18- The Vetrepreneur — veterans who create startups

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Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces who receive their discharge after active duty may wish to finish their formal education (using the GI Bill, for example), and then their aspirations may take them to becoming a small business owner by creating a startup firm, and thus being an entrepreneur. This type of entrant into the world of small business is referred to as a “Vetrepreneur.”

In this episode, we will highlight the Vetrepreneur of today, as well as discuss NaVOBA. The description for this web site is “NaVOBA provides a direct link for contracting between corporate America and Certified Veteran’s Business Enterprises™ (VBE) and Certified Service-Disabled Veteran’s Business Enterprises™ (SDVBE).

In the past, I myself had a podcast show in 2012-2013 that was called the Texas Vetrepreneur Podcast. However, when I had my medical problems and was in a forced absence from the podosphere (and generally, in the workplace and social structures until beginning my recovery — as well as dealing with the final care and death of my mother), I had to podfade the show.

In fact, I had a meetup group (i.e., in meetup.org) that also supported the podcast show, and vice-versa. Unfortunately, I had to quit being the organizer and then turn over the management and organizer function to another veteran. And, unfortunately, many veterans did not realize that running the meetup and possibly contributing to the podcast show entailed so much needed work. Well, as young veterans who were recently discharged from active duty found out soon, the amount of effort and time required to do a good job for the organization and the podcast was too much for them to handle. This was because they had their new jobs, their entrepreneurial ventures and their own families for which they had to deal. And so, the meetup expired, and the podcast show podfaded.

However, the spirit of the entrepreneur veteran — or the vetrepreneur — still continues. And today, some eight years later, a new group of vetrepreneurs are finally getting educated first, then they are seeking capitalization and funding, and now they are launching their entrepreneurial ventures in a better manner. Unlike the earlier days of 2012 and 2013 (where the veterans came home from their tours of duty in vast numbers all at once and their ambitions for education and success were all-encompassing and sometimes suffered from impatience), today’s vetrepreneurs are going through training courses on entrepreneurship, small business management and marketing and sales. Even though a lot of this is via YouTube, the training and education is something that they now decide to undertake is much better as a foundation. Many get their degrees in Business Administration or Marketing. Some get their diplomas in Entrepreneurship or Web Technologies. But these can only deliver some of the best scenarios for building to success, and avoiding failure.

When I had the vetrepreneur meetup and podcast show, many of the members who wished to become vetrepreneurs soaked up all the information from myself as a consultant (with no fee or payment for my consultation) as if they were a dry sponge. And I highly recommended for them to subscribe to the Vetrepreneur Magazine.

And, in fact, I did have several episodes in my vetrepreneur podcast show where I interviewed some of the state of Texas managers who dealt with aspiring vetrepreneurs. Duncan McGhee, a manager of the Texas State Veterans Commission, delivered content to the podcast in an interview he had with me about the Vetrepreneurs and the upcoming program within his organization for Texas Veterans.

As you will hear in this audio episode, we have included the interview with Duncan after the intro and his explanation of WHY the vetrepreneur program should be important. NOTE: since the time of this interview, Duncan has been successful in getting some funding for his Vetrepreneur Program.

So, if you are an honorably discharged veteran of the Armed Forces, we recommend that you investigate any vetrepreneur program in your local area or state. Also, you may be interested in NaVOBA and subscribing to the Vetrepreneur Magazine.

And, as a combat veteran of the Vietnam War and a former paratrooper of the 82nd Airborne Division, I wish you the best in pursuing an entrepreneurship as a veteran today.