 You served your country, then you transitioned back to civilian life and began serving your communities. And for two and a half million of you, that meant starting a small business. Your businesses are hiring fellow veterans and military spouses. They're supporting charities and giving your communities a sense of community. Sure, it hasn't always been easy, but you're doing what you've always done. Putting in the hard work and learning as you go. So to help, Google has created one place where your veteran-owned small business can get a step-by-step guide to reaching customers worldwide. Add a veteran-led badge to your Google listing and let the world know that you, all two and a half million of you, are open for business. Visit us online to get started. Hi everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we celebrate National Veteran Small Business Week with today's live stream. Connect with local customers on Google. My name is Donald Allen and I'm so excited to be here with you today. So running a small business can be a great second career after serving in the military. We believe that digital skills training for veteran-owned businesses, like building a website, preparing a business plan, and honing a marketing and audience strategy will be beneficial as veterans try to grow or start their businesses. This year for National Veteran Small Business Week, we want to celebrate businesses who identify as veteran-led and help them grow their businesses through digital tools and training. After the presentation, we'll be hosting a Q&A where we'll answer your questions live. So throughout the live stream, submit your questions using the hashtag hash vet-led live stream on Twitter. We'll also be joined by a Northern California VBAC advocate, Karina Conley, to ask her about free tools and programs that VBAC and SBA have to offer for veterans. Alright, so first, a bit of background. So in 2017, we launched Grow with Google, an initiative to help people across the United States grow their skills, careers, and businesses by providing the best of Google's training and tools. Specifically, we've launched products and programs that help the veteran and military spouse community, and we'll be sharing some today, as well as resources to learn more at the end of the live stream. In today's session, we're going to talk about a free tool that businesses can use right away to get started connecting with customers online. It's called Google My Business. And if you're new to Google My Business, don't worry. That's why we're here today, and I'll start by sharing an overview. So Google My Business offers businesses a way to manage how their information appears across Google Search and Maps through what is called a business profile. Alright, so try to picture this. When we first moved to the Bay Area a few months ago, my family wanted to go out to eat. Alright, so here we are. We're in an Airbnb. We have no food in the house, new to the area, and just like so many of our many PCS adventures, we had no idea what was around us. And keep in mind, I've got a family of six, so we can't just go anywhere to go eat. So I opened Google Maps and typed in restaurants near me. And what popped up was a bunch of business profiles for businesses that were local to our area. And so we found a quaint French comfort food cafe, and it had pictures and hours, directions, and a phone number, which is important, because I needed to call them to see if they could accommodate my large family. I'll just leave it to say that we went, they could accommodate us, we had a great time, and is now a favorite of ours that we now follow and we get updates from. All of that is through these business profiles. So research shows that over 90% of customers looking for business information through search engines are looking for specific information, like business hours, promotions, or available appointments. This is important because how a business's information appears in search results can impact when, how, or why potential customers engage with you. In context of our discussion today of how businesses can use a business profile to connect with local customers. So I'll add that not only are customers looking for specific information about a business, they are looking for specific information about local businesses. There are billions of local searches made every month, and more than 30% of all mobile searches are related to location. So what does this mean? All right, you have customers who are looking for specific information and largely looking for this type of information about a business in their community. So today we're going to discuss how to connect those dots using features available through Google My Business. But before we dive in, it's important to note that Google My Business was designed for businesses who have a physical location or do business face to face with their customers. Okay, but if you have a business or thinking about starting one that doesn't meet one of these two categories, you're fine. There will still be opportunities to gain tangible takeaways through today's topic. All right, so this is the part where I tell you what I'm about to tell you. In today's workshop, we are going to discuss how businesses can use Google My Business to establish a local online presence, build a loyal customer base, highlight what makes a service or product unique, and use insights to help drive more in-store or online traffic. All right, so you have options available to you. This is where having a free business profile on Google can help. Customers are 38% more likely to visit and 39% more likely to consider purchasing from businesses that have complete profile information. Before diving into the features which can help your business connect with customers locally, let's first take a review of the anatomy of a business profile on Google. When a customer discovers you're a business profile, the initial view they see is your business overview. In a business overview, consumers can find info about your business contact info, hours of operation, business logos, photos, and more. This overview allows potential customers quick access to the best ways to connect with your business. Through Google My Business, you have access to a manager dashboard where you can update all the information shown here. So 96% of customers are more likely to visit a business that has hours of operations on a Google search or maps results page. 90% of customers are more likely to visit a business that had a phone number on a Google search map results page. And 90% of customers are more likely to visit a business that has photos on a Google search or maps results page. Ensuring this information is actively managed can help increase the odds of connecting with new customers. A recent update to business profiles on Google allows for businesses the opportunity to include branded images like logos in their profile. Through this update, verified businesses can create a short name or custom name for their business profile to make it easier for customers