rulemaking to address the role that particulate matter pollution plays in generating chronic respiratory conditions, which may include asthma, rhinitis, and sinusitis for Veterans who served in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War and/or after September 19, 2001, or in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan during the Persian Gulf War.

“VA is establishing a holistic approach to determining toxic exposure presumption going forward. We are moving out smartly in initiating action to consider these and other potential new presumptions, grounded in science and in keeping with my authority as Secretary of VA,” said Secretary McDonough.

VA is initiating rulemaking to consider adding respiratory conditions, which may include asthma, sinusitis, and rhinitis, to the list of chronic disabilities based on an association with military service in Southwest Asia, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan during the covered periods of conflict. VA will conduct broad outreach efforts to reach impacted Veterans and it encourages them to participate in the rulemaking process.

For more information, visit our website at Airborne Hazards and Burn Pit Exposures – Public Health.

VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association hopes that this article has not only been valuable information.  We work hard to bring you important, positive, helpful, and timely information and are the “go to” online venue for Veteran and Military Business Owners.  VAMBOA is a non-profit trade association.   We do not charge members any dues or fees and members can also use our seal on their collateral and website.   If you are not yet a member, you can register here:  

https://vamboa.org/member-registration/

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Do not forget that VAMBOA members receive significant discounts on technology needs.   Check them out here:

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Conduct a SWOT Analysis

By Debbie Gregory.

Gather Your Team

Gather a group of people from all areas of the company to perform the SWOT to ensure different perspectives. The sales team will have a different outlook than the marketing team or the engineering team. You can even pull in people from outside of the company to provide input as a customer or vendor. A SWOT analysis is very similar to a brainstorming meeting so the more creative and fun, the better the ideas you will receive from everyone involved.

You can begin by selecting one of the four sections and having everyone jot ideas down on post-it notes, then stick them to a large piece of paper on the wall. Organize them and then rank them by having the team vote on the ideas presented. You can stick colored dots to the post-its or place tally mark them. This way you can get a clear picture of what the company needs to focus on and how they should be prioritized. This should be done for each part of the SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

After you have completed this part it is a good idea to discuss and debate each point further to make sure you have a clear path forward.

Questions To Help:

Strengths:  Internal factors that are in our control and are positive.

• What are our assets (people, education, reputation, skills, etc)?
• What are our physical assets (customers, location, equipment, patents, cash flow, etc)?
• What do we provide that our competition does not?
• What do our customers love about us?

Weaknesses:  Internal factors that need improvement.

• What do our customers complain about our products or services?
• Are we missing any key personnel?
• Are we missing any key equipment that would make our company more attractive to customers?
• Is there something we should be doing that we are not?

Opportunities:  External factors we have some control over.

• What do our customers think of us? What is our reputation?
• Are there any events we should be attending?
• Is our market growing?
• Are there any changes in regulations that might help us better serve our customers?

Threats:  External factors we have no control over.

• Is our market shrinking?
• Are our offerings outdated?
• Is our market being flooded with new competition?
• Are the costs of running the business going up?

 Next Steps

Once you have completed your SWOT analysis you are ready to put your strategy to work. Analyze your Strengths and make a plan to ensure you can take advantage of your Opportunities; as well as look at how your Strengths can overcome your Threats. Look at your Weaknesses and lay out a plan to work those out or minimize their impact on your business.

With an action list in hand, grab a calendar and place goals on it. What do you want to accomplish in a given week, month, quarter, and/or year? Make sure that your goals are clearly laid out, with specific deadlines, and make sure that they are reasonable and achievable. It is best to regularly check and make sure you are on track.

Your SWOT analysis will provide you a clear picture of your current abilities, the areas where you need to work on things, threats facing you in the market, and ways to take advantage of potential avenues for sales or increased revenue.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,

The GSA is Launching a New Government-wide E-Commerce Portal

By Debbie Gregory.

The new GSA Portal is Scheduled for late 2019 and selling to the federal government is about to get easier!

