Eagle 6 Technical Services, LLC
John Burns is an accomplished leader. He is a retired United States Army Colonel with a distinguished military career, including as a commander in combat. He built a successful IT consulting business after the Army. It was then he saw a government contracting opportunity he thought he could win. And win it he did.
But now what? Transforming from being a one-person consultancy to building a company with multiple employees that could service a multi-faceted government contract is a tall order. That’s when Burns turned to both the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (FSBDC at UCF) and its government services partner organization, the Florida Procurement Technical Assistance Center at UCF (Florida PTAC at UCF).
“It was time to make a major pivot,” recalls Burns. “I needed help. I needed expertise on how I could scale up a company and identify the processes and systems necessary to do so. That’s when I sought out the FSBDC and PTAC. My consultant Steve South was superb. We laid out a game plan to get all the pieces I needed to have in place – employee hiring, insurance, worker’s comp, payroll, benefits – to jump start my business. Then I did it.”
Today, Burns’ company Eagle 6 Technical Services, LLC is a multi-million dollar Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) specializing in cybersecurity, command & control and logistics & maintenance systems. It is currently expanding into managed security services for the commercial health care sector as well as for government clients, and has broadened itself into being a full-fledged security integrator, providing physical security, information security and personal security solutions.
From the start, Burns has taken advantage of all that the FSBDC and PTAC have to offer, including the high value, no cost, expert business consulting he receives from South; business training seminars and workshops; and access to expansive market research resources. He went on to participate in two of the FSBDC’s Services for Leaders programs, the Advisory Board Council (ABC) and the Small Business Institute® (SBI®).
FSBDC at UCF’s Advisory Board Council is a no-cost board of experts providing advice and counsel to help businesses grow. The FSBDC acts as a matchmaker, creating a customized board of volunteers selected to address the specific needs of the FSBDC client. The Small Business Institute® connects small businesses to the resources and management expertise of UCF’s College of Business Administration through consulting projects overseen by the FSBDC and performed by UCF MBA and other qualified business students.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the help I received from the FSBDC over the past four years,“ concluded Burns. “They helped me put processes and systems in place where, as a small business, I could manage the cash flow that was critical to growing the company.”
“The results speak for themselves: we’ve increased revenues about 200% in the last three years; we’ve hired new employees and raised headcount; and we’ve expanded and won additional government and commercial work. Working with the FSBDC and PTAC has been an awesome experience for Eagle 6.”
For information about Eagle Six Technical Services, please visit https://eagle6usa.com/.
