The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Syracuse District Office has announced the 2017 Veteran-Owned Business Achievement (VOBA) Award recipient is U.S. Army veteran Robert Hulchanski, president of Lakeside Innovative Technologies, LLC in Chittenango.
The VOBA Award recognizes the entrepreneurial success of a local business owner who has served our country. John Liddy, entrepreneur in residence at The Tech Garden in Syracuse, wrote the winning nomination that was chosen for Lakeside’s staying power, growth in employees and sales and innovative products.
Hulchanski will be presented the award at the Operation: Start Up and Grow veterans’ business conference on March 16.
“We congratulate Robert Hulchanski on his selection as our VOBA Award winner for his impressive entrepreneurial spirit and growth in employees. Bob is an inspiring example of how successful veterans can be at small business ownership,” said SBA Syracuse District Director Bernard J. Paprocki. “I am so pleased we can honor Bob with the VOBA Award and his story will inspire the rest of the audience to see the American dream of owning your own business is a possibility for them, too.”
After his active-duty service as a machinist in the U.S. Army, Hulchanski continued to serve in the Army Reserves as a drill instructor, frequently assigned to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, or Fort Drum, N.Y. He spent over 20 years developing his management skills while creating a machining operation with about 40 machine stations and nearly 70 employees at Armstrong Mold in Hulchanski’s hometown of East Syracuse.
With the encouragement and support of his former employer, in 2006 Hulchanski set out to offer the newest technologies in high speed machining by starting his own shop, Lakeside Innovative Technologies LLC. An SBA-backed loan in 2007 allowed Hulchanski’s business to move from its temporary space and build a 6,500-square-foot facility in the Town of Sullivan Industrial Park in Chittenango.
Hulchanski started his second year in business with one part-time employee and three CNC machines, but he never doubted his company’s future. He found help to strategically manage his company’s growth into a million-dollar operation by participating in the 2015 class of SBA Emerging Leaders in Syracuse. A continued increase in customer orders led Hulchanski to expand Lakeside’s building to an 8,000-square-foot footprint in 2016.
Today, 11 full-time Lakeside machinists manufacture parts on some of the fastest CNC equipment in the state and ship products to nearly all 50 states for military, outdoors, electronics, medical and automotive equipment customers. Hulchanski’s relationship with the Army has come full circle, now that his small business supplies precision-machined parts for the U.S. Army’s MAN-PAC radio used in combat operations around the world.
Hulchanski first appeared as the inaugural keynote speaker at Operation: Start Up and Grow in 2008 and will be recognized for his entrepreneurial success with the VOBA Award this year. The conference is from 8:15 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, March 16, at the SRC Arena, Onondaga Community College in Syracuse. The free conference features speakers, workshops, networking and exhibitors, and is open to individuals with current or prior U.S. military service, including veterans, active duty, reservists and National Guard members and their family members. Continental breakfast and buffet lunch are included for all attendees.
Online registration is available by visiting sba.gov/operationstartup. Contact the SBA to register by phone at 315-471-9393. Registration ends on March 10.
The keynote speaker is Matthew Griffin, U.S. Army veteran, co-founder and CEO of Combat Flip Flops. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Combat Flip Flops operates manufacturing facilities in former war zones of Afghanistan, Columbia and Laos, employing local workers to produce flip flops, hats, sarongs and jewelry so local communities can transition to a “business, not bullets” mindset.
U.S. Air Force veteran entrepreneur Jason Young will be featured during the luncheon interview. The SBA Associate Administrator for the Office of Veterans Business Development, U.S. Air Force Reserve Col. Barbara Carson, will also present at the half-day conference.
In addition to the featured speakers, business financing, marketing, human resources, legal and government contracting workshops will be offered at no cost. Veterans will also have the opportunity to network with exhibitors and business experts from over 50 different agencies and organizations that provide veteran and small business programs and services.
Complete event details and agenda are available online at sba.gov/operationstartup.
