VETRN is proud to announce that there are now 15 veteran small business owners and family
members signed up for our 2021 VETRN MBA Online program which will start on September 25, 2021
Participants are from 10 states, including MA, NH, VT, NJ, PA, MD, NC, CO, UT and CA. Every
participant will receive a mentor from day one, and will have access to our outstanding guest
experts and our VETRN professional resource network.
VETRN successfully pivoted its VETRN MBA program to an online platform for its 2020 cohort. In
December 2020, VETRN graduated 17 veteran small business owners and family members from its
first online MBA pilot program with participants from seven states, including NH, MA, RI, CT, NY,
NJ, and Colorado.
VETRN also added a course to its 2020 program in “How to Manage through a Financial Crisis” and
encouraged VETRN participants whose businesses were adversely affected by the pandemic, to
put together a 12-month turnaround plan with an emphasis on cash flow forecasting,
VETRN is now in its 7th year and has graduated 75 veteran small business owners and family
members to date, with many success stories, as well as successful pivots that became necessary
due to the revenue and cash flow challenges brought on by Covid-19.
At the December 2020 VETRN online graduation ceremony, the keynote speaker was Jovita
Carranza, the previous SBA Administrator, who spoke words of praise for the VETRN program and
indicated a desire by the SBA to continue programming support for VETRN in 2021.
Due to a Biden Administration initiative to put SBA funding into a new program called “Community
Navigator”, a national initiative that is more geared toward assisting minorities and the inner-city
communities, including women and veterans, the SBA has not provided VETRN with programming
support in 2021. As a result, VETRN needed to pivot to reduce its 2021 programming costs.
During the past several months, VETRN has: (1) developed its own VETRN MBA online curriculum;
(2) made agreements with additional teaching resources to augment its own online programming,
including LivePlan, an online planning tool, and Ibis World, a source for industry data and reports;
(3) increased the frequency of social media postings, (4) conducted numerous webinars with the
SBA, SBDC, Veteran Business Outreach Centers (VBOC), and others, featuring VETRN graduates
who successfully pivoted their business model during Covid-19; and (5) broadened its geographic
outreach to chambers of commerce, SBDC, SBA veteran outreach coordinators and VBOC’sin other
geographic regions to enlist more applicants for our 2021 VETRN Online MBA program.
VETRN is excited to be able to continue our outstanding MBA Online programming in 2021 and is
proud to welcome our 2021 veteran small business owners and family member participants to the
growing VETRN family.