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ED's WORD UPDATE: JANUARY 2012
FYI UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2012


"Business, more than any other occupation, is a continual dealing with the future;
it is a continual calculation, an instinctive exercise in foresight

Henry R. Luce



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Your first stop if you're interested in doing business with the
State of Michigan

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FINANCING

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Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program

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Patriot Express Loan Program

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JOB OPENINGS

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QUICK LINKS


± How to Start and Grow an Online Business

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± Home Office Guide

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IRS
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From the Desk of...

Carl Stoddard


Vietnam Vet Changes Biz Plan
To Keep Up With Changing Times


WHO: Roger E. Avie
WHAT Supply Team LLC ~ A new service-disabled, veteran-owned small business that offers a wide range of specialty coatings
HOW MANY EMPLOYEES: 5
LOCATION: Farmington Hills, MI
PHONE: (248) 476-5400
E-Mail: Roger Avie ( rogeravie@gmail.com )


Roger Avie

Roger Avie


In his own words: "You've got to move on. You've got to jump."


Over more than two decades, Roger E. Avie built two successful businesses. But when those began to falter due to changing market conditions, Avie decided to create a new business and go in an entirely new direction.


Originally, Avie started and ran a business that sold computers and offered computer training and education. His other business created video productions.


Clients included Lawrence Technological University, Tower Automotive and other auto industry suppliers, as well as a whole range of other big, well-known companies.


At one point, Avie's two companies had 20 employees, operating out of a 5,000-square-foot office that Avie built in Farmington Hills.


Not bad for a former Army specialist and Vietnam veteran.


The companies were Visual Specialties, the video production company, and Specialty Products Inc., which offered computers and related training. Both companies later were merged in a single business called Vi-Spec.


Then, about four years ago, Avie said, he began to notice that business was slowing.


Rather than buying computers from his company, a growing number of his clients were buying their computers directly from Dell and other big retailers. And, as technology improved and prices came down, more clients were buying their own video gear and creating their own videos.


"Technology put us in business and it pretty much put us out of business," Avie said during a recent interview in his office.


About that time, Avie's business partner, Ray Malover, an Air Force veteran, suggested an entirely new business venture, one involving the application of protective coatings and linings of water pipes, sewer lines, holding tanks, bridges -- everything from municipal infrastructures to manufacturing equipment to chemical plants.


"We realized we were on to something," said Avie, who graduated from Lawrence Technological University and went on to do post-graduate work at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan.


The special polyurea compound can protect whatever it coats from chemicals, rust, corrosion, dirt, air, and a wide array of other substances, giving the coated objects many more years of use.


For example, pipes coated with the material can last another 30 years, Avie said.


He said his company also found and now offers other unique products, like full-heat transfer materials, fire-suppressant materials, heat blockers, products that can bond with biohazards, oil, acid and even a product that can repel zebra mussels and barnacles.


"So we have all of these unique coatings and applications and we are in the mode of starting to market them,"Avie said.


They are offering all of these products under a newly formed company, Supply Team LLC. Like the old company, it will be based in Farmington Hill, but in a smaller, 700-square-foot building. The staff includes Avie and four others.


Projections call for the company to do more business in the first quarter of this year than in all of last year, he said.


The key to staying afloat in these tough economic times is to be flexible and adaptable and to know when it's time to move on, he said.


"You've got to move on. You've got to jump," he says.


Carl Stoddard
Maj. MIARNG (Ret.)


~ More Articles by Carl Stoddard ~


Ben Roof
Army Veteran Creates Successful, Rewarding Business


* * *

Jim and Bob Jablonski
Military Skills Put to Good Use
Clarkston Brothers' $3 Million Success Story


* * *

Kentucky Colonel, Harland Sanders
Former Army Private
Was Entrepreneurial Trailblazer


* * *

Roger Avie
Vietnam Vet Changes Biz Plan
To Keep Up With Changing Times


* * *

Chris Reist & Ed Moor
Persistent Vietnam Vet,
Business Partner, Form Solid Team


* * *

Robert H. Nichol Sr.
Silver Star Contracting, LLC
Vietnam Veteran Recognized
For Entrepreneurial Acumen


* * *

Frank Campanaro
Trillacorpe Construction LLC
Former Ranger Turned Builder
Wins SBA Award


* * *

John Stoick
Vietnam Era Vet,
Precision Cycle Works


* * *


Mark Lott
Federal Contracts Drop;
DC-3 Director Resigns

* * *


Jerremy N. Glasstetter
Flint Man...
From Camos to Campus

* * *


 

Victor Lukasavitz
Vietnam Vet Builds 43-year
Engineering Career

* * *


 

Sid Taylor
"Once a Marine,
Always a Marine"

* * *


 

Gary Bates
Flint Veteran Opens
Downtown Grocery

* * *


 

Jennifer Kayden
A Disabled Vets Journey From Homelessness to
President of Budding High-tech Company

* * *


 

Wladimir Foo
Iraq Vet Launches
Successful Ventures

* * *


 

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ARTICLES & UPDATES

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GAO Ruling Involving Michigan Firm and VA


Veteran-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Programs
11 OCT 2011

DOWNLOAD PDF

Video of Congressional Hearing HERE

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AUDIT


Veteran-Owned and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Programs
July 25, 2011
DOWNLOAD PDF

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DOING BUSINESS WITH THE VA

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CVE LIST
Verified Veteran Entrepreneurs


ILLINOIS - INDIANA - MICHIGAN - MINNESOTA - OHIO - WISCONSIN

CVE SEARCH

REGISTER BUSINESS

CONTACT VETBIZ.GOV


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DVOB
(Disabled Veteran Owned Business)

Verification

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An article from Vetbiz.gov

Explaining DVOB verification

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SDVOB
Executive Orders

26 April 2010

Task Force 1 (PDF)

Task Force 2 (PDF)

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