Isabel Casillas Guzmán, Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), announced the award of funds for 4 organizations that offer existing training programs through the SBA’s Service-Disabled Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Program.

Casillas Guzmán stated:

Our veterans and military families are an important source of America’s entrepreneurial strength, bringing leadership experience, a spirit of service, and their can-do attitude to everything they undertake.

The SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development supports each organization's programs for service-disabled veterans who plan to start a new business or expand and diversify existing ones.

Selected Organizations

Each awardee was chosen based on their demonstrated track record and commitment to providing training programs and resources to this population.

The awardees are the following:

Warrior Rising — South Jordan, Utah – $105,000

It is a non-profit organization dedicated to training, educating and supporting veteran entrepreneurs. Since its inception, Warrior Rising has trained more than 5,400 veteran-owned businesses through a robust 40-lesson educational curriculum. The program is designed to be delivered online or in locations with appropriate access for people with disabilities. Instructors have experience working with individuals experiencing PTSD or other service-connected disabilities by employing service-disabled veterans to work for Warrior Rising and assist with the counseling process.

Veteran Entrepreneurial Training and Resource Network (VETRN) — Norton, Massachusetts – $65,000

Focuses on areas that are vital to small business success, including financial management, cash flow, managing during a financial crisis, sales and marketing, human resource management, networking, access to capital, and recruiting of the government. In addition, each participant is assigned a mentor. Participants emerge with successful growth-oriented business strategies or 12-month turnaround plans, having completed more than 100 hours of peer mentoring, job assignments, and classroom training.

Oklahoma State University —Sweetwater, Oklahoma – $75,000

The Veterans Entrepreneurship Program (VEP) offers a unique and highly innovative training program based on hands-on learning and personalized interaction to foster the creation of successful and profitable businesses. The program provides opportunities to develop business ideas while learning cutting-edge concepts, tools, and frameworks. Most importantly, VEP participants will learn how to apply these principles and tools to current or prospective businesses.

St. Joseph’s University — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – $55,000

The Saint Joseph University program is designed to provide the tools, education, and mentorship necessary for post-9/11 disabled veterans to start or grow their businesses. These programs have given more than 200 veterans the confidence, background, skills, and awareness of the small business ecosystem to successfully assess their business enterprise and grow it according to their ultimate aspirations.

“Helping America’s service-connected entrepreneurs is not only the right thing to do, it also helps create jobs and powers our innovation economy and global competitiveness. Through our Service-Disabled Veteran Entrepreneurship Training Program, the SBA is giving our existing training programs a boost to better serve and support these dedicated, mission-driven entrepreneurs,” added Casillas Guzmán.

SBA will celebrate service-disabled veterans and veterans of all time, service members and military spouses during National Veterans Small Business Week, October 31-November 4, 2022.

For more information on SBA programs for veterans, click here.