We owe it to our veterans to support their becoming entrepreneurs

As Veterans’ Day 2019 approaches, an important segment of the U.S. business community is dangerously in decline. After World War II, 49.7% of returning veterans owned and operated a business. For Korean War veterans, that number was 40.1%. More than 60 years later, only 5.6% of post-9/11 veterans have started their own business. That may not seem like an alarming statistic to the casual observer, but it is urgent to me.

Consider the impact of FedEx on the U.S. economy. The company, founded by Marine captain and Vietnam veteran Frederick Smith, employs 425,000 and reported $69.7 billion in revenue for fiscal 2019. Walmart, founded by Army veteran Sam Walton, had $514 billion in annual revenue for the 2019 fiscal year, making it the world’s largest company by revenue.

Imagine, for a moment, the number of FedExes and Walmarts that are not created because veterans transitioning out of service no longer pursue entrepreneurship, despite their stated interest in doing so.

The plunging rates are not due to lack of interest. Nearly one in four veterans said they were thinking of starting a business in a 2004 study conducted for the Small Business Administration. Instead, those of us active in the veteran business community believe the decrease is due to obstacles such as barriers to financing, lack of resources and dwindling professional networks — all of which we can change.

It’s in every American’s best interest to rebuild veteran entrepreneurship. Returning veterans should have a passion for the American dream they served to protect. Many of them understand that enduring the hard work and sacrifice of entrepreneurship will increase the strength of the American economy as an extension of the hard work and sacrifice they made to defend it. For every veteran who gives up on the dream of being a business owner, the economy silently loses an unknown number of potential jobs created.

Just as in the ’50s, veterans in 2019 still want to be entrepreneurs, and they’re well suited for the challenge. Research has shown that veterans have skills that are important for entrepreneurial success, including creativity, willingness to take risks and leadership ability. Similar studies have shown that veteran-owned businesses have a higher degree of initial success when, and only when, they are properly supported. As a community, it’s our role to ask how we can encourage veterans to take that chance, and once they’ve begun, how we can welcome them into supportive networks and arm them with the tools of their new trade: entrepreneurship education, funding and resources.

This is what my peers and I do as city leaders and regional executives for Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit organization to support veteran entrepreneurs like me. I believe any company, institution or individual interested in supporting veteran entrepreneurs can adopt the same motto. The question remains for you: “What can we do to help?”

First, we need to equip veterans with tools and resources that they can lean on. Most of the resources for transitioning military service members are geared toward traditional employment. The concept of entrepreneurship can feel like a black box. To better support veterans along that long spectrum of growth and change, we need to find more ways to create pools of entrepreneurship resources that veterans can draw on as needed.

This will take financial resources to support. How much? Given that approximately 1 in 4 veterans is interested in starting a business, one estimate proposed is for every $3 we spend on veteran employment programs we should spend $1 on entrepreneurship programs. We also encourage corporations and civic organizations to actively seek out and partner with groups that train and equip veteran entrepreneurs.

This leads to the second way to help. We need to connect aspiring veteran entrepreneurs to networks of support. Fifty percent of veterans relocate to a city other than their hometown after completing their military service, which has an inevitable impact on the size and strength of their professional networks. With only 1%of Americans joining the military, the pool of possible connections among veterans is also shrinking. Because of these relocations and dwindling size of the military, the need to help military veterans build strong networks and bridge the veteran-civilian gap is even greater for this community of aspiring entrepreneurs.

If you know a veteran looking for a network of peers, tell him or her about organizations like Bunker Labs; VettoCeo in Marietta, which offers veterans a free seven-week course in entrepreneurship skills; and the SBA’s Veterans Business Outreach Center. I encourage business and civic leaders to reach out to veterans and invite them to join in the conversations and events that shape our community.

Finally, and most importantly, people need to see to believe. The majority of veterans transition from military service to traditional employment, and taking a corporate job seems like a trusted, safe choice. We need to diversify our narratives to show that entrepreneurship is accessible and rewarding as well.