At the Hampton Roads Chamber, we are here to help your business succeed! We know that many of the businesses here in Hampton Roads are small businesses and even more are owned by veterans. If you have a veteran-owned small business, there are several programs in place to help you succeed. Many resources for Veteran-Owned Businesses can be found through the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA).

For example, The Office of Veterans Business Development is a department within the SBA that works as a liaison with the military business community. The mission of this office is to provide veterans, service members, Reserve members, National Guard members, military spouses, and family members with resources and programs that help their small businesses grow. Through this partnership, veteran-owned small businesses can take part in programs that provide training, educational resources, access to capital and contracting opportunities, just to name a few.

Boots to Business is one of the programs that the SBA offers to our military community. This program is a part of the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP) and gives transitioning service members and their spouses an overview of business ownership. The program starts with a two-day in-person class that provides business ownership basics. Once you complete the in-person class, you are opened up to a vast amount of resources that are designed to help you on your entrepreneurial journey. Boots to Business is offered free of charge to service members and their dependents at participating installations.

The SBA also provides many veteran contracting assistance programs. The Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) program provides additional contract opportunities under the Vets First program through the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs. This program allows service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to compete for federal government contracts. Another resource is the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business program. One of the many benefits of this program is that competition is limited for certain federal contract opportunities and it is worth noting that the federal government’s goal is to award at least 3% of all federal contracting dollars to businesses who are eligible for this program.

We hope you found these resources as a helpful place to start. Find more resources on the SBA website and learn more about our Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center (SBDC) here.