Release Date: July 15, 2008
Contact: Dr. Dianne Barlar, Marketing Director, dbarlar@uwf.edu or 850.473.7809

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VBOC Clients Benefit from Governor Signing House Bill 687
for Service Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises

Pensacola, FL: House Bill 687 became law and leveled the competitive field for Florida’s Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) on June 12th as it received the governor’s signature.

As Governor Charlie Crist signed into law the new legislation mandating SDVOSB preference in state contracting, State Representatives Jimmy Patronis and Marti Coley; Executive Director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, Rear Admiral LeRoy Collins, Jr.; military dignitaries, along with Certified Business Analysts Tony Zacchio and Brent Peacock of the Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) accompanied the governor and looked on during the signing at Tyndall Air Force Base.


The new legislation aims at providing preferential treatment to service-disabled veteran small business owners who do business with the State (see article: http://governor.myflorida.com/release/10052). Tony Zacchio, Director of the VBOC, said, “This new legislation will empower our veteran-owned businesses to be more competitive statewide,” and he is confident “the positive trend for these vets will continue nationally.”

Featured prominently at the signing ceremony were VBOC client Gary Harris, a service-disabled veteran business owner. His company, American Building Inspectors Corporation is based in Ft. White and offers commercial and residential building inspections for legal and real estate services, and is poised to take advantage of this new law and reap the benefits.  Another VBOC client in attendance was Carl Adams of PC Engineering in Lynn Haven. His company subcontracts engineering services to the Navy bases and is looking forward to a more level playing field resulting from the new legislation. 

VBOC representatives had just returned from delivering an invited presentation at the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) http://whitman.syr.edu/ebv/ in Tallahassee—a nationwide entrepreneurship curriculum consisting of a series of training modules designed to assist in growing successful businesses.  

VBOC is a special program of the Florida SBDC Network and is located at the Bay County Small Business Incubator. The program provides counseling and resources for veteran owned small businesses in the southeast eight state region (FL, GA, AL, MS, SC, NC, TN and KY). VBOC representatives may be reached at 1.800.542.7232, vboc@knology.net or tzacchio@gulfcoast.edu.

The FSBDCN, funded in part by the US SBA, is a statewide economic development partnership between higher education and other stakeholder organizations dedicated to providing entrepreneurs and established businesses with the assistance needed to start, grow and succeed, contributing to the Florida economy. For more information about the FSBDCN, visit www.FloridaSBDC.org.