By Debbie Gregory.

VAMBOA is delighted to announce the addition of Brigadier General (Ret) James E. Shane to our Board. Jim has extensive executive management experience in business, marketing, communications, strategic planning, and public policy.

Jim’s experience includes twenty-eight years of leadership and executive management experience as a Senior Army Officer serving in high level leadership and decision-making positions. Jim spent eleven years working with state and federal elected leaders in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. His personal leadership style places a high priority on developing subordinates, recognizing excellence, and team-building to maximize individual and organizational performance.

Jim was also the President and CEO of Shane Business Enterprises, LLC, a small Veteran Owned Business that provided consulting services to businesses seeking to work with the defense industry. Additionally, he was the CEO of Mobile Armored Vehicle (MAV) which designed, manufactured and sold Armor Protected Vehicles to the U.S. and foreign governments.  Jim understands the challenges of entrepreneurship.

Stay tuned for his bio on the site and a forthcoming press release.

By Debbie Gregory.

Have a great idea for a business but very little money? Don’t let that stop you! While starting a business with very little capital can be challenging, it can be done.

In any business, cash flow is everything, so starting with very little capital works best if you get paid immediately, have low overhead, and don’t have high inventory or labor expenses. You also need to plan carefully and conserve all the cash you can. Every dollar spent must be a dollar that is going to grow your business.

By building your business around your skills and knowledge, you can avoid having to rely on outside assistance. When you do require outsourcing, get the best deal you can on what you actually need. You can drop $500 on fancy business cards, or $50 on traditional ones. Choose wisely.

Generate buzz for your business through word of mouth and social media, which is a great way to gain exposure and interact with potential customers.

As you launch your business and for the first few years, you will probably be the person who puts in the highest number of hours for the lowest pay. Try to have your personal financial house in order prior to launching your business.

Hold off on opening a brick and mortar location unless and until you absolutely have to. It’s not just the rent, but also utilities, insurance, etc.

When given the opportunity to buy new, don’t! Almost anything you need, from office furniture to manufacturing equipment, can be purchased used or even leased.

Learn how to track your income and expenses and be able to determine which activities are profitable and which aren’t.

Outsource as many of your business needs that you are able to until you are at the point where you need to hire employees.

Be prepared to dedicate everything you have into making the business a success. But remember that the habits you learn growing a lean business will serve you well in the future.

By Debbie Gregory.

After thousands of soldiers responded to a survey that they would rather buy their own combat boots than wear service-issued ones, the Army is field-testing new combat boot designs.

The survey, conducted by the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Soldier Center at Natick, Massachusetts, found that about 50 percent of the 14,000 soldiers surveyed prefer to buy commercial-made combat boots that are “lighter, more flexible, require less break-in time, and feel more like athletic shoes than traditional combat boots,” Anita Perkins, RDECOM Soldier Center footwear research engineer and technical lead for the Army Combat Boot Improvement effort, said in a recent press release.

The Army awarded contracts to Altama, Belleville Boot Company and McRae Footwear to design prototype boots featuring new types of leather and other materials for more flexibility and reduced weight, David Accetta, a spokesman for Army Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center. One of the manufacturers designed two prototypes, and the other two submitted one each.

New combat boot prototypes are being issued to 100 recruits in Basic Combat Training, with 200 pairs going to Fort Leonard, Wood, Missouri and another 200 pairs to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and to soldiers stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas The soldiers will wear the boots throughout trainings and testers will return to the testing venues in March and April for input.

The Soldier Center will then provide recommendations to Project Manager Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment for future development of the next generation of Army Combat Boots. The feedback will be used to create the next prototype with the best features from the different boots. It is entirely possible that materials and design features from one boot will be combined with materials and design features from another boot.

By Debbie Gregory.

Recognizing that the Pentagon must do business at the speed of ideas, the U.S. Air Force will hold its first “Pitch Day” on March 6th in New York City. The event offers startups the chance to win small awards for their innovative ideas.

Many mind-blowing ideas are being birthed in U.S. startup companies, but the Pentagon largely misses out on them.

“Pitch Days are new fast tracks for startups to work with the Air Force.” said Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “Modeled after commercial investment pitch competitions, our goal is to award $40 million to startups using one-day, one-page contracts. These awards use convenient credit card payments— we want partnering with the Air Force to be easy and energizing!”

The Air Force previously did a trial run and awarded 104 contracts in 40 hours using government purchase cards.

Here’s how it works:

• The Air Force posts problems online through February 6th at https://sbir.defensebusiness.org
• Submissions for pitches will continue through February 6th
• For the next week, the Air Force will review the submissions and invite finalists
• On Pitch Day, March 6th, the Air Force will select same-day winners and award payments, up to $158,000, via government purchase cards

Companies have until 8:00 pm ET on February 6th to submit their applications at https://sbir.defensebusiness.org. The Air Force will notify selected companies for in-person pitches by February 15, 2019.

The three areas of particular interest are:

• Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Network Technologies
• Battlefield Air Operations Family of Systems Technologies
• Digital Technologies

Participant companies must be U.S.-based, with no more than 500 employees, and over 50 percent of its owners must be U.S. citizens or legally reside in the country.

For further information, click here to visit their site.

The service has allocated up to $40 million for the event.

We encourage all of our members and other small businesses to participate in this opportunity.

By Debbie Gregory.

USAA Federal Savings Bank will pay more than $12 million to 66,240 military, retiree and veteran account holders to resolve various allegations relating to members’ accounts and resolving errors, in a settlement reached this week with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The CFPB alleges that USAA failed to properly resolve errors; failed to honor members’ requests to stop preauthorized payments through Electronic Fund Transfers; and that it reopened accounts without members’ authorization and without notifying them.
The bureau found the alleged violations during a review of the bank’s practices.

Under the settlement, filed January 3, 2018, USAA will pay $181.59 each to the 66,240 members allegedly denied a reasonable investigation of the error they reported. USAA will also pay the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau a $3.5 million fine.
USAA neither admits nor denies the allegations, according to the consent order. The consent order does note that USAA has been addressing these issues as well as changing some of their policies and procedures for more than a year and began providing restitution payments for some of those affected in 2017.

USAA also had a separate procedure for those disputing an error regarding a payday loan. It required the customer to contract the payday lender to dispute the transaction. USAA representatives refused to investigate often in the cases of payday loans. Additionally, the customer also was required to have a written report notarized if the error involved a payday lender. The Military Lending Act concerning limitations o payday loan applies to active duty members and dependents and does not apply to military retirees nor veterans who are also eligible.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleges that USAA failed to properly resolve errors or honor the requests of members to stop preauthorized payments via Electronic Fund Transfers. It is also alleged that USAA reopened accounts without the authorization of members or notification to them in the case of 16,980 previously closed accounts and resulted in 5,118 accounts incurring fees estimated to be more than $269,365. The reopening of these accounts also cause some customers to be overdrawn and subject to fees, provide creditors the opportunity to initiate debits to the accounts and draw down the funds. In July of 2017, USAA reimbursed these customers $270,521.

As part of the settlement, USAA must, among other things, grant stop payments to all consumers who contact the bank within three days of future preauthorized EFTs asking for that action; implement the requests without requiring consumers to contact the merchant first; honor the stop payment requests for EFTs free of charge for a period of two years from the settlement; conduct prompt, thorough and reasonable investigations of reported errors, whether or not consumers have submitted a written statement; and stop requiring customers to get their written statement notarized.

Additonally, once a customer closed an account, USAA cannot proces any additional transactions to the account. If USAA furnished ay infornation to a credit reporting agency on those accounts they reopened, they must notify them to delete that information as well.