to find them. When businesses share this short name URL, customers can enter it into their browser search bar using the g.page slash your custom name to go directly to your business profile. Another great way to stand out to local customers is by using attributes. Attributes let customers see what your business has to offer such as whether a restaurant offers Wi-Fi or indoor seating. Some attributes like women led or outdoor seating can be highlighted as badges when customers find your business on mobile. For our veteran led businesses watching today, we created a specific veteran led business attribute to let your community know that your business is run by a veteran. So all of these features are great, but what if a business doesn't have a website for consumers to visit once they found your business profile? It's okay. Google My Business includes the option to create a free, simple website generated with the information from your business profile. So it's a great starting point to being online, perfect for small businesses who do not yet have a web presence. And creating a website with Google My Business takes about five minutes. There are three steps to creating a website with Google My Business. One, click website from your Google My Business dashboard. And once you do this, Google My Business will pull the information from your profile to populate the website. You have the option then to customize some elements of the site, including like the theme, text, and photos. And when you're ready to go live, you click the publish button. These websites also come with a free URL and hosting. You can customize your website address by entering the first part of the domain name, and it will automatically be followed by .business.site. So if you enter the name Stacia's Bakery, your website address would be Stacia's Bakery.business.site. Alternatively, you can register your own domain name. This option is not free, and you'll need to register the domain through Google Domains. But if you already have a registered domain name, even with a registrar other than Google, you can use it for your new Google site as well. Okay, so let's discuss a couple of creative ways businesses could use the website feature in Google My Business. If you wanted to build a website for a hair salon, you would first consider how you would want your customer to engage with this. Some of the questions you might ask yourself include what are the deciding factors that a potential customer would use when choosing a salon? Do they want to see before and after photos? Do customers like to read reviews? Do customers prefer to make appointments or just walk in? Would customers prefer to see pricing on individual services? These are all the things that can be solved through the website template. For example, you could showcase before and after photos and include reviews from your business profile on Google so customers can see proof of the quality work that you do. Next, you can include a book now called Action Button. So it's important to note one out of two customers that want to schedule an appointment when searching for business online are looking for a way to schedule that appointment. So one of the things that really came out to me was when I first got out of the military, I needed to get a haircut. I couldn't just go on base and go get my haircut like I had been. I had to go find a real barber. And so I actually used the Google search and found a profile for a business near me. And the one that I chose for me was the one that I could schedule the appointment right there in the profile. It was great. And Google works with third-party scheduling software. Sorry, Google works with third-party scheduling software providers to enable online booking through Google search, maps, and reserve with Google. A service that allows people to book appointments and reservations directly within the search engine found at google.com slash maps slash reserve. And the last feature that you could use to utilize would be pricing information to include info about the cost of services. Another thing that you can do is use photos and bright and vibrant ones are best to showcase products in the gallery. On this slide, you can see how a bakery showcases examples of how the food looks. Me personally, I definitely prefer more pictures of donuts. And if I were still thinking of the hair salon, I may want to show before and after pictures to demonstrate my good work. Choosing the right photos can go a long way in helping customers feel confident that the service types and quality of work you provide align with their goals. Another feature that I want to point out is custom domains. Google My Business will allow you a free domain which includes a .business.site at the end of the business name. However, you may decide that you want to purchase a custom domain, which is shorter. And when thinking about which domain is best for your business, a few of the best practices include making it easy to type, keeping it short, using keywords that your customers are already using to find you, avoid numbers and hyphens, and be memorable. Those are just a few ways that you can customize a website for your business through Google My Business. In addition to the features I just mentioned, businesses can also customize their website using a pre-designed template. These templates come in a variety of layouts and color schemes, allowing you to select one that supports your brand guidelines. Alright, so in this section, we're going to discuss ways to help you build a loyal customer base using welcome offers. Alright, so when people follow your business, they become a follower, and they will see your updates and offers and photos across Google and in there for you feed when you go into Maps. Business owners can check out the customer tab to learn more about their followers in the Google My Business app. The benefit here is that this creates an additional channel for business owners to reach their customers. And then you have the welcome offer. You can attract people to your business with a welcome offer. Now what this is, is when they click follow on Maps or Search, they'll get an offer such as $5 off your first meal, and then they can redeem it in person. The benefit here is you're giving users another reason to visit you. Again, going back to our stat, which said that 90% of customers are looking for business information through search engines, are looking for specific information like business hours, promotions, or available appointments. Promotions serve as a great way to capture consumer attention and convert them into customers. Here's what that process looks like for your customer. So a user follows a business that has a welcome offer set up. The user is informed of what it means to follow your business via a pop-up. The user can choose to dismiss the offer or choose to save it. And then the user can go back to the business profile and view the offer when they are ready to use it. All right, there's three ways that we can create an offer. All right, so the