Following the successful acquisition of the Military Connection web site by Veterans Home Care, LLC , Debbie Gregory will now turn her full attention to VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association. VAMBOA.org is a 501 (c) 6 non-profit trade association with over 7,000 members nationally and more than 400,000 combined fans and followers on social media.

“After serving their country, many U.S. military veterans start and run their own businesses,” said Gregory.

Although every successful veteran and military business owner is different, there are a number of qualities they have in common. As a rule, they’re intelligent, resourceful, dedicated, hardworking, and committed to team success and completing the mission.

“Veterans tend to employ veterans,” Gregory added. “VAMBOA works to ensure the success of its membership by connecting them with private corporations and government agencies. It’s in our country’s best interest to invest in the leadership potential of our military veterans.”

Military veterans know when to lead, when to follow, and how to respond to a variety of situations and apply just the sort of leadership that circumstances demand for success.

Corporations interested in a diverse supplier network are invited to contact VAMBOA to evaluate sponsorship opportunities. VAMBOA is the “go to association” for Veteran and Military Business Owners. VAMBOA is supported through corporate sponsorship and Veteran Business Owners are not charged any membership fees. Corporations interested in evaluating sponsorship opportunities and Military and Veteran Business Owners wanting to learn about membership may contact VAMBOA at info@vamboa.org.

By Debbie Gregory.

An effective marketing strategy is the most important tool in a small business owner’s toolbox. A marketing strategy looks at all of the areas of your business activities and helps each one support the next. Understanding how to create an integrated marketing strategy will help you make better individual decisions regarding specific marketing tactics.

To start, understand that it’s crucial to have a company name, logo, colors, imagery and other graphic elements that help communicate your strategic positioning to your customers.

Those marketing aspects can be displayed on your excellent website. Keep in mind that your website is the business card of today. And the first thing any potential customer will do is Google you and look for your site. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Make it count. Make sure your company website is attractive and easy to use. Keep movement, sounds and flashing graphics to a minimum.

Start thinking about content as the voice of strategy, so all the content that you produce, your web pages, social media articles, blog posts, newsletters and press releases, this is all content. You want to think about the intention that you have for every piece of content, because content today is used to create awareness.

Social media can be a good source of traffic and exposure for your business, but don’t just keep it limited to your company’s; also take advantage of your own personal social media.  Even if you only have 50 or 100 friends on a social media platform, each of them will know hundreds or even thousands of people.

Remember that there is a real world out there, separate from the cyberworld. Don’t miss the opportunity to network with real people offline. Join business groups that help promote each other, including county chamber groups, breakfast business groups, etc.

And last, but not least, don’t be afraid to ask. Ask for reviews, feedback, comments, likes, reposts, etc.

Although there have been multiple studies on individual characteristics and operations on owner managers, there are knowledge gaps related to the challenges these entrepreneurs encounter when entering and building their ventures. To fill in that gap, the National Association of Veteran-Serving Organizations(NAVSO) has commissioned Purdue University to study what is driving entrepreneurial success so that these veterans can be better served with improved resource allocation. The Veterans and Military Business Owners Association (VAMBOA) is proud to assist in securing participants for the study.

The insights from this survey will help deliver best practices for providing realistic solutions for the issues and challenges these veterans face.

“We are so grateful to the VAMBOA community for joining us on this important research for veteran entrepreneurs.” said NAVSO CEO, Chris Ford. “We expect the research results to help future veteran business owners gain access to capital, change how incubators and accelerators support founders, and in the end, help more veteran businesses succeed. Founders and Co-Founders who participate in this research are really paying it forward to the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

“There are some qualities that servicemembers and veterans have attained through their military service that make them excel as entrepreneurs,” said VAMBOA founder and CEO Debbie Gregory. “Traits such as leadership, discipline, the ability to solve problems and a “can-do” attitude contribute to their success. We are happy to help get the word out to our members and other potential participants of the survey to ensure the best possible result.”

NAVSO is offering incentives valued at more than $2000 to be awarded to more than sixty participants who complete the survey. At the end of the study, the research team will conduct a random drawing and determine the winners: one $500 winner, one $250 winner, two $100 winners, ten $50 winners and fifty $20 gift cards. All personal identifiable information will be masked and confidentiality will be strictly enforced.

Those wishing to participate in the survey can do so at https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6WnSXOMSn3fw5lH?utm_source=VAMBOA&utm_medium=Email%20%26%20Social.

By Debbie Gregory.

The Marine Corps has awarded a five-year, firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity contract with a maximum ceiling of $29.4 million for the procurement of up to 15,000 M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles (IAR) and spare parts. The contract reflects a savings of more than 50 percent compared with what it has paid in the past for the weapon.

The contract was awarded to Heckler & Koch (H&K) in Ashburn, Virginia. For more than 50 years, H&K has been a leading designer and manufacturer of small arms and light weapons for law enforcement and military forces worldwide. In addition to operations in the U.S., H&K has operations in Germany, the United Kingdom and France

The price tag for the first 5,650 units is $7.4 million, which works out to $1,309 each. Given that the service branch previous paid approximately $3,000/unit, these rifles are a substantially better buy.

The additional M27’s will replace the M4 carbine. Unlike the M4, the M27 IAR is fully automatic to provide a higher volume of fire. It also features a free-floating barrel design for better accuracy.

“Since the M27 has been fielded, it has proven to be extremely reliable, durable, and accurate,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joel Schwendinger, Combat Development and Integration Gunner.

The Marine Corps Operating Concept identifies the need for “increased lethality in Marine rifle platoons and squads,” he said.

“The M27 provides the Corps with the necessary increase in lethality,” Schwendinger said. “Unlike other infantry specialties that primarily fight with crew-served weapons, such as mortars and machine guns, rifle platoons primarily fight with rifles, and the M27 has proven to be the best overall fighting rifle.”

The Marine Corps will field the additional M27 rifles to active and reserve infantry platoons beginning in early 2019.

By Debbie Gregory.

The contract for two refrigerator units that were destined for Air Force One has been canceled.

The $24 million contract would have provided two new “chiller” units that would have been installed in 2020. The current Air Force One planes have been in use since 1990, and are scheduled for replacement in 2024. Boeing reached a deal this year to build replacements for those two presidential airplanes for $3.9 billion.

That would have meant that the $24 million dollar chiller units were only going to be in use for four years.

The Air Force and White House Military Office decided to cancel the purchase until the new Boeing Air Force One planes are delivered, according to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson. Wilson stressed that if the delivery of those planes is delayed, they will have to reconsider the possibility of replacement.

Technically speaking, any U.S. Air Force plane carrying the president becomes Air Force One, but the moniker usually refers to the two identical planes that have been specifically modified to meet the security and logistical needs of the commander-in-chief and his flying staff.

The refrigerators on Air Force One are required to carry 3,000 meals in order to feed passengers and crew for four weeks in case of an emergency that prevents the plane from landing.

The Air Force has said the refrigerators currently on board Air Force One are based on old technology and were designed for short-term food storage, and are increasingly failing in hot and humid environments.

Rep. Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services subcommittee on sea power and projection forces, who had inquired about the refrigerator contract, praised the Air Force for terminating it, saying it “didn’t pass the smell test.”