Video guide teaches vets how to start, grow a business

Asipiring veteran entrepreneurs have a valuable resource in a new, comprehensive 12-part video series which highlights essential best practices for veterans to start and grow a small business. The American Legion Entrepreneur Series, released by the Legion's Veterans Employment & Education Division and ADP, is available free online.

The tutorial series, which features many accomplished veteran entrepreneurs from the Legion's Small Business Task Force, focuses on how military veterans can leverage their unique experiences and resources to be successful in the business world. Key topics include generating start-up capital, navigating the crucial first year of business, winning contracts and utilizing value-added marketing.

"The qualities that make you successful in the military, they are the very same qualities that will make you successful in owning a company," said John Mustin, a Navy veteran who started Wasabi Rabbit, a New York City-based advertising agency, in 2011. Mustin is one of around 20 military veterans featured in the series who have parlayed military experience into success as a civilian entrepreneur.

Current veteran entrepreneurs will also find value in the tutorial series as it explores finer points and advanced techniques of business development, such as hiring and motivating current employees, networking and facilitating corporate relationships, and remaining inspired by your corporate vision.

Interviews with successful veteran businessmen and women provide the narrative voice for the videos and generate key tips throughout. The group includes Dawn Halfaker, Army veteran and CEO of Halfaker & Associates; Cedric Henry, Army veteran and CEO of Millennium Professional Services; William Elmore, Air Force veteran and owner M2BA, LLC; and many other esteemed veteran entrepreneurs.

"Starting my business was really about two things," Halfaker said. "It was about moving on with my life and regaining my sense of purpose. And it was also about continuing to serve, and the idea that I wanted to leverage the skills that I had and look for other military people and veterans who would join my company and share in that vision."

The group of entrepreneurs interviewed have experience working in the public and private sectors, and in a wide array of areas, such as federal contracting, professional services and consulting.

The series culminates with a special case study on a business - Oak Grove Technologies - that has been successful in winning federal contracts. The study dissects and explains the methods for Oak Grove's successes as an IT service provider. Since its founding in 2003, the company has grown from only having four employees to employing individuals worldwide.

The American Legion Entrepreneur Series figures to be an asset as more troops separate from the military and look to enter the civlian workforce. Many of these newly separated veterans often have an eye toward hanging a shingle for themselves, as studies have found that about one in four veterans are small business owners - compared to the general population, of which only 11 percent are small business owners.

Watch the videos here.