first one is click the create a welcome offer from the home screen. I find that to be very aptly named. The second way is to set up a welcome offer in the profile editor screen. And the third way is to click create offer during the first time use prompt. Now that we've decided to create an offer, when we've navigated our way to the starting point, there are just four steps in creating the offer. The first one is to enter information about the offer. Next, you want to add a photo. And then third, you want to add a title and description to what your offer is. The last one is to view the welcome offer and double-check the details and then click publish. Another useful feature in Google My Business is the post feature, which allows merchants to post live updates directly on their business profile. We briefly discussed post earlier in this workshop. Posts serve as a great way to keep loyal customers up to date on new products or service launches or other good information for your business. So, when customers have more access to your business information and updates, they can make better decisions as they browse. This allows you to directly communicate with your local customers, to improve your customer experience with timely information, to promote your sales, specials, special events, news, and new offers. This also allows you to engage with your customers through videos and photos. Posts can be created from your computer or from your phone. On your computer, sign in to Google My Business or open the Google My Business app on your phone or tablet. If you have multiple locations, after you sign in, you're going to need to select the location you'd like to manage. And then click post from the menu. At the top of the page, choose the type of post you'd like to create from the options given. The options to add photos, videos, text, events, offers, and a button to your post appear there. Click each field and enter the relevant information. To see a preview of your post, click preview. And if you're happy with your preview, in the top right, click publish. And if you'd like to change your post, in the top left, click back. Edit your draft until you're ready to publish, and then click publish. A few ways to use posts, though, are like a what's new post. A what's new post is one that provides general information about your business. You can include a photo, video, a link, a call to action button, or other information. For example, a restaurant could make a post to promote a new menu item. Or in this example, honest soul yoga announced a new yoga studio location. Product posts are the posts that emphasize a specific product that your business sells. Product posts require a title, a photo, or video. You can then also include a call to action button and other information. And then we have offer posts. Offer posts are ones that provide promotional sales or offers from your business. Offer posts require a title and a start and end date. A view offer call to action button is automatically added to the post. And you can also include a photo, a video, a coupon code, a link, as well as terms and conditions with that post. This is a great seasonal, this is a great method for getting seasonal offers out there. One more idea, you can use posts to highlight important business information. This last post shows honest soul yoga's hours of operation. And you can create a post like this and include additional information that might help customers. So for example, last year, specifically, my family on Black Friday, we were out trying to do some shopping, you know, get an early start to the season and trying to figure out the hours of operation for not just stores but also restaurants that we were in the vicinity of was really difficult unless you went to the store and saw the sign in the window. But using this post, you can announce to all your followers what your hours of operation are on those special days. Posts appear in your business profile on search and maps. You can create posts from Google My Business app on your phone or tablet using a laptop or desktop. You can also see how posts are influencing potential customers by reviewing their activity from the Google My Business dashboard, which brings us to our last topic today. So our final topic today is how a business can use the Insights feature in Google My Business to drive in-store and online traffic. Many customers find businesses through Google Search and Maps. Google My Business Insights focuses on how customers find your listing on search and maps and what they do after they find it. Think of this as an understanding the story of your customer, where they're from and how they come to interact with your business. Okay, so there's a lot of different types of insights. Some of the insights provide you different ways to understand how customers interact with your listing. So the first one, how customers find your profile. It shows how many customers found you in a direct search. In other words, they search for your business name or address versus a discovery search, which is where they search for a category, a product, or a service and your profile happened to appear. The next one is search queries, which is available on the web version but not available on the app to view. Search queries show you the queries that were used to find the business on Google. Where customers found you on Google, Google Search versus Google Maps. The next one is customer actions. So this shows you what searchers did once they found your profile on Google. The actions include did they visit your website? Did they request directions? Did they call you? Did they just view your photos? The next one is direction requests. You'll see your location pinned on the map and a heat map that shows the most popular places from which people ask Google Maps for driving directions to your address. The total number of requests broken down by city or neighborhood are displayed as well. The next insight is phone calls. When and how often searchers called your business via the Google Business Profile on Google. You can view trends by day of the week or time of day. And then the last one we'll talk about today is photos. This is the number of photos associated with your profile and how often they're viewed compared to photos of businesses similar to yours. All right. So we're going to dive in a bit into three of these available insights. And so in the insights tab you can track common terms and search trends for your business. These queries should help you create better posts with Google and even ads to engage your customers. Search queries focus on the terms that your customers use to find your business on local search and maps. You'll see the queries used in the last week, last month, or even the last quarter. But to protect users' privacy you'll only see the queries that meet our privacy threshold. All right. So the next section here shows how customers behave after they found your listing on Google. The graph shows you how many customers completed the following types of actions when