If your time serving our country has come to an end, then you will already be thinking about what your next venture will be. Starting out on your own after serving in the military can be tough, however those with military experience can actually have a lot of great entrepreneurial skills.
From organisation and assessing risk to setting and focussing on specific goals, you can utilise your existing skills to setup your own business venture. But where to start? Here are a few suggestions to ensure you are on the right path.
If you were severely injured during your service, then you may be entitled to VA disability benefits. It can be tricky to do the required math to work out your eligibility, so why not drop by the Chisholm, Chisholm and Kilpatrick website and use their VA disability calculator?
Start out with something you already know
As part of your military service, you may have specialised in communications, engineering, healthcare or something else. Use this as your starting point to help select an appropriate focus for your venture – you will be surprised to find just how transferrable some of your skills are.
It is also important to know what you are and aren’t good at, and for those areas of weakness, enlist the help of experts. It’s no good you trying to fulfil every faucet f your business when you know you don’t know the full ins and outs – focus on what you are good at. No good with numbers? Make sure you hire a professional accountant. No idea where to start with advertising? Contact a marketing firm.
Identify a gap in the market
Some of the best new businesses are one which have considered the prospective client’s needs and fulfilled them in a quick and easy way. Whilst it’s not always about reinventing the wheel, it is about ensuring that you aren’t just providing a product or service which is already ten a penny.
So where to start? Many conversations in bars, workplaces or otherwise may begin with “somebody should…” or “wouldn’t it be great if…” – these can be acorns which have the ability to grow to the size of oak trees! Ask your friends, family or people in the local area about things which would benefit their lives that they don’t currently have access to – this could give you a solid gold idea to start your new venture.
Take advantage of veteran financing schemes
One of the perks of being a veteran is that there are plenty of special financing schemes out there which are designed to help you kickstart a new project or venture. You have access to a range of government-funded loans and more which could help you gets started.
Even if your credit rating isn’t great, the fact you are a veteran means that you can still gain access to loans from banks, credit unions and other lenders.