By Debbie Gregory.

One can start a business at any age.   When you are young, there clearly is more time to recover if things don’t work out.  At the same time, many younger Veterans are raising their families and cannot afford to take some of the risks associated with entrepreneurship and beginning a new business.     When one is more mature in years and life, often it comes with more time, experience, knowledge and financial stability.  It may be the perfect time to begin a new venture as a Veteran Business Owner.  Older Business Owners bring a lot of assets.  Can you imagine a dream team of both older and younger joining forces to start a Veteran Owned Business?  Below are some of the assets that older Veteran Business Owners bring:

• Financial Stability  – They  have had more time to build up savings and invest your money. As a result, they likely have more money to invest in a business without it being as a big of a risk.   They are often done with mortgages, car payments and college expenses.   It is much easier to secure investments and get loans with better terms as an older business owner too.
• They Know What You Want Now – Older Veteran Business Owners have had more time to consider what type of business they want to begin.  They know themselves better, what they like to do, what they are good at doing and can create a business that is the right fit for them.
• Their Level of Experience – Hands down older Veteran Business Owners have more experience than younger Veteran Business Owners.  They have already made more mistakes and can use this experience to avoid them in the future.  Their level of insight is much greater than someone younger without the same life, work and business experiences.  They understand how important it  is to have a comprehensive business plan or roadmap.  Additionally, they also understand how important it is to live within their means and adhere to their budget.
• Networking & Connections – They have been living life longer and have a much larger professional network of connections that are established in specialty areas of technology, finance and accounting, legal, marketing and more that can be a network of excellent “go to experts”.

I love the combination of young and more mature entrepreneurs joining forces.  Younger entrepreneurs have grown up with the latest technology and understand how to make it work.   Often older entrepreneurs make awesome mentors too.  They have a special level of energy and enthusiasm and a completely different point of view.  If you combine younger entrepreneurs with entrepreneurs with greater maturity who are more financially secure, with experiences and established connections, it can be a winning team.

We invite you to join VAMBOA, the Veterans and Military Business Owners Association.  Membership if free and here is the link to join:  https://vamboa.org/member-registration/

By Debbie Gregory.

Northern California played host to the VETCON conference that was held in March for veteran entrepreneurs.

The percentage of Veterans who are starting their own businesses is steadily declining. Today’s veterans are not launching companies at the same high rate as past generations. More than 40 percent of veterans returning from World War II and Korea began their own businesses, as compared today, where that number is less than five percent.

Important takeaways regarding veteran business owners/entrepreneurs from the conference include the following:

1. Veterans build different kinds of companies than  civilian entrepreneurs
2. Veterans have a desire to create social impact in their communities, rather than just making money
3. Veterans often stumble into great entrepreneurial opportunities and leverage their military experience
4. Veteran overcome challenges and execute at a world-class level.
5. Veterans will work together to help fellow veterans, and those who are successful want to see other veterans succeed with their own companies.
6. Veterans tend to build revenues, and are not big fans of venture capital.
7. There is diversity among veteran owned  businesses, and more women are becoming veteran entrepreneurs

Veterans have the discipline, work ethic, leadership skills and other dynamic traits to succeed. I believe the best is yet to come, and veteran entrepreneurship will be growing and at a rapid rate.  In the future, we should be seeing more and more veteran business owners in all types of businesses.   And it is a fact that Americans trust veterans, and truly want to do business with them.