viewing your listing. Did they visit the website? A customer views your website and this is displayed as website actions on the bulk report. Did they request directions? This is where a customer requested directions to your business and this is displayed as directions actions on the bulk report. Did they call you? This is clearly where a customer called your business and displays as phone call actions on the bulk report. And then there's the total actions. The total customer actions for website directions and phone. To view how many customers completed an action on a specific day you simply need to select the day that you're interested in. And so on the desktop you just place the cursor over the day and on mobile you just tap the day. And to the right of the graph you just tap the text boxes to turn on or off the various filters. Now the graph displays a total number of times anyone clicked one of the actions. So whether they just clicked request directions or place a call this is going to show you anyone that clicked it. So this means that a single user can request directions to a business 100 times in a single day and we would show you that 100 requests were made in that one day. The next section here shows where customers are when they request directions to your business. So on the map displayed you'll see your location pinned and the popular places your customers are when when they ask google maps for directions to your address. The total number of requests broken down by city or neighborhood are displayed as well. You can zoom in and out on the map using the controls in the bottom right corner. Now the graph displays a number of unique users in each source location so by postcode or city or even country. So this means that a single user can request directions to a business 100 times in a time period but we would only show one request for that person. In today's workshop we discussed how businesses can use Google My Business to publish a local online presence, build a loyal customer base highlight what makes a service or product unique and help drive more in-store and online traffic. For hands-on support with any of the topics we discussed today visit thesmallbusinesspros.com and a schedule of one-on-one with a small business pro today. Small business pros offers a quick and easy way for you to optimize your online services. You can also use the existing data to make more strategic decisions and resolve your issues in real-time. You can find more free onlinebusinesstools.grow.google slash veteranled. As a reminder, if you have questions you can get those questions answered using the hashtag hash vetled livestream for a chance at having your questions answered live. Next up we'll chat with Karina Conley from the Veteran Business Outreach Center which is partially funded by the Small Business Administration about the importance of National Veteran Small Business Week and additional tools and resources available to the veteran small business community. But first, let's take a look at a veteran-led small business story featuring Chris Nolte, Army Veteran, and founder of Electric Bike Company, Propel Bikes. My name is Chris Nolte and I'm the founder of Propel Bikes. Throughout school I didn't really have all that much direction I thought of the idea of going into the military. When I returned from overseas I returned with a back injury. I really spent most of my time at home just kind of feeling broken. A friend of mine got an electric bike I built one up for myself and then suddenly I'm mobile again. So I ended up starting this electric bike business and I knew that if I was to grow this business I was going to do it all on the web. Recently we added the vet-led attribute. We've actually seen an increase of business specifically for people that want to support veteran-owned businesses. The first year we sold about 25 bikes and last year we sold about a thousand. Everybody that found us, they found us on Google. What I do today it's very fulfilling. It's kind of a new mission for me. And welcome back and wow that was an awesome story. Chris and all of his success would propel bikes. Now we want to welcome our special guest Karina Conley who serves as the chief executive officer for the Veterans Business Outreach Center serving California and Nevada. So welcome Karina. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself the Small Business Administration your work with VBAC and the importance of National Veterans Small Business Week. Absolutely and thank you so much for having me on today to celebrate the National Veterans Small Business Week. It's just a little fun fact that there's over 2.9 million veteran businesses out there in our great nation that contributes over one trillion dollars over one trillion dollars with a revenue to our local economy. So imagine that as a whole. So again I am really humbled and honored to serve as the CEO for the Veterans Business Outreach Center. We are a 501C3 nonprofit organization we're partially funded through the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. Our program is really designed to be able to assist veterans in their initiatives to either start, sustain or expand a small business initiative. So the services that we offer are complimentary because they're paid by your public tax dollars and there's three forms of services that we offer. The first one is we offer complimentary one-to-one small business consulting services. So let's say for example you're a veteran and you're coming to our organization and you're looking to either start a business. So what our process is is that we are designed to take a look at you as a person as a whole identify what your learning style is and then our counselors are trained to adapt to what your learning style is. The reason why we do that is because of the fact that we want to alleviate starting a business can be really stressful and with stress is fear, right? So we want to be able to alleviate that emotion called, we call it the false evidence that appears real, mentality. So we can adapt to whatever your learning style is or whatever to do the valuation or reality therapy of starting a business or if you're an existing business and you're looking to grow or to sustain or to put together a succession plan we will also adapt to whatever your business needs are and our consulting services are done in a couple different capacities. The first one is it can be telephonically done or we can do, we use our WebEx where we can actually FaceTime with you right? So then you can face up the information that you're reviewing with the counselor and also through that consultation review clash flow projections, creating a strategic plan building a website whatever that initiative is that we are doing with you. And then the other one is obviously in person. So we have an office which is our office is located in Sacramento California so that's why we offer the different platforms because everybody has most everybody has a smartphone a computer where they can go ahead and log on and it's more effective