Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year - Bozeman LLC dba COLETTI

Our office is proud to announce the 2024 Sacramento District Small Business Week Award Winners, which were selected from nominees across our 21-county district office. Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year - Bozeman LLC dba COLETTI

COLETTI's founder, Pastor Josh Gilliam, was commissioned as an infantry officer in 2000 from West Point Military Academy.?Soon after, he was leading Soldiers in combat with both the 75th Ranger Regiment and the 82nd Airborne Division.?Josh continued his service as a US Army Chaplain for 20 years leading army chapels (churches). When he retired in 2022, Josh was a Lieutenant Colonel and the deputy command chaplain at the US EUROPEAN COMMAND where he led the NATO Chaplain program. During his military service, Josh faced the reality that many people are not afforded religious freedoms, and that this lack of information creates distrust and war.?"Since the war was not proving to be a particularly useful tool in bringing peace, I resolved to one day make a contribution toward global unity by championing the American idea of freedom of speech and freedom of religion in closed countries”, said Josh, founder of Coletti. The biggest obstacle for Josh was simply learning how to run a business effectively. In 2015 he had competencies as an army officer and as a Christian pastor but was clueless on how to run a business. “When I returned from a deployment to Afghanistan in 2014, we sold our home and found ourselves with a large sum. I invested all this in the business. A year later it was gone. That was an expensive education – but an education, nonetheless”, said Josh.Another obstacle the SBA helped Josh with was capital. During the height of the pandemic, they could not get shipping containers into the Port of LA. This caused them to miss months' worth of sales and almost ran out of cash. “It was at this time we received an Economic Injury Disaster Relief Loan (EIDL) from the SBA. It saved us”, said Josh.