A new E-Commerce platform that will make it easier for government agencies to buy commercial products is in its final stages and is about ready to launch! Built over the last few years by the General Services Administration (GSA) with assistance from the Office of Management and Budget, the platform is slated to launch late in 2019. The GSA is focused on continuously improving how the federal government buys and sells goods and by modernizing the experience it will reduce the burden on small businesses, the agencies themselves, and create greater value for taxpayers.

This new system will allow agencies to quickly browse and purchase a wide range of commercial goods without having to go through the lengthy government procurement process that they do now. The goal of this new E-Commerce platform is to make it easier and less expensive for businesses to sell items, such as tools, hardware, and office supplies, to federal agencies.

The portal will follow the traditional E-marketplace model which will allow third-party vendors to sell goods on the platform. The new portal will launch with a handful of hand-picked agencies at the end of the calendar year in 2019 with the ultimate goal of scaling it up government-wide, if it is successful, by mid 2020. These agencies will be allowed to buy goods that cost less than the federal “micro-purchase threshold” – which is currently set at $10,000.

The platform is also being built to remove barriers for small businesses who wish to sell to federal agencies and allow them to compete with traditional larger government vendors. Currently there is not a specific number for how many vendors will be a part of the program at its launch.  GSA is confident that the new E-Commerce platform will provide agencies more choice and better vendor performance.  The program will help prevent monopolies on government purchases as well as give smaller businesses opportunities to compete.

VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association encourages all members to take advantage of this new platform.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,

SWOT Analysis

By Debbie Gregory.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

Who needs it and how to do it – Part 1

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is a simple but powerful tool to help your business succeed, develop your business strategy, and pinpoint what you need to prioritize in order for your business to grow.

Strengths & Weaknesses refer to the internal challenges and opportunities your business faces. These are things that you have the most control over and can easily change – like patents your company may need or already has, employees you hire, the management team, etc.

Opportunities & Threats refer to external challenges that are not within your control and may not be easily changed. The general rule here is that you can find and take advantage of opportunities while trying to protect against threats but you cannot change their existence or occurrence. These include prices of materials, shopping trends, competitors, etc.

Regardless of the size of your company, from the largest multibillion dollar corporation to the small mom and pop shop down the street, you can benefit from a SWOT analysis. For the best results, you will want to gather a group from all areas of the company to perform the SWOT to ensure different perspectives. The sales team will have a different outlook than the marketing team or the engineering team. You can even pull in people from outside of the company to give input as a customer or vendor.

Once you have your SWOT team assembled you will then organize your top Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats into an organized list on a simple 2-by-2 grid as seen in the table below:

A SWOT analysis will force you to look at your business in different ways and from new directions. It will give you a clear picture of your current abilities, where you need to work on things, threats facing you in the market, and ways to take advantage of potential avenues for sales or increased revenue.

We encourage you to also read Part 2  that will provide more detail on how to gather your team, pose some sample questions to ask, and give a few pointers on where to go with the information after performing the analysis. Stay tuned!

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,

Financial Terms for Veteran Small Business Owners

Financial Terms for Veteran Small Business Owners

By Debbie Gregory.

Regardless of the size of your business or how long you have been operating, Veteran Small Business Owners need to understand basic financial terms to successfully run their business   We have below a glossary of financial terms to review and understand so that you have a better grasp on your business and whether or not you are making money and when you can forecast a profit.   VAMBOA also highly recommends courses offered by the Small Business Association (SBA) in basic finances for small businesses.  All of the courses that the SBA offers are free of charge and we encourage you to take advantage of them.

Accounts Payable

Accounts payable is also called trade payable. It refers to the total invoices for goods and services a business has received, but has yet to pay. They’re usually due for payment within 15 to 45 days. In short, this is money your business owes to other businesses.

Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable is the amount of money a company has claim to or has invoiced. It is from having sold goods or rendered services to its customers. This is what other businesses or customers owe your business.

Accrued Expenses

Accrued expenses are expenses that a business has incurred but has yet to pay. This is because either the invoices have not yet been received or the payments aren’t yet due.

Examples of accrued expenses include interest on loans and taxes incurred. Salaries your employees earn up to the period of reporting, but aren’t due for payment until after the report is prepared, are also accrued expenses.

Assets

An asset is any item your business owns that is of fiscal value and is expected to benefit the business in the future.