for them to do that. The other service that we offer is over 200 trainings on an annualized basis. One of the signature programs is created by SBA, it's called the Boots to Business Program. Oh, I know that one. Yes, you went through that during your transition. Yes, so as you know, then that program has eight modules and it really walks you through the conceptual idea of starting a business right to the fiscal financial management piece of it to the operational piece of it to creating that strategic plan or that business plan depending on what generation you are. And it gives you a snapshot view so it allows you to be able to identify if entrepreneurship is something that is right for you. So it really just opens your eyes up to say, okay, this is something that I think that I might want to be able to do but when a person goes through that program wherever their home base is after they come out of the military then they can contact one of the 22 V-Box that are nationwide which can be easily accessible on the SBA.gov website. And so each one of those programs or those V-Box centers will tailor their services to whatever your specific needs are. And then the last service that we offer is we host conferences which are one to three day conferences and they have a community-based focus. So for example we just had a small business and DVBE summit, DVBE in the government you know we use lots of acronyms which means Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise and so it was a small business one day summit and it was part of the National Veterans Small Business Week celebration and so with that we had our best practices businesses that have come through the Veterans Business Outreach Center program. Some of them are still small businesses and some of them are actually medium-sized businesses. So we helped them grow and foster their business through either that neophyte level all the way through succession planning so that's what the V-Box programs do. So with that best practices the audience had an opportunity to engage based upon their industry sector what they would have done differently and what worked well for them. Then the other component that we had is we had an economic future forecasting which talked about what are the economic trends which are so viable to a small business owner when you're creating your strategic plan or direction is if this is what my business initiative is going to be then how is it going to fit within the marketplace in the demographic area that I serve or if it's global then how does that fit globally as a whole. So that's interesting and one of the things that came up so I'm a veteran and thank you for your service and so I know we've got a lot of veterans who are watching today so one of the things that comes up a lot especially during the transition is the idea that we're not quite ready yet and so at what stage from ideation creation like that I have an idea when I started business to I'm actually operating at what stage should I come see you and your team. That's an excellent question so to be quite frank it doesn't matter what stage in the game you are because the veterans business outreach centers are designed to assist you on wherever you are specifically and whatever that cycle of starting a business or growing a business so at any point in time you can connect with your local VBAC office they'll do a needs assessment to figure out where you are specifically so if you're a startup right we want to vet the concept vet the idea we want to determine whether or not the idea by doing some market research is going to fit within the demographic area that you're looking to host your business so let's say you're going to be starting I don't know pick something. Underwater basket weaving. And you want to have a retail site that is so you're going to build a tank this whole retail facility so what we want to do is we want to take a look at what businesses and what economic trends is going to impact your business number one so that's the first thing so with your local municipality what is the five-year plan for that infrastructure for that municipality that's going to support your business or is there another business that's similar that's a box chain that's going to come in that's going to have the same business initiative that you're going to do and is that going to be your direct competition and what's the mile radius of that the other part of it is that taking a look at the economic research we have access to a phenomenal program that provides to us as V-Box it's called IBIS World and IBIS World allows us to pull economic trends so we can assist you and give you the information that you need to be able to value your business concept and or idea so that might be the initial marketplace of what you're doing but we want to make certain where your sales going to come from are you going to foster your relationships and do contracts with corporations are you looking for the general population sector or is it a culmination of how are you going to get revenue and what does that strategic plan look like operationally financially to your marketing to your branding to your secession planning as well so one of the things that comes up is going back to my underwater basket weaving business that is such an awesome program so in my head I'm going to do five billion dollars of revenue in the first week if I bring that plan to you are they going to help me gauge some of that reality therapy is what I'm going to call it reality therapy so we're going to take a look at your industry sector and what is reasonable cash flow that you're going to generate so if you come in and you tell me unless you have a contract with maybe a major healthcare or a for profit organization that's going to say we're going to give you a contract for that dollar amount then that's going to solidify your revenue but it also depends on the terms and conditions of that contract and we take a look at what your owner's infusion is because you have to have working capital you have to have sustainability and so that's why your cash flow projection is really important because it talks about your different revenue streams and you can't start out a business with five million well you could you have a contract or you have something that supports that and evidence that because more than likely if you're going to start out a business it's going to have five million dollars you said within the first year first week but that's very aggressive it's coming at you so you must be using Google right and analytics to help you with that so what we will do is we need to make certain that you have enough money to cash flow your business so you have a five million dollar contract you're going to perform it in the one week so how are you going to afford to have money in the bank that's either your own owner's infusion or a line of credit established or some kind of funding to support that contract because more than likely contracts don't get paid until 90 to 180 days out depending on where it where it starts