Veteran-Owned Businesses Make All Kinds of Sense

Investors, Entrepreneurs, and Workers – Everybody Wins

If you invest in a veteran-owned business, you can change the veteran’s lives and your own. For decades, returning veterans had two viable options – settling for less or accepting whatever was out there in the job market. That left many military families unable to build savings or cover unexpected expenditures. Not good for their mental and financial health.

Veterans and military spouses are a fast-rising group of dedicated entrepreneurs creating their own solutions by becoming small business owners and redefining their futures. They apply their hands-on military experience and training, and the result is often a profitable, creative, well-run business.

Military Spouses and Veteran-Owned Businesses

You could probably call the genre ‘vetrepreneurs’: veterans leaving the military and starting a business of their own. Veterans are 45% more likely to start their own businesses, according to the US Small Business Administration. Often, their spouse is right there beside them, or even leading the way. In her book Mission Entrepreneur, Jennifer Griswold dubs them ‘milpreneurs.’

Mark Rockefeller, founder of StreetSense, said in an interview that his military training helped prepare himself and his business partner for the unpredictability of starting a small business: “Books on ‘lean start-up’ theory, they define a start-up as a business operating under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Anyone who has served in the modern U.S. military has received a PhD-level course in resilience, adaptability, and initiative. We love to hire veterans for this reason, too.”

Created by two veterans, the startup offers financial solutions for veteran small business owners and their communities. Veteran-owned businesses can get loans at 2-4% lower interest rates than conventional financing offers. StreetShares’ network comprises more than 16,000 veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs.

Success requires vision and grit. You have to add intelligence and education blended with work ethic and passion. Veterans and military spouses have often faced challenges that would stop the average person right in their tracks. Some challenges carry through their whole lives, and we’ve all known ex-service members who have adapted heroically. That is exactly why smart investors are all in for veteran-owned businesses.

Finding a Better Way

Traditional businesses may gravitate toward traditional employees. Veterans are taught to be flexible. They embrace remote work styles, networking, and virtual businesses. They hire other veterans and are amenable to considering hiring non-traditional workers. That might include older workers, non-degreed employees, and physically challenged workers.

Military spouse and veteran-owned businesses come in every size and represent every business type, from accounting agencies to zoo veterinarians.

Ex-service members are well-versed in concepts like budgets, cost control, innovation, discipline, and tenacity. They seek stability after a military career.

Challenges for Veteran-Owned Businesses

After WWII and the Korean War, 40-49% of veterans used their GI benefits to fund their dreams. However, the GI Bill no longer provides low-interest loans for start-ups. Recent economic issues make it tough for a start-up to find traditional funding.

While almost all small businesses have been struggling since the pandemic ended, there are some common challenges that affect veterans in particular. According to current veteran entrepreneurs, three common challenges limit their business growth:

• Difficulty accessing capital
• Limited or no opportunities to network
• Difficulty finding a mentor

Veterans and military spouses facing such challenges can tap into free educational and mentoring resources like those below:

• Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans’ Families — No-cost small business training.
• Boots to Business – SBA entrepreneurial education and training for transitioning service members and their spouses.
• National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program – This program is free for the veterans selected.
• American Corporate Partners Mentoring Program – Completely free for veterans and eligible spouses

Supporting Veteran-Owned Businesses as a Civilian

Veterans work together, supporting each other, their businesses, and their goals. As a society, we, too, owe them whatever we’re capable of doing to support them. If you’re an accredited investor, you can help our nation grow by investing in small businesses owned by veterans and military spouses. Many investors make a point of investing in veteran capital funds like TFX Capital, Stony Lonesome Group, and Moonshots Capital.

Crowdfunding sites like Kiva.org let users set a filter to find military family projects, and they have made a concerted effort to fund veteran-owned businesses.

Whether or not you’re looking for an investment, supporting veteran-owned businesses makes sense. Business owners can display Buy Veteran stickers on their front doors, and sites like VeteranOwnedBusiness.com can show you veteran-owned businesses in your area.

There are plenty of opportunities to get on board, and supporting veterans has a significant impact. Veteran-owned businesses provide over 3.2 million jobs. Annually, those businesses funnel $983 billion into the US economy.

What All This Means

For veterans, starting a business and succeeding impacts quality of life and economic stability. For investors, mentors, and patrons, supporting those businesses is a perfect way to thank veterans for their service.  Together, we could have a stronger nation and a stable economy.

We think you’ll also like:

1. Invest New Talent in Your Business: Working with Veterans as Employees and Entrepreneurs
2. Using Your Assets for Good: Incorporating Charitable Giving Into Your Financial or Estate Plan
3. 6 Important Business Plan Mistakes to Avoid

[Editors’ Note: To learn more about this and related topics, you may want to attend the following on-demand webinars (which you can view at your leisure, and each includes a comprehensive customer PowerPoint about the topic):

1. Turning an Idea or Product Into a Business
2. What Every Founder/Entrepreneur Must Know
3. Raising Capital: Negotiating with Potential Investors

This article was published on February 3, 2021 and updated on November 17, 2022. This article was most recently updated by the Financial Poise Editors.]

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