Memorial Day, a day of giving thanks to veterans, also viewed as an opportunity to showcase the business skills veterans learn in the military.
The military taught them how to lead teams, perform under pressure and execute a plan. These skills happen to be the same critical ingredients for owning and running a franchise.
“Veterans are trained for franchise ownership from day one in the military,” emphasizes Chris Hale, President of NaVOBA, the National Veteran-Owned Business Association, http://www.navoba.com. “At age 25 in the Navy, I was running a 90-person department and working over 70 hours a week, and that is typical in the military. Not many civilians are given that level of responsibility ever, let alone at such a young age. And you certainly learned how to execute a plan. Failing to do so could have grave consequences.”
Unlike starting a business from scratch, with a franchise, you don’t need an MBA, a business plan, a killer idea or a boatload of money. “Franchises are proven business models that come with guidance, training and support,” said Matthew Shay, President and CEO of the International Franchise Association (IFA), which promotes veteran small-business ownership through its Veterans Transition Franchise Initiative, known as “VetFran.” The program is a voluntary effort by more than 325 franchise systems which offer financial incentives to veterans. Details of the program can be found at IFA’s Web site http://www.franchise.org under “VetFran Directory.” To date, the program has enabled more than 1,000 veterans to acquire franchises.
To assist franchises in recruiting veterans, military media concern Victory Media has recently launched a new initiative which includes franchise advertising packages, or FAPs, and http://www.militaryfranchising.com, a web portal which gathers leads from the company’s military magazines and Web sites, including Vetrepreneur magazine, G.I. Jobs magazine (http://www.gijobs.net) and Military Spouse magazine (http://www.milspouse.com).
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