Business Lessons for Veterans before They Start Their Own Business

You have spent the last few years of your life in the military, fighting terrorists, and dealing with those who were potentially a threat to this country. Life in the Armed Forces wasn’t easy but now you have to transition from military service to civilian life. This can be even more difficult, especially when it comes to your career. This is why many veterans prefer forging their path and start their own business, after leaving the military service. In this article, you will find out the best business lessons for veterans before starting up a business that you should take note of.

Starting a business is no easy feat – it comes with several challenges. You won’t automatically become an expert on starting and running a business once you leave the armed forces. So, you need to learn the nitty-gritty of the entrepreneurial landscape. To help you start your own business and be successful with it, we’ll share a few important entrepreneurship lessons.  

Put Your Military Experience to Use

Most military personnel develop a unique set of traits during their time in the service. These traits include passion, resiliency, tenacity, time management, perseverance, and leadership qualities. Great entrepreneurs tend to possess some, if not all of these traits. This means that you will already possess the qualities of an entrepreneur.

To leverage those qualities, you should strategize your business goals using the tips we have mentioned below:

• Develop a vision and stick to it at all times.
• First gather data on all important areas relating to your business and then launch & start your business using that information
• Remember the skills you have learned from the military and apply them to your business. For instance, you might have developed great communication skills during your military tenure. You can leverage these skills to interact with other entrepreneurs and receive guidance from them.
• In the military, you are taught to work as a team to eradicate the enemy. You must follow the same principle in business. Don’t try to do everything alone. Form a team that can support your business and your goals.
• Develop proper protocols so that all your members stick to them.

Come up with an Idea

To start a business, you must have an idea. Come up with several ideas and then assess the effectiveness of each. Discuss them with the experienced minds in your network. Also, consider evaluating your ideas by putting them in front of consumers. If you are struggling to come with ideas, consider hosting a brainstorming session or distributing a survey among consumers to find opportunities.  

Research the Market

When determining whether your idea can actually become a business, try to determine whether there is a need for the product or service you are offering. For this, consider these questions:

• Who will be your target audience?
• Why will they buy your products or services over competitors?
• What makes you unique?

You should analyze your current market, industry, and your competition before you launch your business. If you venture into unchartered waters without proper research, you will be very likely to fail. So examine your business, financial feasibility and potential buyers before starting your own business.

Create a Business Lesson Plan

Once you have come up with an idea and evaluated its effectiveness, the next thing you should do is create a business plan. Business plans are about walking the walk. Research shows that people who write business plans do more stuff. Doing more stuff like preparing projections and researching markers increases the chances of you following through on your idea.

Determine How You Will Fund Your Business

You should consider the financial feasibility of your business. You will need a lot of capital to fund your business, especially in the first year as it’ll take time before you start making a profit from your offerings. Funding for business may come from many different sources including bank loans, investors, and family or friends.

Small Business Administration (SBA) loans are a good source for funding for veterans looking to start their own business. You can get funding at a low interest rate and use the money to launch your business and manage the expenses within the first few months.

You could also consider getting funds from an angel investor. An angel investor is a high net worth individual who provides funds to entrepreneurs, generally in exchange for some percentage of ownership equity in the business. This can be an option if you are okay with distributing the ownership of your company; otherwise, look elsewhere for funding. 

Conduct a Feasibility Analysis

Before committing to your venture, you must determine whether it is viable. Do you have the resources, technology, tools, and people for your business to succeed? Will the business get you the return on investment that you need and expect? The goal of a business feasibility analysis is to understand all aspects of the business plan, become aware of potential problems that might occur and to determine whether the business is viable.

Final Thoughts

The SBA states that 30 percent of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open. This shows that starting and managing a business is very hard. Fortunately, your experience in the military and the skills you have developed should come in handy when you launching your own business. To ensure that you are successful and don’t end up being a part of the businesses that fail during the first two years, act on our advice.

If you do the things we have listed above and go in prepared, you will be more likely to succeed. If you need more assistance from us in starting your own business, feel free to reach out to us. We’ll be glad to connect you to one of our veteran resources!