Evaluation of the Veteran Business Outreach Centers

(OMB Control Number: 3245-XXXX )

Appendix C-5 Client Survey Invite E-mail

Dear [client’s name],

This invitation is in reference to the e-mail you received from a Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) you visited. To offer a fair and independent study, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has contracted Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), to complete a performance evaluation. As part of this assessment, Optimal is distributing a survey to a sample of VBOC clients. You have been randomly chosen to participate in this survey. The primary purpose of this survey is to collect data about you, your business or business idea, progress you have made toward achieving your business-related goals, your business needs and goals, your interaction with a VBOC, the services you received from a VBOC, how beneficial the services have been for helping you accomplish your business goals, and your successes and challenges. This information is extremely important for evaluating the VBOC program.

As required by law, SBA (OVBD) has obtained approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct this interview. The OMB control number is 3245-xxxx, Expiration date xx/ xx/ xxxx. You are in no way required to participate in the survey but are encouraged to do so, because SBA values your input. Your responses will be kept confidential. In the context of this survey, confidentiality means that no respondent will be identified or named in any publicly available report or other such publication without his or her prior, explicit approval. In any public report, such phrases as “a VBOC client” will be used to report information provided by a particular respondent. However, the survey results, along with personally identifiable information (PII), will be provided to SBA headquarters for the purpose of implementing a future impact evaluation of the VBOC program. SBA will protect any information provided to the extent permitted by the law, including Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. 552a and the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552. The VBOC where you received business assistance will only be provided aggregate data and will not be given access to your individual responses.

The survey will take approximately 45 minutes to complete, including time to review this invitation. You will have 30 days to complete the survey. Therefore, please complete the survey by December 4, 2015. You do not have to complete the survey in one sitting. You can answer some of the questions, close out of the survey, and then answer more questions by clicking on the survey link below. Also, you may choose “Prefer not to answer” if you do not want to respond to a specific question; however, we would greatly appreciate your answering as many questions as possible.

Once you are ready to start the survey, please click the following link:

<Survey Link>

If you have any questions about the survey, please do not hesitate to contact Optimal by phone at 301-306-1170 or send a message to [email protected].

Thank you very much for your assistance during this data-collection process. We are very appreciative of your taking the time to complete the survey.

Respectfully,

Allison Holmes, Ph.D.

Optimal Solutions Group, LLC