By Debbie Gregory.

Did you know that thirty-one out of forty-five United States Presidents have served in the Armed Forces? An unprecedented number of veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq are seeking state and federal elected offices.  While the number of United States senators with war experience in both conflicts will be relatively the same, a surge has taken place for both parties in the United States House of Representatives.

Both political parties have encouraged veterans to run for Congress.  As the number of military personnel serving in Afghanistan and Iraq decreases, more veterans are funning for office because they want to continue to serve their country.  Additionally, efforts to recruit, train and support veteran candidates has moved from ad hoc initiatives to more formalized support.

Veterans are very attractive candidates to voters as well.  They tend to be more pragmatic and their military experience of mission accomplishment, teamwork, service above self, and nation over faction appeal to voters tired of constant bickering in Washington, D.C.

If you’re a veteran looking to run for a political office, you may have found the barriers of entry to be incredibly high. But there is hope on the horizon.

In part made possible by a grant from JP Morgan Chase & Co., Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and the Maxwell School are collaborating to introduce a new and innovative program for veterans and military family members who aspire to public office or another form of a political career.

The goal of the “Veterans in Politics” (VIP) program is to act on the opportunity to continue public service demonstrated by those who have served in our nation’s military.

“The IVMF’s deep involvement, understanding and engagement with the veteran and military-connected community, coupled with the Maxwell School’s standing as the nation’s  No. 1 ranked school of public affairs, positions this program to empower those who have served our nation in uniform with preparation, expertise and confidence so that they can extend their commitment to public service in the form of a political career at the local, state or federal level,” said David M. Van Slyke, Dean of the Maxwell School

The VIP program will enroll its inaugural class in late 2019. The program will feature both online coursework and a one-week intensive residency.  VIP curriculum will cover election law; party politics and public policy; creating, managing and leading campaign teams; campaign finance; understanding voters; message development; mobilizing volunteer teams; responding to citizen issues; and conflict management, among others topics.

To request more information about the VIP program, visit www.maxwell.syr.edu/veterans-in-politics.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA.

By Debbie Gregory.

Delegation doesn’t come naturally for many small business owners. It’s often difficult to shift gears when you’ve been used to wearing multiple hats to get your business off the ground. But don’t underestimate the benefits of delegating. It is nice to share the workload and it enables you to move forward and be more creative.

First, you need to learn to recognize the difference between giving orders and delegating. A key to the delegation process involves documenting what you want to accomplish and then transferring the knowledge needed to your team members to get it done.

Effective delegation provides you the opportunity to focus on fueling those areas of your business that will drive longer term profits and growth. It also provides you more breathing room to brainstorm ideas enabling and providing you valuable time to think of new ways to take your business to the next level.

You also need to be able to create and implement repeatable systems. Systems should be created to provide repeatable results; rinse and repeat is the key. Also implement step-by-step workflows for time-consuming tasks that can be handed off to your employees, removing you from the process.

It is paramount that you have an understanding of each position within your company and listen to your employees with their ideas and concerns. Even though you may have an overview of the position, your employees know the minutia of it, and they may have ideas of how to increase efficiency.

No one is good at everything so be cognizant of the fact that there will be aspects of running your company that you’re not particularly good at nor enjoy doing. You need to either hire employees to do those tasks or outsource them.

It is important to know what you should be doing when it comes to delegation and it’s equally important to know what you should avoid doing.

Micromanagers aren’t very good at delegating and interacting with their team. They take on all the business responsibilities, watching over what the team does, redoing work, and stopping the flow. Letting go of perfection and trusting that your team members will take the ball and run with it will result in company growth. It is challenging to let go but it is important.

It is natural to feel anxious about trusting a capable employee, partner or outsourced service to take over the tasks you’ve done to make your company thrive. Trusting your team with specific tasks can free up your time to focus on what’s important- growing your company.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA.

By Debbie Gregory.

Starting any business takes a huge leap of faith. You’re jumping off of a cliff and hoping your parachute will open and lead you and your business to success. So how do you decide what’s really a great idea? Sure, you can rely on your gut instinct, but that isn’t the only good measure. Identifying the difference between a good business idea and a good business opportunity will serve you well on your entrepreneurial journey.

Recognizing that passion for your concept is important but will only get you so far. It is important to be both realistic and well informed as you approach the process. Successful business opportunities should fill an ongoing need. They provide a new or different product or service that also allows you to make a profit and grow your business. But just how will you translate your idea into a viable business?

Here are some key questions to ask yourself:

Why are you doing this? What’s your mission?

Your business needs a sense of purpose that sets it apart from the competition. If your business improves people’s lives in some way, that should drive your mission.

What problem are you solving?

You need to be solving some sort of real problem that exists for your customers. If not, how will you motivate people to buy your product or service?

Who is your customer?

Knowing who your ideal customer is and how you can find them is critical to starting a successful business.

How are your potential customers solving their problem today?

Identify the choices your potential customers currently have and how your solution is better.

What will potential customers be willing to pay for your solution?   Do you think you can make money?

You want to make sure your idea can be profitable, and that your planning and hard work will result in success.

While there’s no definitive way to tell if a company will be successful, if you put forth a quality offering that solves a problem and reflects your passions, you’ve greatly increased your odds.

Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA.

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,