SBA to open new Veterans Business Outreach Centers p1 - Military - Start Your Own Business - Military Times Edge

Eight new Veterans Business Outreach Centers are opening with funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the agency announced in mid April.

SBA is providing a total of $2.5 million in grants to the centers, which offer entrepreneurial development services to eligible military veterans and reservists who own or start small businesses.

“Our service men and women have made invaluable contributions and sacrifices for our country and supporting them as they pursue their life’s dreams to start or grow their own business is one of our highest priorities,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said in a news release.

Services provided by the VBOCs include outreach, assessment, long and short-term business training, counseling, directed referring, electronic or on-line assistance and other technical assistance services to veterans, service disabled veterans, and U.S. Military Reserve Component business owners and entrepreneurs.

The new centers will open at:

• Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark, N.J.

• Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va.

• University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

• Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, N.C.

• New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services, Santa Fe

• Southwest Louisiana Business Development Center, Jennings, La.

• Chippewa Cree Tribe, Box Elder, Mont.

• University of Guam, Mangilao, Guam

For more information about SBA’s Veterans Business Outreach Centers, visit www.sba.gov/VETS. For information about all of the SBA’s programs and services, visit www.sba.gov.