Balance Sheet

Your balance sheet gives an overview of the financial situation of your company. Unlike an income statement, a balance sheet offers a snapshot of a business’s finances at a specific time.

A balance sheet consists of three segments:

• “Assets”
• “Liabilities”
• “Owner’s Equity”

These three segments must balance out in a simple equation. Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity. Hence, the name balance sheet.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents are assets and items that a business can easily convert into cash. Cash equivalents could include checks, certificates of deposit, and treasury bills. If your business doesn’t have cash equivalents, it would only report its cash-at-hand and in the bank.

Cash Flow

Cash flow refers to the reconciliation of cash moving into and out of a business. When a business receives more cash than it sends out, it is cash flow positive. A business is cash flow negative when it spends more than it receives.

Cost of Goods Sold or Cost of Revenue

Cost of goods sold refers to the full cost for the production of the goods a business sells.

Equity Stake

Equity stake is the part of a company owned by an entity. It is usually expressed as a percentage. In a true sole proprietorship, the owner of the business owns a 100% equity stake.

Franchise

A franchise is a license. It grants the franchisee access to the franchisor’s trademark and operation guidelines. The franchisor is the entity that owns the trademark. A franchisor is usually an accomplished and well-known company. It uses licensing agreements to expand without spending the capital (money) required.

Gross Profit

Gross profit is the cost of goods sold or cost of revenue subtracted from net sales. This excludes operating expenses that do not directly generate revenue. This includes costs such as accounting, supplies, and advertising. It is the first determinant of how profitable a company is. It indicates the financial viability of the products and services the company offers.

Let’s say your detergent manufacturing business sells $50,000 worth of detergent in a year. The raw materials, transportation, production facility rental, and factory labor cost $30,000. Your gross profit would be $20,000.

Gross Profit Margin

Gross profit margin refers to the ratio of the revenue that you keep as gross profit. It is also called gross margin or gross profit percentage.

The formula to calculate this is (Gross Profit/Net Sales) x 100.

A detergent business whose gross profit is $20,000 with net sales of $50,000 has a gross profit margin of 40%. This means the detergent sold returned 40% on the capital that’s directly associated with the detergent production.

Gross Sales

Gross sales include the total of all sales activity during a reported period. It excludes sales deductions such as sales discounts, sales returns, and sales allowances. Gross sales figures track how effective sales efforts are, assuming there were no deductions. When you deduct these items, what you have left is net sales or revenue.

Income Statement

Your income statement is also called a profit and loss statement, earnings statement, or statement of operations. An income statement shows all the money your business makes, its expenses, and its profit. The typical frequency for income statements is both quarterly and annually.

If your business is struggling to make a profit, the income statement is the first place you need to look. It will show you if — and where — there’s room for reducing expenses to improve profitability. It can also show if the only way to improve profitability is to make more money.

Liabilities

A liability refers to anything a business owes. This includes loans, mortgages, and advance payment for goods and services not yet delivered or rendered. Liabilities are reported on balance sheets as short-term (current) and long-term liabilities. Current liabilities are typically debts or obligations that are due within a year. This includes short-term loans, interest, and taxes. Long-term liabilities are due over a longer period.

Net Income

Net income is gross profit minus every expense incurred during the reported period. You get this by subtracting the cost of goods, services, and operating and non-operating expenses from your net sales or total revenue. Non-operating expenses include interest, depreciation, taxes, and advertising.

It is the overall determinant of how profitable a business is. Here’s an example. If your gross profit is $20,000, and you spent $10,000 on operating and non-operating items, your net income would be $10,000. This means your business made a profit of $10,000 after you deduct all production, service, and operational expenses for that reporting period.

Non-Operating Expenses and Loss

Non-operating expenses are costs incurred due to activities unrelated to a business’s core operation. These activities don’t have tangible effects on operating results. This includes, but is not limited to, interest and insurance.

Non-operating loss is loss incurred due to activities that don’t relate to business operations. A good example would be a loss incurred as a result of a lawsuit settlement.

Non-Operating Revenue and Income

Non-operating revenue and income is the total profit created by a business from activities that aren’t tied to its core operations. Examples would include proceeds from selling business equipment. It can also include profit made from sales due to foreign exchange.

