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From PTSD to Prosperity: How Beekeeping Transformed this Disabled Combat Veteran’s Life

November 27, 2024

When Staff Sergeant Eric Grandon, a 20-year U.S. Army veteran, returned home from multiple combat deployments, he was struggling with the debilitating effects of PTSD. Rather than let the stressors of war consume him, Grandon found solace and purpose in an unexpected place – the gentle hum of honeybees.

In 2014, Grandon founded Sugar Bottom Farm in the small town of Ovapa, West Virginia, starting with just two beehives. Along with his wife Mary and daughter Abigail, Grandon dove headfirst into the world of beekeeping, determined to use this newfound passion as a way to manage his PTSD.

Flying Leap Vineyards: A Veteran-Owned Winery Soaring to New Heights with SBDC Support

November 18, 2024

Flying Leap Vineyards is a remarkable success story of a veteran-owned small business taking flight in the Arizona wine industry. Founded in 2010 by three lifelong friends from the U.S. Air Force Academy – Mark Beres, Marc Moeller, and Tom Kitchens – the company has grown from a small-scale wine grape farming operation to a thriving winery and distillery, thanks in large part to the support of the local Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

Find Diverse Businesses Easier with DBEsearch.com – A Success Story

April 25, 2024

In 1983, the first Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) provision was enacted by Congress, requiring the U.S. Department of Transportation to ensure that small disadvantaged businesses must be included as suppliers on federal, state, and local infrastructure contracts. Since then, the policy of helping socially and economically disadvantaged minority, woman, veteran, and disabled owned businesses has expanded.

A 2017 Transportation Act made it a requirement for any government contractor to spend a certain percentage of dollars on diverse suppliers for road, railroad, and other infrastructure projects.

It was this requirement that essentially sent Matthew Reed, President of JCR Construction on the path to create DBEsearch.com. JCR Construction is a utility contractor who builds power lines for various utility companies in the Northeast.

SBDCs Nationwide Celebrate the 8th Annual #SBDCDay March 20th, 2024

March 20, 2024

After 45 years, America’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) still rate highly with their clients and live up to their reputation as America’s #1 most trusted small business resource. To celebrate the SBDC program’s continued success, the work they do, and the clients they serve, March 20th, 2024, will mark the 8th annual #SBDCDay and the program’s biggest celebration of the year. SBDC Day is a national movement to help share the small business success stories and notable impact SBDCs have fostered nationwide.

Got Goals? Congratulations! 7 Steps to Getting Traction in the Coming Year

February 6, 2024

By Barbara Nuss, CPA
Profit Soup

“Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important. The urgent pressures us daily, while the important waits patiently. ”

Charles Hummel, University President and Author, Tyranny of the Urgent Share on X

Congratulations! Your team just completed its first-ever strategic planning day. The creative ideas flowed freely. The team set challenging performance goals, created a plan to address two big structural issues and chose one exciting new opportunity to develop. Everybody exchanged high-fives at the end of the day.

It’s one thing to have a vision and another to create sustained change, especially when we find ourselves back in the familiar fray of life in a closely held business. It’s easy to slip into the old routines and let the tyranny of our urgent day-to-day problems crowd out our important long-term goals. Unless you change things up, before you know it the year will have passed, and your retreat goals will be a distant memory.

Here are 7 steps to build and maintain traction towards your big important goals.

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