10 minute read
Serving Those Who Have Served
Serving Those Who Have Served
By Kirsten Shaw
In 2020 when COVID was shutting down many businesses, Army veteran Shannon Arick was laid off by the manufacturing company for which she worked. One day, driving through her hometown of West Point, MS, she was pleased to see lights on at the Bits N Pieces antique mall, indicating the business was open. She went in to do some shopping and fell into conversation with the owner, who said she had been looking to sell the shop and retire.
“The more I toodled around the store, the more I thought, ‘I could run this place,’” recalls Arick, who had grown up “junking” with her dad – finding treasures and giving them a second life – and thrift store shopping with her mom.
Her experience as an Army maintenance specialist and supervisor and a quality engineer in manufacturing gave her confidence, as did her BS in mathematics and the accounting courses she had taken.
“But I needed to know what I didn’t know,” she says.
A Google search produced a nearby and, it turned out, invaluable result: the Veterans Business Outreach Center, or VBOC, at Mississippi State. With the aid of several VBOC courses and oneon-one counseling, Arick learned how to research demographics and other data to support a loan application; developed a business plan and identified professionals she would need such as a lawyer and an insurance agent.
“They’re great counselors,” she says of the VBOC staff. “They don’t just help you once. They’ve been an ongoing asset.”
Arick and her husband were able to buy Bits N Pieces, and she became Managing Owner on August 28, 2020. By 2023, Bits N Pieces was named Mississippi’s Small Business Administration Rural Small Business of the Year. Arick has also become a board member for her city’s Growth Alliance.
She has continued to seek advice from the Center and take seminars on topics like social media to boost her business. The Center has reached out to her as well, connecting her with an MSU MBA student team for a six-week consulting project, which produced several recommendations that she has implemented.
The VBOC program was developed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, to provide entrepreneurship resources to veterans, military spouses and active duty personnel transitioning to civilian life. The VBOC at Mississippi State is one of 31 nationally, with its SBA funding flowing through the College of Business. It covers Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, a region with 10 military installations. It is headquartered in the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Park, with a satellite office in Gulfport.
The MSU VBOC staff works closely with the Transition Assistance Program at each of the 10 military installations to help service members interested in starting their own enterprises when they exit the military.
“We instruct a two-day class about once every three months at each installation called Boots to Business,” says VBOC Director Mark Scott. “The class helps service members understand some of the fundamentals about starting and running a business so they can make informed decisions about whether they want to.”
Boots to Business, or B2B, is also offered to veterans as a virtual or in-person course called Boots to Business Reboot. In 2023, 44 in-person B2B classes were led at military installations, training 540 individuals; and 12 Reboot courses were conducted, training 177 veterans and spouses. A total of 4,876 have received B2B training since the VBOC contract was first awarded to MSU in 2015.
Scott notes that the military provides experiences that can make veterans and their spouses well-suited for entrepreneurship. They are mission-focused leaders with skills in team management, critical thinking, problem solving and relationship development. They tend to be flexible, resilient, persistent, ethical and reliable. However, Scott tells his clients there is one other key ingredient they will need to succeed.
“You’re going to need a strong passion for your business to help drive you through some of the hard times of getting it up and running,” he emphasizes.
The businesses aided by the VBOC are as varied as the individuals it serves. The staff recently helped a client in Columbus, MS, turn his love for woodworking into a specialized furniture business. They advised a military spouse who had earned a veterinary degree while his wife was on active duty about buying a clinic once the couple moved home to Louisiana. An Army colonel – a doctor –was aided in opening a Huntsville, AL, practice focusing on children with autism. VBOC Business Counselor and Gulfport Office Manager Mike Pornovets began as a client who founded and owns Everything Kayak and Bicycles.
VBOC resources, except the classes at military installations, are available to any veteran including those serving in the National Guard or Reserves and to any spouse of a veteran or service member. A new course introduced last year is the Military Spouse Pathway to Business which, in addition to the B2B fundamentals, focuses on aspects such as having a transportable business to accommodate the frequent moves of military life.
VBOC resources, except the classes at military installations, are available to any veteran including those serving in the National Guard or Reserves and to any spouse of a veteran or service member. A new course introduced last year is the Military Spouse Pathway to Business which, in addition to the B2B fundamentals, focuses on aspects such as having a transportable business to accommodate the frequent moves of military life.
“The Internet has opened up a lot more opportunity,” says Scott, noting online businesses can range from cruise and travel planning to bookkeeping and human resource recruiting.
For others, brick-and-mortar businesses are viable. Blenda Gann and her husband Henry moved from Hattiesburg to Ecru, MS, when he retired after a 35-year National Guard career. Her venture started with the desire for a good, quick cup of coffee.
