Military Spouse Small Business Owner

Why Deployment Is a Great Time to Launch Your Business

08/15/2018 By Amanda Marksmeier

Starting a business is a huge undertaking so it is only natural to be intimidated and find reasons to put it off until the perfect time.

News flash: There is never a perfect time to launch a business! There will always be obstacles but don’t allow them to stop your entrepreneurial spirit!

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about military spouse employment or rather the lack of employment. One way to combat military spouse unemployment is to create your own career and start a business that is PCS proof.

Deployment is a great time to start achieving your entrepreneurial goals. I know it seems crazy but hear me out. Everyone is always asking “How can I survive a deployment?” The most common answer is to stay busy.

What will keep you busier than launching a business?

Rome was not built in a day and neither will your new business. Creating a business is a process. The first step in the process is to decide what your business will be.

Do you have a marketable skill? Do you sew, are you an organizing guru, or a marketing maven?
Have you seen a need for a service or a way to improve a product?

These skills and ideas can be transformed into a lucrative business with determination, a solid business plan and a lot of hard work.

Why Deployment Is a Great Time to Launch Your Business

Have you always wanted to start your own business? What are you waiting for? Deployment is a great time to launch your business.

Once you have a business plan it is time to put that plan into action. Why not start as soon as your spouse leaves on a deployment? This will give you something to focus on and will help to fill the gap your spouse’s absence leaves.

Launching a business during a deployment also helps establish reasonable business goals and a firm timeline in which you can strive to accomplish them – emphasis on “reasonable” goals. To say you plan to launch a Fortune 500 business during a nine-month deployment is not only absurd, it will lead to burnout, disappointment and lots of tears.

Reasonable business goals could include completing professional branding, launching your company’s website and social media platforms, creating a media kit and begin soliciting clients. By the end of the deployment, you may not be rolling in the dough, but you will have a strong foundation for a successful business.

The military life is not meant to be lived alone and neither is the journey to entrepreneurship. There are so many resources available to military spouse entrepreneurs from those who have been in your shoes and can help you learn through their experiences.

4 Resources for Military Spouse Entrepreneurs

The MilSpouse Creative was designed by a military spouse entrepreneur. She created a global virtual networking community for military spouse entrepreneurs to connect, collaborate and cultivate.

The Milspo Project is a nonprofit designed to help military spouses make their entrepreneur dreams come true.

The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans’ Families (EBV-F) is an education and self-employment training program designed to take advantage of the skills, resources, and infrastructure of higher education to offer training in entrepreneurship and small business management to veterans’ families.

The National Military Spouse Network is a networking, mentoring and professional development organization committed to education, empowerment and advancement of military spouses.

As a military spouse who has experienced more than my fair share of deployments, I know they are long, tiresome and lonely.

I found focusing on goals and achieving them makes me feel a sense of accomplishment and makes the time spent apart more worthwhile.

The idea of starting a business can be overwhelming and a bit scary especially during a deployment but it can also be exhilarating and challenging.

Did you launch a business while your service member was on a deployment? Tell us about your business in the comments section.

Tips for Veterans Who Want to Be Franchise Owners

12/06/2017 By Kimber Green

Veterans and service members are looking into ownership of franchises like never before.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, roughly a quarter of all veterans are interested in starting their own businesses. Franchises are a very popular route to go for many of them. With the business framework already in place, opening a franchise is an easy way to enter the market.

Franchises are so popular that the International Franchise Association reported that 1 of every 7 franchises in America is owned by a veteran.

The number of veterans owning franchises may be so large because of all the help available to make business ownership possible. There are many tools veterans and their spouses can use to help make the decision to buy one of the numerous franchises.

Also hundreds of companies offer incentives for veterans to become a franchise owner. Here are a few things you need to consider if you are interested in franchises.

Tips for Veterans Who Want to Be Franchise Owners

Veterans are buying into franchises at a record pace. Here are a few things to consider if you are interested in owning one.

Is buying into a franchise a good decision for my military family?

Many veterans and military spouses dream of owning their own business. My husband wants to own a small bar when he retires. He has talked about it casually for years. I have always wanted to own a coffee shop. While we both dream of these things, I have to wonder if either of them will ever become a reality.

Do you dream of owning a business? Would it be one of the thousands of franchises in America?

The first things you need to do when considering opening a business is to decide if owning a franchise is the right thing for you and your family.

Ask yourself the following 4 questions:

Are you passionate about the industry you are considering?
Is this merely a hobby you enjoy or will you actually like to take this on as a business?
Is there room in the market for this business?
Is this the right time in your life to open a business?

Think about your family’s circumstances, financial stability and viability of franchise ownership. If your family decides that owning one of the franchises available is the right move, then you need to look into how to choose one of the franchises.

How do I become a franchisee?

Start your research with the U.S. Small Business Administration. They have a veterans business outreach center (VBOC) program. They offer services to help veterans with business training, counseling and referrals. This includes workshops on business development for issues such as being self-employed. There are business counselors available to help on a one-on-one instance as well.

