The South Carolina Veterans Business Outreach Center (SC VBOC) opened its doors on 1 May 2023. SC has one of the highest per capita population of veterans in the United States (approximately 400K) and ranks in the top ten when veterans are accounted for as a percent of the adult population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Carolina veterans were previously serviced by the VBOC in Georgia. Increasing demand motivated the Small Business Administration (SBA) to create a new VBOC center in South Carolina. SBA solicited proposals in 2022 and several SC agencies applied for the VBOC grant. The Citadel won the award, and the new VBOC center was housed in the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SC VBOC has three core responsibilities: 1) Teach the Small Business Administration\u2019s Boots-2-Business (B2B) program, 2) provide business consultations to our clients, and 3) refer our clients to our SBA Resource Partners. The B2B program is taught in three modalities: 1) in-person at the 6 major military installations across the state, 2) in-person in several off-installation venues around SC, and 3) online. The B2B program teaches foundational entrepreneurship to transitioning military members, their family members, and National Guardsmen who wish to start or grow a business. Business consultations are conducted by three permanent full-time counselors (two at The Citadel and one remotely in Columbia). The consultations are designed to help veterans identify the right path to successfully starting or growing a business. Referrals include the full menu of SBA resource partners around SC including SCORE, SBDCs, I-HOPE Women\u2019s Business Center, APEX Accelerator, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SC VBOC annual goals are set in coordination with the SBA Headquarters in Washington, DC. The Citadel VBOC has exceeded every established key performance indicator in its inaugural year (some by over 200%). Below is the progress for the 2024\/25 fiscal year. Since 1 May 2024, The SC VBOC center has exceeded all base line measures (see blue vertical line in the chart). Two of the key performance indicators have exceeded expectations and are over 100% of the annual performance goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For information about the program contact James Bezjian, Principle Investigator at jbezjian@citadel.edu<\/a> or CJ Williams, VBOC Program Director at cwilli55@citadel.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The South Carolina Veterans Business Outreach Center (SC VBOC) opened its doors on 1 May 2023. SC has one of the highest per capita population of veterans in the United States (approximately 400K) and ranks in the top ten when veterans are accounted for as a percent of the adult population. South Carolina veterans were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1520","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n