so what we're going to do is take a look again at your industry sector what is reasonable in that industry sector what are some past performance who's your competition so a mini MBA program we call it the SWAT analysis what are the strengths what are the weaknesses what are the opportunities for your business and what are the threats to your business SWAT analysis, okay yes, yes and so we're going to take a look at that and determine what is a reasonable cost for the services that you're offering or the products that you're offering so for your basket weaving business is it just going to be isolated to a certain demographic area or is it going to be or national well I just presumed that I would put it online and make my five million dollars a week that's fabulous so again we'll take it back to reality therapy so what will happen is all of our consultants in our program have an MBA we have some that are CPAs as well so we'll have you sit down with the consultant take a look at your industry sector and put together a cash flow projection that's reasonable okay, right we're going to give you that's what I call it the reality therapy and though the services are complimentary you're not going to do the work for you we're going to mentor you and guide you through that process so the energy and effort that you put into it is the rate of return that you're going to get out of it we have a lot of people that come in and they want us to do the work but if we do the work for you then how are you going to successfully own and operate your business fair point but that brings me to an interesting question so I know a lot of veterans are thinking about starting their own business as they get out what are the value that you see that a veteran brings to starting their own business? that's a really excellent question so you being a military member you know the Department of Defense millions of dollars are training military members with their standard operating procedures and also how to be able to handle situations that are stressful situations you have a ready action plan so that's what makes veteran business owners so successful I think you're at the top 90 percentile of success ratio of them succeeding and it's also predicated on the industry sector as well but because they've been trained and it's how they take so let's say you're a veteran and you're transitioned out and you're looking to start a business or you're already in a partnership in a business so what we want to do is take a look at what the needs assessment are with your business where you're going to grow it or how you're going to start it and we're going to take that experience maybe you're starting a business in whatever experience you have in the military you want to transition that experience into corporate America to start your business and we've helped many many many clients in the military I was in charge of supply chain and I know that I could get supplies from point A to point B so we actually have a client that came through this program about four years ago they started out with a conceptual idea and now they're running over 22 million dollars in contracts but they allowed us to do our job by guiding them and mentoring them through that whole process so any business can be successful if you plan and you strategize what you use as a barometer because of the fact that things happen in business when you're an entrepreneur and you start out you wear many many hats you might be the CEO but you're also the janitor which every job is equally important you can be accounts payable customer service you can be the sales department as well and you can be your own human resources department as well so what we take a look at really is do those areas that you don't have that bandwidth to fill those areas either with collaborative partners or resources that will give you what you need to have a solid foundation but it's up to you to take the advice and to implement the advice we can only give you the advice and we don't make decisions for you that's good this sounds really great especially about guiding us through in a non-judgmental way that's really important but it is super brand new secret I don't want anyone to know about it is there confidentiality? absolutely like I mentioned earlier so the consulting services that we offer are confidential just like a bank fiduciary relationship so when you register for services with our organization we have a confidentiality statement and also in there it describes to what that level of confidentiality is all of our consultants all of our staff members also have to sign a confidentiality statement on an annualized basis and we train what that confidentiality means so let's say you're starting a business and you have a friend who's starting the same business and that friend calls in because they want to find out about your business initiative so what we're going to do just like what a bank does or just like if you have a medical care provider they're going to verify that it's you so we will ask them a series of questions like the last four of your social security number certain Q questions that we ask them because we have access to that information to verify that when we're doing a telephonic consultation or we're doing or someone's just calling in that we know that we're connecting with you and speaking with you so alright this one is on behalf of my wife what options are there available for military spouses so the same opportunities for military spouses for general training services to the VBOT programs as if you're the veteran that came through as simple as that so we support veterans of all eras transitional military members reservist guard members and spouses and so if your spouse is going to be in business with you we will have you sign an authorization of release form because we serve the veteran and then your wife would register for service as well and we would onboard her the same way that we onboard you and so the same thing if you're a veteran business owner and you have a key management team right your key management team would register for services you would sign an authorization form for each one of them and then we would work with you as a team that doesn't mean that they can receive the services in lieu of you as the veteran it's in collaboration so we could build capacity for you and your business or with you I should say right so okay so what if my business isn't five million dollars a week what if it's really only about twenty thirty thousand a year do you guys still help with that so yes so again we it doesn't matter the size of your business whether you're a micro business or you're a small business or you've generated no revenue whatsoever we're here to guide you to mentor you and to support you if you're starting growing sustaining and all the way through an exit strategy and even through the exit strategy if you're looking to bring on another veteran to take over your business we mentor both of you in that transition period right because we want to make certain that