“I loved the little coffee shop in Hattiesburg where I could zip in and zip out and get on with my day,” she says.
Ecru lacked a drive-through coffee shop, so Gann decided to look into opening one herself. She connected with MSU’s VBOC in August 2023, taking fundamental courses as well as webinars on social media, taxes for small businesses and others.
Learning about market analysis was particularly helpful for her site selection. She chose a location less than half a mile from three schools and at an intersection of Highway 15, an artery connecting Pontotoc and Union counties which is being expanded to four lanes.
The Blissful Bean opened in June 2024.
“I would not have my coffee shop now if it weren’t for their help,” she states. “It’s been wonderful – we’re busy! We’ve been able to get to know people and build community, and that was my vision.”
Separate from but symbiotic to the VBOC is a six-week program that is offered for B2B and Pathway graduates called Boots to Business Revenue Readiness, or B2B RR. Conceived and led by Director Deborah Scott, it is also an SBA-funded program; it is only offered through Mississippi State and is for clients of all VBOCs nationwide. The live, Zoom-based classes, each taught by two veteran business owners, help participants refine their business models into business plans.
“We’ve made the course interactive and accessible, with multiple start times to accommodate participants in any part of the world,” says Deborah Scott. “Our instructor team members from successful small businesses provide one on one reviews and feedback on business plan development. Since founding Revenue Readiness in 2017, we’ve graduated more than 4,000 veterans and spouses around the world.”
“We’ve made the course interactive and accessible, with multiple start times to accommodate participants in any part of the world,” says Deborah Scott. “Our instructor team members from successful small businesses provide one on one reviews and feedback on business plan development. Since founding Revenue Readiness in 2017, we’ve graduated more than 4,000 veterans and spouses around the world.”
MSU’s VBOC offers more than the B2B and Pathway courses.
“We offer periodic live webinars on specialized topics,” says Mark Scott. “The top three are Introduction to Government Contracting, Becoming Lender Ready and Seven Things Your Social Media Plan Should Include, which is taught by Dr. James Barnes from the MSU Extension Service.”
Another VBOC mission is business counseling. Clients are helped to understand where their businesses are and where they are headed, and advisors connect them to further resources. As with all VBOC services, there is no cost to the client.
“Some just need a little bit of encouragement or training, and they’re off and running,” says Mark Scott. “Others are trying to decide whether business ownership is right for them. Sometimes they determine it’s not. We count that as a success, too. We don’t want somebody wasting their hardearned savings or retirement on a business that might not be viable.”
“Some just need a little bit of encouragement or training, and they’re off and running,” says Mark Scott. “Others are trying to decide whether business ownership is right for them. Sometimes they determine it’s not. We count that as a success, too. We don’t want somebody wasting their hardearned savings or retirement on a business that might not be viable.”
The College of Business is fortunate to have the leadership of husband and wife team Mark and Deborah Scott. Mark is an MSU political science alumnus and distinguished military graduate of the ROTC program with an MBA from Norwich University, while Deborah completed an accounting degree at Mississippi University for Women and in 2019, an MBA at MSU. Following college, Mark became an Army officer, and while they were stationed at Fort Knox, KY, Deborah opened an accounting business. After the military, Mark began a 25-plus year career in business development with Texas Instruments Defense Group (later acquired by Raytheon). Deborah, too, worked in defense for Texas Instruments and for Electronic Data Systems. Later she became CFO for an IT startup, helping grow it into an $80-million-per-year company, then serving as President of the group after it was acquired. The couple has a son in the Army and a daughter in the Air Force, both lieutenant colonels and Mississippi State ROTC graduates.
The Scotts and their small teams make a mighty impact. This past year, the Center was honored as 2024 VBOC of the Year; and Natalie Rhodes, Program Coordinator for both the VBOC and B2B RR, was named the Mississippi SBA Veteran Champion. In previous years, Mike Pornovets, Deborah Scott and Mark Scott have earned the Mississippi honor as well, reflecting a strong working relationship with the SBA’s Mississippi District Office.
The Scotts and their small teams make a mighty impact. This past year, the Center was honored as 2024 VBOC of the Year; and Natalie Rhodes, Program Coordinator for both the VBOC and B2B RR, was named the Mississippi SBA Veteran Champion. In previous years, Mike Pornovets, Deborah Scott and Mark Scott have earned the Mississippi honor as well, reflecting a strong working relationship with the SBA’s Mississippi District Office.
As MSU’s VBOC approaches its 10th anniversary this May, the team can look back with pride on all it has accomplished – and look forward eagerly to continuing its mission to serve those who have so honorably served our nation.
