Missouri Passes Veteran Small Business Loan Guaranty Bill Initiated By 1 Vet At A Time (1VAAT) (now, Veteran Business Project). Missouri recently signed into law the House Bill 1503 which provides state guaranteed small business loans to Missouri military veteran entrepreneurs. 1VAAT worked cooperatively with Missouri State Representative Dean Dohrman in getting this ground breaking legislation drafted and passed. 1VAAT has now successfully initiated veteran small business loan guarantee legislation in two states (Illinois and Missouri)...with 48 states to go. A laborious process, this effort has never before been identified as a necessary goal for our veterans nor undertaken by anyone, much less a small team of self-funded, motivated volunteers. Lack of access to small business loans is THE primary reason why only 6% of our post 9/11 veterans are in business for themselves, as opposed to 49% of our WW II veterans. Recently re-named and re-branded the “Veteran Business Project” (VBP), we are now working to more rapidly advance this important state-by-state legislation nationwide in tandem with the National Guard.

Lynn Lowder, CEO, and Marti Stiteler, COO, recently returned from Hartford, CT where they attended the last three (3) days of UConn School of Business' 7th Annual Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) program.  It has been a resounding success year after year, principally due to the leadership of its Director, Lt. Col. Michael Zacchea, USMC (Ret.).  Mike is a disabled combat veteran and author of a book entitled "The Ragged Edge" (www.theraggededgebook.com).  He and his staff did a superb job, bringing much expertise to bear from a multitude of relevant and practical sources, all designed to help disabled, entrepreneurial veterans become successful small business owner-operators.  The caliber of veteran students was varied by branch of service, rank, age, experience and type of business each student was pursuing.  Abundantly evident was the individual veteran's heartfelt desire to learn, their motivation to become successful, their spirit of assisting each other and their desire to "pay it forward" by hiring and mentoring other veterans.  In addition to his leadership in the UConn EBV program, Mike Zacchea is the Executive Director of the United States Veterans Chamber of Commerce (http://www.usvcc.org/), an IRS 501(c)(6) organization (application pending).  This visionary concept is a membership-based organization that connects corporate, government and small businesses to our nation's veterans.  1 VET AT A TIME, as well as many other veteran-oriented organizations, are looking forward with great interest to the development and growth of the USVCC.

Our CEO, Lynn Lowder, and COO, Marti Stiteler, are traveling to Hartford, CT on August 17, 2017 for a three (3) day conference with Mike Zacchea and other staff of the United States Veterans Chamber of Commerce.  USVCC is a groundbreaking entrepreneurial concept in support of our military veterans:  www.usvcc.org