Evaluation of the Veteran Business Outreach Centers

Supporting Statement for Veterans Business Outreach Center Director and Client

(OMB Control Number: 3245-XXXX)

Appendix B-2 Director Survey Construct Justification

Category	Justification
VBOC Goals	Each VBOC sets its own internal goals, in addition to the goals set by OVBD. OVBD would like to know the high-level goals of each VBOC, what VBOCs are working to achieve, and each VBOC’s progress in reaching its self-determined goals. Questions are aimed at providing answers to these issues.
VBOC Capacity	These questions quantify the education and business assistance and military culture experience of VBOC directors and staff. Staff must have sufficient experience in each of these areas to properly assist the veteran population in starting or growing a small business. The questions collect information on full-time and part-time staff as well as volunteer and paid staff. OVBD would like to know the capacity of each VBOC.
VBOC Website	VBOC websites are independently designed by each center. OVBD would like to know what information clients are able to find about VBOC accessibility and services in addition to the counseling and training services provided by VBOC.
VBOC Outreach Activities	The outreach portion assesses whether clients are primarily acquired from other resource partners, previous clients, clients researching VBOC on the internet, or clients’ community organizations, such as universities or veterans’ organizations. Referrals are essential for eliminating overlap across all SBA resource partners. Clients are better served by some resource partners rather than others. A high level of referrals from other SBA resource partners would indicate that veterans benefit from business assistance programs that account for the intricacies of veteran culture. VBOCs cover a wide geographic region. OVBD would like to understand how each VBOC allocates its limited resources to serve the large area that it has been chosen to cover. Similarly, another directive of VBOCs is to assist service-disabled, minority, and socially and economically disadvantaged veterans. OVBD would like to know whether VBOCs make any specifically targeted outreach efforts for those populations.
Client Intake	OVBD would like to know the means by which each VBOC enters clients into its system and initially assesses their business assistance needs. Although all clients are required to be registered in the website portal, they may first contact VBOC by phone or e-mail to ask about VBOC services. During the initial client consultation, each VBOC may present client-screening criteria that are determined by such factors as having a well-developed business plan. In some cases, if clients do not meet selected criteria, they may be referred elsewhere or given resources to develop their business ideas before returning to the VBOC. OVBD would like to know whether this process happens according to a formal documented procedure, there is an informal training process for business counselors, or each counselor relies on his or her own experience to assess client needs.
VBOC Services	VBOCs often host events outside their centers to bring business assistance services to the clients they serve. OVBD would like to know what resources and relationships VBOCs use to host training and counseling sessions. These questions ask about the most common training and counseling topics as well as the mode of counseling delivery. Many clients cannot physically access VBOCs and instead reach the centers virtually. By collecting the most frequent training topics across VBOCs, OVBD can make generalizations about which services are most needed in the veteran population. In addition, each VBOC is responsible for creating specialized initiatives to suit the specific needs of the population that it serves. OVBD would like to know the actions that have been taken to customize services to each region.
Client Business Stages	These questions pertain specifically to start-up phase activities. Directors are asked to approximate the percentage of clients who have achieved certain business benchmarks in such areas as start-up financing, product development and marketing, revenue, employment, and growth. These are important metrics for understanding the composition of the client population, and they are essential for determining where resources should be allocated.
Client Business Development	The business development questions are pertinent to clients who have already started businesses and ask about such outcomes as revenues, employment, and financing.
VBOC Reporting/ Client Outcomes	This portion of the survey asks directors about their methodology for collecting client outcomes. OVBD would like to know what information can be gained from each VBOC’s internal reporting and client outcome data.
VBOC Collaboration and Referral Network	OVBD would like to know how extensive each VBOC’s resource and referral network is. A large network is essential for finding the appropriate avenues to meet every clients’ needs. This section asks about clients referred to VBOCs because they meet a specific need for the veteran population as well as the common reasons that VBOCs refer clients to other service providers. Collecting this data will give insight into which business assistance needs have not yet been met.
Satisfaction with VBOC Resources	OVBD would like to know whether directors have adequate resources to meet the needs of their client population.
VBOC Challenges, Lessons Learned, and Best Practices	By compiling challenges, lessons learned, and best practices across all VBOCs, OVBD can determine whether VBOCs face similar problems and solutions and can share that information across all the centers.

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