Florida vets get help to learn business ropes
John Burns thinks back to his military training while running his engineering services company, Eagle 6.
Often, he says, obstacles he faces in business pale in comparison to those he faced as a helicopter pilot and then as chief of operations in Baghdad.
“It helps you problem-solve in situations where it’s not life or death,” said Burns, who served in the U.S. Army for 28 years. “You go back to those times and remember how you got through a particular situation and you adapt.”
But since he needed training in business specifics, Burns found help at Veterans Florida — an entrepreneurship program in which veterans who have already faced business obstacles use their experience to help newcomers. The program began this year after being awarded $1 million in state funding, providing seven biweekly meetings followed by ongoing mentorship.
Veterans have had a smaller
share of new businesses in recent years. In 2013, the last year for which Small Business Administration data is available, 20.4 percent of veteran-owned businesses were less than 5 years old. That was down from 34.2 percent in 2007.
Some have blamed lack of business mentorship during their military service for the decline. That’s where Veterans Florida and other programs aim to help.
“When you’re around other military persons, there is a lot of camaraderie,” said Homer Boone, veterans outreach manager for CareerSource Central Florida. “It allows you to communicate better with that person because you have more in common.”
CareerSource’s Veterans Business Initiative program, which Boone helps run, focuses less on starting businesses while providing training on jobsearch topics ranging from maximizing networking to writing resumes. Veteran business owners have said that many veterans prefer to get a job rather than start their own firms.
But the similarities between business and the military can be reason enough for some veterans to start a business.
“Most business owners fly by the seat of their pants,” said Edward Sanchez, 34, a U.S. Army veteran who wants to start a business selling T-shirts to children ages 6 to 16 via a monthly subscription when their parents sign up. “With our military background, we lay out a plan and then work out that plan.”
He was among about 25 people who gathered for a Veterans Florida meeting at the University of Central Florida’s business incubator on a recent Saturday.
So was Ruby Homayssi, 72, a Longwood resident who served in the U.S. Navy and wants to open a tea room.
She said misconceptions that surround veterans lead to the need for veteran-specific courses such as Veterans Florida. It meets at seven locations including UCF.
“You mention the word ‘veteran’ to some people and they are afraid they will fly off the handle,” she said. “But vets are well grounded, well disciplined and they know what they want to do.”
For its program, CareerSource selects about 100 veterans to meet at the National Entrepreneur Center in Orlando. CareerSource and Central Florida Disability Chamber of Commerce partner on Veterans Business Initiative, along with companies including Florida Hospital and Rosen Hotels and Resorts. The businesses provide financial support to keep the eightweek program free for veterans while providing office space and visiting with the students. The latest class started this month.
Making vets aware of the programs remains a challenge, said Boone, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1987 to 2007.
“There is still work to do, but we are getting better and have come a long way,” he said.
Military work often requires government clearances, which gives some veteran-owned businesses — such as Burns’ 4-year-old tech firm — an advantage. The company helps commercial clients and the U.S. Army in several areas, including the creation of training exercises for workers and the analysis of modeling and simulation systems.
In Burns’ case, such clearance was earned on a battlefield. His pace slows when he starts to talk about his combat experience.
He survived an attack by an improvised explosive device, known as an IED, during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. For the longest time, he said, he could not talk about the episode, which killed one of his fellow soldiers. He said he went through a time of “survivor’s guilt,” but found a veterans advocate group in Central Florida that has helped him overcome it.
“I went through a very rough period of my life,” he said.
Today, 12 of his 15 workers are veterans, he said, because it’s both a way to give back to other veterans, and he knows what he will get when he hires veterans.
“Just like in the military, there are obstacles in business that you have to learn how to get through or around,” Burns said. “The way the military trains you, you are very disciplined. They teach you leadership and responsibility.”