Notes Payable and Notes Receivable

Notes payable are IOUs. These could be funds borrowed from a bank or an amount owed to a supplier for raw materials delivered. Notes payable are a debt instrument. They are recorded as a current liability on a balance sheet if due within 12 months. If they are due over a longer term, they are considered long-term liability.

Notes receivable is the opposite of notes payable. What one company records as notes payable, another company records as notes receivable. Notes receivable appear as a current asset on a balance sheet if expected within 12 months. Anything more than that is considered a long-term asset.

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses are the costs tied to a business’s core operations. These costs can be classified into two categories. The first category is cost of goods sold (or cost of revenue) and selling. The second category is general and administrative expenses (SG&A).

Owner’s Equity

Owner’s equity is the totality of the owner’s investment into the business. This is the portion of assets that belongs to the business owner.

Operating Income

Operating income is the revenue or net sales that’s left after you deduct operating costs. It is also called operating profit or earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). Its calculation excludes non-operating expenses like interests, taxes, lawsuit settlement expenses, etc.

Operating Margin

Operating margin is the ratio of revenue or net sales a business keeps as operating income. It is calculated by dividing operating income by revenue or net sales. The result is then presented as a percentage by multiplying by 100.

As an example, a business’s operating income was $10,000 on a $50,000 revenue or net sales. Its operating margin is then $10,000/$50,000 = 0.2 x 100 = 20%.

Operating margin helps determine how efficient a company’s day-to-day operations are. In the example above, the business’s day-to-day operation made $0.20 for each dollar of revenue.

Prepaid Expenses

Prepaid expenses are advance payment for future expenses. Prepaid expenses usually appear on a balance sheet in the current asset’s subsection. This is because they’re usually due within 12 months. Prepaid expenses usually arise when businesses pay in advance for goods and services needed in the near term.

Insurance is one example of prepaid expense. For example, your business buys an insurance policy of $2,400 over a 12-month period. Your prepaid expenses account will be credited with $2,400 at the beginning of the period. Accountants would divide this by 12 to say you’re paying $200 per month. So, as each month passes, you’d have used $200 out of your prepaid insurance expense. The $200 expensed for a given month will show up in your non-operating expenses column for that month. It will be debiting from your prepaid expenses account.

The same accounting process goes for any type of prepaid expense. You can account for rent, supplies, and legal and contract expenses in this way.

Revenue

Revenue is the total amount of money a company brings in from its business activities after discounts, returned goods, and other sales allowances have been deducted. Businesses that sell goods, such as retailers, are more likely to refer to revenue as net sales. It is also called top-line because it usually appears at the top of an income statement.

 Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses (SG&A)

Selling, general, and administrative expenses are expenses you incur while selling your products and services. They also include the cost of running your business on a daily basis. Below is a breakdown:

• Selling expenses include the cost to sell the goods you’ve already produced or purchased. This excludes cost of production or purchase. It includes: expenses related to sales material, traveling, advertising, delivery, warehousing, telephone bills, salaries of sales employees, and sales commission.
• General and Administrative expenses are usually more fixed than selling expenses. They include expenses related to rent, mortgage, insurance, utilities, and salaries of non-production and non-sales employees.

Unearned Revenue

Unearned revenue refers to advance payments a business receives from its customers. It is also called deferred or prepaid revenue. So long as the goods or services for which the payment was made are yet to be delivered, that amount of money remains an unearned revenue. Since it indicates that a business owes its customers, unearned revenue appears as a current liability on balance sheets. Typically, what one entity records as unearned revenue, another entity records as prepaid expenses.

Various businesses incur unearned revenue differently. For example, a subscription service company that bills its customers yearly will have one year’s worth of deferred revenue. As each month passes, a portion of the subscription fee proportional to a month’s service will be deducted to reflect the worth of subscription service left undelivered. Deductions from the deferred revenue account are credited as revenue in the income statement.

Managing your finances is one of the most important parts of running a business. Unfortunately, small business owners who have little financial background shy away from these responsibilities. By learning these key financial terms, you’ll be more able to understand your financial statements, communicate with finance professionals, and monitor your business’s cash flow.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,