Monday’s event, presented by The American Legion and the Small Business Administration, addressed a variety of challenges facing veteran small business owners.
While persistence and resolve are keys to being a successful small business owner, jumping directly from military service into entrepreneurship may not lead to success.
That notion was presented by speakers on different panels during Monday’s Small Business Conference presented by The American Legion and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) during the Legion’s 106th National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
“I would encourage you to take a break from turning in your equipment and your DD-214 and all the craziness, to go find your spirit animal … think about what you really want to do in your post-military career,” Richard Haggerty, CEO of Oak Grove Technologies, said during a panel on veterans in manufacturing, exporting and the industrial base. “It’s easy for us to jump off one treadmill and on to another and try to start a business; it’s not easy, it’s tough.”
Barbara Carson, managing director of programs and services at D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families, mentioned those remarks during her participation in a later panel, “Setting the Veteran Entrepreneur for Success.”
“Fifty percent of people don’t feel like they have successfully transitioned within three years of post-transition, they’re still working on it,” Carson said, noting that the research she referenced said it often took six years for veterans to feel successfully transitioned back to civilian life. “Take a minute, take a beat, the first thing you do might not be your forever thing.”
Monday’s conference addressed a number of topics, including the Trump administration’s efforts to boost the economy through deregulation, the VETS First Contracting Program, advice for both new and experienced entrepreneurs, and more.
SBA goals. SBA Deputy Administrator William Briggs spoke about some of the ways the agency and the administration are attempting to help veteran entrepreneurs. Among those are increased manufacturing loans and partnerships with other government agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Labor.
Briggs also mentioned the SBA’s onshoring portal, which connects small businesses with over 1 million U.S. suppliers. “It’s designed to help source American made products, support U.S. jobs, and cut our dependence on foreign adversaries,” Briggs said.
“As a small business owner myself, I understand the highs and lows that come with running a small business. In my role, I want to help every entrepreneur succeed, but I especially want to help veteran and military community small business owners succeed,” Briggs said.
Dr. Casey B. Mulligan, chief counsel for the SBA Office of Advocacy, spoke about his office’s commitment to deregulation to help small businesses grow. “When we make policy in Washington, we need to have respect for our business owners,” Mulligan said.
Francine Morris, director of government contracting at SBA, said her department “is here to help you meet those challenges that you have to face in government contracting, helping break down those barriers, because we need you to have that go-get-it spirit to survive in this market. It’s not easy.”
Find your network. Multiple speakers emphasized the importance of networks and supportive ecosystems for entrepreneurs.
“In your community, seek out your support organizations, seek out your ecosystem,” said Dan Mitchell, director of the Pasco Economic Development Council’s SMARTstart program.
“Find a mentor. It’s tough out here,” Haggerty said, noting challenges “from regulations to DOGE to cutthroat business in general to Chinese parts, and everything in between.”
“Small businesses can’t exist without partners (with different skills sets),” Mulligan said. “They can handle those things that you’re not good at.”
VETS First. The American Legion’s legislative agenda continues to call for the VA’s VETS First Contracting Program to extend to the Department of Defense.
“Who better to understand the mission (at DoD than veterans)? It opens up tremendous opportunities to veterans. It sends a message also to the industrial base that we value working with veterans, so I think it will be a force multiplier,” said Barbara Ashe, national director of the Veteran Institute for Procurement.
Success stories. Three veteran entrepreneurs — Justin Spears with the Florida Association of Veteran Business Owners (FAVOB); Tylor Neil of Horse Soldier Bourbon and VIP Insurance; and Scott Neil of Horse Soldier Bourbon — talked about their journeys to business ownership after their military service, and offered encouragement and advice to prospective business owners.
“I’m a champion of this idea that we should come home and create the next ‘greatest generation,’” Scott Neil said. “As we look at our grandfathers and grandmothers that served, they came home from a devastating conflict, they turned this economy from a wartime economy into the greatest economy in the world. How do we create that momentum and message to this generation that has served?”
“This is really one of the most important parts of what we do at these events,” Charles Fowler, chairman of The American Legion’s Small Business Task Force, said during the entrepreneur spotlight panel. “This is success. … We need more of this. We need more opportunity, we need to guide this generation of veterans toward entrepreneurship.”
- Convention