it's fluid and that it's successful for both of you and we also help with the valuation of an acquisition of a business so our services are really broad so it's just not business planning right in strategic planning it's all about acquisitions with acquisitions and mergers access to capital is a big one so actually my next question is about how do we get this so access to capital is one of the greatest hurdles that small businesses have right so because it's all predicated upon the business itself what is the owner's infusion what cash do you bring to the table not you going out and getting a credit card taking a cash advance that's not cash that doesn't count right so well it counts but it's not true owner's infusion what collateralization so there's different types of financing that's available but financing for a small business is unique to the business it's not like you're going to go buy a house and you're going to give them your your W2's and your last year's W2's your 30 days bank statements and your last 30 days pay steps it's different it's uniquely designed and underwritten based upon the industry sector your business what you say in your strategic direction or your plan what your business is going to do and with those cash flow projections again I'm going to go back to the fiscal wheelhouse whatever those projections state are they reasonable with the industry sector and do they make sense based upon what your marketing plan in is your branding analysis and whatever those different revenue streams are going to be so we take a look at not only you as a person as a whole we take a look at your business as a whole as well and then that's how we guide you so it doesn't matter if you're starting sustaining growing so we've had people their survival mode right we've had veterans that are deployed and we're helping them work with their business owner back in the states and we're doing it telephonically or emailing so their business is sustainable when they return okay so this is my last question for you before we move on so I know you're with VBoc yes not all of our viewers are here in California yes how do they go about getting the access can they get the access to the service absolutely absolutely so SBA is a federal agency it's called the small U.S. Small Business Administration and SBA has numerous programs for small people or individuals that are looking to start sustain or expand a small business initiative because small businesses are the economic engine of our great economy at the end of the day it all boils down to that and with that being said if you go to the website at www.sba.gov that's www.sba.gov and then the Office of Veterans Business Development is the program that funds and is responsible for the VBoc Centers nationwide. Okay well great so thank you so much Karina and if you don't mind staying with me absolutely. So now we're going to take a few questions live from Twitter as a reminder if you have questions you can get those questions answered using the hashtag hash vet led livestream on Twitter. Alright let's hop into our first question. Excellent we're excited what's the first one. Okay this one is from the Bureau of Manhattan Community College what would you recommend if founders do not have a physical location and want to use Grow with Google Alright so unfortunately you cannot use Google My Business as an online only business but you can market your business using SEO and Google Ads we've covered both of these topics in depth in our previous live streams which you can access at g.co slash grow slash live streams Alright that's an excellent question. Alright let's see here what else we got Question number two Question number two Now let's see Oh okay here's one for you Karina So this one is what's the difference between VBOC and SBA? So the Veterans Business Outreach Centers are partially funded from the U.S. Small Business Administration due to public law 10650 All of the 22 VBOC centers nationwide are some are non-profit organizations 501C3s some of them are also connected with local community colleges and or state universities on their economic development wing So each one of them are independently operated but we are grantees from the U.S. Small Business Administration through the Office of Veterans Business Development through the public law 10650 which started in 2004 So it's working together? Yes So basically SBA is the federal agency that allows S to be able to be the boots on the ground to provide those direct service deliverables the confidential consulting services the over 220 platforms on an annualized basis and then the conferences that we host Okay cool Alright question number three This one coming from Clayton Library How can vets get involved with Bunker Labs in Atlanta? Alright well actually there's an event in Atlanta tomorrow which is still accepting the keys for a launch event between Google for startups and Bunker Labs You can get involved by going to Bunker Labs website at BunkerLabs.org And Bunker Labs is one of our collaborative partners, John Connor who is the executive director Yes, so the VBOT programs collaborate with a lot of the non-profit organizations and for-profit agencies that provide those direct service deliverables So that's great that you guys can access a lot of different resources without owning all of them That's correct so they say it takes a village right to raise a child So it takes a village or a multitude of different agencies, non-profit organizations both federal, state, local municipalities institutions of higher education to be able to serve our constituency base So we all work together and collaborate Okay Next question here is from Avery from Madison, Wisconsin Alright Are there more veteran specific workshops or lessons that you can recommend? So I'll take the first part if you want to take the second part Certainly So as mentioned before, Grow with Google just launched a resource hub where veterans can find products, tools and lessons to start or grow their businesses One resource is the Primer app Primer offers quick and easy to understand business and marketing lessons You can find topics like creating a business plan increasing sales, managing finances and more Primer also offers customers many courses tailored to veterans and military spouses that you can find by searching veteran led or mill spouse biz with a Z in the app The URL is grow.google.veteranled Very nice So I'm going to add to that if I may So there are a lot of different resources out there for individuals for their small businesses So if you, there's a small business development center also funded by the small business administration so if you're looking to do government contracting as well, procurement technical assistance centers as well they provide specifically contracting opportunities if you're looking to grow and expand your business international trade centers of international trade organization the service corps retired executives as well and the women's business centers I know a score You're a counselor with scores