I want to thank all of you who have served in our nation's Armed Forces for fighting for our freedom every day.
Today is Veteran's Day – did you know that:
- Nearly 1 in 10 small businesses in America are #veteran-owned
- There are 2.4 millikon veteran-owned small businesses and they employ almost 6 million Americans
- Veteran-owned businesses generate over $1.5 Trillion in receipts each year
- Veterans are 45% more likely than those with no active-duty military experience to be self-employed
I was thinking about why veterans are more likely to be business owners. According to Forbes magazine, Veterans tend to make good business owners because:
- They are good at setting goals. In my book, this is one of the key things that sets successful business owners apart from shiny object chasers. If you goals, and even more importantly, set up an accountability system for meeting those goals your chances of success go up ten-fold.
- They are used to managing people. Military service provides some of the best management training available. From the very start of your career, you learn how to mentor and motivate others.
- They are used to risk and taking on great challenges if business ownership were easy or risk-free, we would have more business owners. Soldiers learn the importance of taking calculated risks – weighing the possible outcome against the price of failure or inaction.
I love working with veterans as coaching clients because once they commit to an action they implement. They also understand systems and procedures and are willing to put them in place at the very beginning of their business.
Are you a veteran and a small business owner? Tell me why you started your business and what advantages you think you've gotten from your military service. (And, don't forget to leave a link to your business so I can help spread the word about the wonderful work you do…)
