VETRN’s President, Lee Goldberg and Program Manager, David Ferrara are excited to announce the start of the 2021 VETRN MBA Online program on 9/25. The 2021 online cohort includes 17 veteran small business owners and family members from 11 different states across the country. This class starts our 7th year of the VETRN MBA training program, teaching veteran participants how to successfully grow their veteran owned small business. To date, 75 veteran small business owners and family members have graduated from the VETRN program, with many successes and successful pivot stories to date. The VETRN MBA program is free of charge to all veteran participants.
We are also thrilled to have received sponsorship support this year from many banks, credit unions, charitable foundations, VETRN graduates, networking organizations, Board members and friends of VETRN. To all of you who have provided VETRN with sponsorship support in 2021 and in prior years, thank you for your support and for helping veterans and family members achieve their dreams and goals of becoming successful small business owners.
As the VETRN MBA program has grown into a national online program, identifying local mentors for each of our class participants has been challenging. In addition to our own list of mentors, guest experts, panel judges, and professional resources, who have selflessly volunteered their time, our heartfelt thank you goes out to Scott Stuart, Scott Zeller and Joe Mintz at TMA Global and its local Chapter Presidents, Ray Milano and the SBA VBOC regional offices and regional SCORE Chapters for providing access to local chapter resources so that every VETRN participant across the country has access to a personal mentor.
This past year has been especially challenging due to the economic impact of Covid-19. In recognition of the revenue and cash flow challenges brought about by the pandemic, VETRN added two courses in 2020: “How to Manage Through a Financial Crisis” and “Understanding How to Deal with your Lender”. VETRN has also added the option of preparing a 12-month turnaround plan in lieu of a growth plan. In addition, VETRN entered into contracts with LivePlan and IBISWorld to provide additional tools and resources to our VETRN participants to augment its intensive 14-week curriculum.
So, in this transition year, David and I are very appreciative of everyone involved with the VETRN program, and are excited about teaching this year’s 2021 cohort. We look forward to expanding the VETRN MBA program, our veteran small business network, our VETRN graduate community and the VETRN support community in the years ahead.