I was That's an excellent question though Thank you What do we have here Sasha from Des Moines Sasha, what do you have to say? What's the difference between Google My Business and things like Google Places for Business Google Business Profile Google Listings Google Plus Business Pages I can get that one Google My Business lets you take advantage of your business presence on Google With your Google My Business account you can manage and update your business profile and build a website to attract and engage more customers Google My Business Business Profile encompasses what was once known as Google Places for Business the Google Listings and replaces the Google Plus Business page so it consolidates and replaces it Oh, here we go This one is from Scott It says Is there a search feature to make the veteran badge searchable and how do we shop and do business with vet led businesses locally Alright, I'll take this one The attribute is not currently searchable The attribute will show up in two places So in search when you're searching for a place using an android mobile device users will see the attributes like veteran led on the profile and when searching for a place using the iOS mobile device users will need to use the Chrome app in order to find a place and then they will see the attribute in the highlight section on maps on maps all users will need to open a business listing and tap the two line description of the business to see the attributes associated with that business So it's more of an abbreviated version on the maps versus when you go and do a search Let's see here Hmm Okay This one's for you This one is from Sylvia in Albuquerque I only have a business idea right now What are some things I need to consider before starting a veteran owned business That's an excellent question My first and foremost recommendation for you is to get into sign up for services with a local small business development center, veterans business outreach center so they can actually help you or score to vet that process of what your concept or what your idea is and how that concept or whatever the idea is that you have, how it fits within the marketplace So the most important thing is get to the local resource partner either a veterans business outreach center you can find them on the sba.gov website and let those professionals assist you to help you mentor you to walk you through and evaluate that concept or that idea Because you want to find out whether or not it's going to be feasible or not feasible I also plugged score here from the sba So when I was a mentor over there, a lot of the times we would take a business that we're still in the idea phase and didn't really have anything fleshed out and we would help walk them to the flesh out but in the same tone we weren't going to do the work for you we would give you the tools and you need to go do the leg work And that's when I go back to the needs assessment just like you go to a health provider they're going to do a needs assessment based upon your health needs so we do a needs assessment based upon your business needs what is your experience in the industry sector what do you bring to the table of your knowledge because it's one thing to have a conceptual idea but not have that subject matter expertise to be able to perform the deliverables so then we have to identify can we find someone who has that subject matter expertise that you can hire or be your partner in that business so it's just basic evaluation so then that way the reason why we offer this service is we don't want you to start a business and we've had people do this, they come in and go and create a plan right we're just going to start a business so they'll come in, they'll say this is an excellent service we'll start them in the direction but they don't want to create a strategic plan what they want to do is they go out they sign a lease agreement they're in a retail storefront and then they come back six or nine months later saying hey we don't have enough money to cash flow so then what we do is we take a look at either a sustainability plan or survival plan or an exit strategy whatever their particular situation is that's what's important they're complimentary, they're paid by your public tax dollars these are people who are they are certified, they're professionals they know their industry sector in and out and they're there to guide you and mentor you so the first thing I would do is to go to sba.gov find your local resource partner whether it's a VBOC, an SBDC a women's business center or SCORE whatever it might be and then get services from them let them guide you and mentor you through that process so that's a great question so the next one is Clayton Library can you briefly discuss the Patriot Boot Camp partnership or okay, I can do this one so our Google for Stardust partnership will pair startups founded by veterans and military spouses in the Patriot Mentor Program with advisors from Google to provide product expertise we're especially excited to support the Patriot Boot Camp as they inspire and equip additional military spouse and veteran founders to succeed wow, we got a lot of questions all of a sudden that's because you're doing a fabulous job alright, so this one is from Justine from New York let's see is Google Reserve the same as the appointment booking feature? okay no, but they do work together so Reserve at Google connects to a wide variety of online services that let you book, reserve and get things done, like MindBody, TripAdvisor, Booksy and many more so if you choose those services it automatically connects you to your Google My Business business profile very nice got another one here from Justine nope that's the copy there this one's from Lily from New York New York is live they're definitely here in force is there a one stop place where I can learn more about Google's resources for veterans yes there is actually so please visit grow.google.veteranled where you can find Grow with Google's free tools and resources for veteran led businesses and again that's grow.google.veteranled that's an excellent question definitely woken up next one is Julia from Ann Arbor I own a business and one of my employees is in charge of responding to text messages that come in from Google My Business is there any way that I can monitor the messages okay so no but you can see the average response time if you have an android device reports and messaging insights will display the average wait time for a message response for the last 28 days of data to see the reports just go on your android phone or tablet open the Google My Business app and tap customers and then messages and you should be able to get a report alright well I think that's about all the time we have for today and I hope that you found this information valuable thank you Karina thank you thank you for your service and inviting me out today and thank you for joining us and thank you all for attending the live stream from all of us here at Google I want to say a happy National Veteran Small Business Week thank you