VETRN’s President, Lee Goldberg and Program Manager, David Ferrara are excited to announce the start of the 2022 VETRN MBA Online program on October 1, 2022. The 2022 online cohort includes veteran small business owners and family members from 10 different states across the USA. This class starts our 8th year of the VETRN MBA training program, teaching veteran participants, service-disabled veterans, and family members how to successfully grow their veteran owned small business. To date, 90 veteran small business owners and family members have graduated from the VETRN program, with many successes and successful pivot stories achieved 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, VETRN graduates, networking organizations, Board members and friends of VETRN. To our many multi-year bank and credit union sponsors, thank you for your continuing support. We are also excited to welcome Webster Bank this year as a brand-new sponsor of the VETRN Program. To all of you who have provided VETRN with sponsorship support in 2022 and in prior years, thank you once again 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 become more challenging. In addition to our own extensive list of mentors, guest experts, panel judges, and professional resources, who have selflessly volunteered their time, our heartfelt thank you goes out to TMA Global and its local Chapter Presidents, Ray Milano and the SBA VBOC regional offices and regional SCORE and SBDC Chapters for providing access to local chapter resources so that every VETRN participant across the country has access to a personal mentor and professional resources.
Given current economic conditions, supply chain issues, inflationary pressures, cost increases, employee challenges, the Ukraine war and its impact on inflation, energy and food costs, and In recognition of the revenue and cash flow challenges brought about by these ongoing issues, VETRN will continue to teach its courses in “How to Manage Through a Financial Crisis” and “Understanding How to Deal with your Lender”. VETRN will also continue with the option of preparing a 12-month turnaround plan in lieu of a growth plan. In addition, VETRN is proud to continue its relationship and 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 difficult and challenging year for businesses, and particularly for small businesses, David and I are excited to be teaching our 8th cohort to veteran small business owners and family members from across the USA and very appreciative of everyone involved with the VETRN program. We look forward to continuing to expand the VETRN MBA program, our veteran small business network, our VETRN graduate community and the VETRN support community in the years ahead.