The VBOC program also offers a feasibility analysis to help veterans determine if a business will be successful. They will review your business plan in doing so.

There are 8 things to do to own one of the franchises available in the United States. First, decide which type of franchise you would like to own. Next you should look to see what franchises are available in that industry. You will want to take into consideration the requirements to own a particular franchise in that segment. You should also research the market in the place you wish to open your business.

If all looks well, then you can send an inquiry to the franchise. You’ll need to fill out an application for the franchisor. They will want to see if you are a good candidate to own one of their franchises. When you get a reply, if it is positive you will need to think of the next steps. This will start with finances. You need to decide how you will fund purchasing a franchise.

What incentives are available to veterans for starting a franchise?

Most businesses require a buy in and you might not have the startup money for it. Luckily, many businesses offer incentives and discounts for veterans to open one of their franchises.

There are 650 franchises listed with the International Franchise Association that offer these incentives and discounts for veterans and their spouses.

The Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, VetFran has helped 2,089 veterans become small-business owners with their financial incentives.

Politicians are getting into the spirit of veteran-owned businesses as well. The Veteran Entrepreneurs Act of 2017 was introduced at the beginning of the year. Its purpose is to provide entrepreneurship training to veterans and their spouses. The bill would amend the Small Business Act to include a female veterans business training program as well as one for disabled veterans. An outreach center will provide financial assistance including financial management, marketing advice, training and technical help.

While that bill is lingering in Congress, you can look into the incentives the franchise you are interested in purchasing to see if they are big enough to make ownership a reality.

What questions do you have about franchises?

3 Ways a Military Move May Kill Your Small Business and How You Can Rescue It

05/25/2016 By Kimber Green

Being a military spouse small business owner can be exciting and challenging all at the same time. You spend an exorbitant amount of time building up your client base only to be told the military wants you to move again and again. How long does it take you to recover your business after each move?

Here are 3 ways a military move can kill your small business and how to overcome these obstacles in less than 6 months.

3 Ways a Military Move May Kill Your Small Business and How You Can Rescue It

Moving your business during a PCS may be a challenge. Here are some tips to ease your transition.

Your Clients

You’ve spent a lot of time building up your client base and now you’re moving.

What is a military spouse small business owner to do?

You’ll have to start from the ground up once again to build your clientele list. This may sound daunting after all you’ve done to create your customer database, but that’s exactly what you need to do. The key to this is to jump right in when you get to your next duty station. Let people know that you are open for business.

Think about how you got started with your military spouse small business originally or how you got it going at your current duty station.

What steps did you take to earn those clients?
What marketing avenues did you utilize? Are those same avenues available for you to use again?

Don’t write off your clients at your former duty station right away. Before you leave your current town see if you can keep any of your clients.

Is your military spouse small business mostly online? In that case, the move might not hurt you at all. If you are able to continue working with your clients over the phone, through the internet or by mail, you might be able to keep them as well.

Do some research and see what you can work out. Call your clients and see if they are willing to work with you during this transition. If a customer is committed to you, they might just stick around.

Your Network and Support System

Networking is the key to success in business. As they say, it’s all about the people you know. Before you even pack your first box, get on the computer and check out your next duty station. Who are the other military spouse small business owners in your new town?

Contact your new command to see if they have a spouse liaison. She might be able to point you in the direction of other wives or husbands in the area that have small businesses.

Don’t be afraid to reach out. Pick up the phone or at least get online and talk to other military spouse small business owners. Ask them how the transition worked for them. They will be able to give you tips on how they got their businesses back to usual when they got to that military installation.

Networking and meeting new people will get you back in business in no time.

Get new business cards made and step out into new areas to network. You can use social media to meet fellow military spouse small business owners. Update or create an account on LinkedIn, a professional networking site. You can reach people on LinkedIn that you might not otherwise have met.

Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites can be good outlets. Create pages specifically separate from your personal accounts.

Make a website or have one made for your business. Buy your online real estate if you haven’t already done so. This entails creating accounts on many platforms that use your business name. This keeps others from using your business name and opens doors to both customers and networking.

You don’t have to do it all on your own. The Small Business Administration is available to military spouse small business owners. The same resources that are offered to active duty members who are transitioning out of the military and are interested in opening their own businesses are available to military spouses. This includes counseling and training, access to loans and disaster relief.

Inventory

If you sell products, maintaining control of inventory during a move can be difficult for military spouse small business owners. We all know what can and often does happen to household goods during transit.

Will you be packing up and moving your own items or will you be letting the military send in a crew to do it for you?

Make sure you take careful stock of your inventory before packing begins. If movers are in charge, let them know upfront to be delicate with these items.

If they get damaged during transit, make sure to file a claim. Most insurance agencies have a timeline for filing damage reports so make sure you do it in a timely manner. Take photos of the damaged property. This can be useful in recouping costs. Save all of this information for tax season.