Boots to bootstrapping: Military vets find host of resources to succeed in business
PHOTO/RICK SAIA
Nigel Belgrave of Auburn said the military focus on discipline and calm amid diversity helped prepare him for the challenge of launching his own business. He runs a PuroClean franchise in Worcester.
Ken Picard of The Entrepreneur’s Source in Hudson: “Veterans get a lot of training and they work within a system,” making them suitable as franchisees.
When Daniel Winchester decided to start a graphics company, he had excellent creative skills, but needed help on the business side. Fortunately, he had a brother with a background that fit perfectly. That brother, David, had enlisted in the Navy right out of high school and spent 22 years in the service. The military had sent him to college and flight school, and he had spent years in roles with heavy leadership responsibilities.
“There’s definitely things about military culture that help out entrepreneurs, just discipline-wise, focus,” David Winchester said. “But there’s also, I think, another part of it. People who step up and serve in the military, a lot of them have a certain personality that I think bodes well for entrepreneurs and startup companies: driven, detail-oriented, leaders, just morally sound, making good decisions.”
The brothers joined forces in 2013 and brought Ready 2 Run Graphics & Signs to a building near the Greendale Mall in Worcester.
The transition from military to civilian life is a notoriously tough one, but many veterans have a set of skills that’s well suited to running a business. And there are a number of public- and private-sector resources devoted to helping ex-military people move into the business world.
Help from the SBA
The U.S. Small Business Administration offers services targeted at veterans who are opening businesses, including some specifically for service-disabled veterans. Norman Eng, economic development specialist for the SBA’s Boston office, said the agency waives fees for business loans to veterans and works with banks, and directly with vets, to help the process go smoothly.
Between last July and this April, the SBA facilitated 51 loans for veteran-owned businesses, totaling $9.7 million.
Eng said Whitinsville-based UniBank has been a particularly strong partner for the program. That’s where David Winchester went when Ready 2 Run needed cash for some equipment. Winchester said he brought a detailed business plan to commercial lending officers at other banks, but it “didn’t seem like they were willing to take any risk whatsoever.” At UniBank, he said, things were different, and the company received the money it needed through the SBA Patriot Express Loan program.
Christopher J. Watson, senior vice president of commercial lending at UniBank, said it launched its veteran-focused lending program last June. Watson said the idea came from the SBA, but he also had a personal connection in the form of his future son-in-law, who left the military after five years and five separate tours as an Army Ranger.
Watson said UniBank’s fast-track lending program for veterans provides up to $250,000 and cuts the regular 1.99-percent annual interest rate to 1.776 percent. The loans are backed by an SBA guarantee. He said veterans have sought loans for a variety of businesses.
“We’ve seen landscapers, printing companies, small cafes and restaurants,” he said. “These are often very smart individuals.”
Transitionary step
Not all veteran entrepreneurs go straight from the military to a startup. Nigel Belgrave of Auburn served in the Air Force from 1990 to 1994, then spent 18 years in banking, most recently with Marlborough-based St. Mary’s Credit Union. Still, when he began to look at starting a business, he drew on his military training — particularly the focus on discipline and calm in the face of adversity.
“They try to hone that in you right from day one at basic training,” he said. “What they try to teach you is a mindset.”
To find a way into entrepreneurship, Belgrave worked with Ken Picard, a business coach with The Entrepreneur’s Source in Hudson who helps connect would-be business owners with franchise opportunities. Picard said he’s worked with colleagues on a program, Veterans2Entrpreneurs, focused specifically on ex-military personnel. He said vets tend to do well in franchising.
“Veterans get a lot of training and they work within a system, and that’s basically what a franchise is: a proven system or process to do whatever the service is,” he said. “So many things they’re good at are transferable to a system like a franchise.”
With Picard’s help, Belgrave investigated a number of franchise companies and ended up signing on with PuroClean, which offers cleaning and restoration for properties damaged by water or fire. He said the company fit his needs in a few ways, with a startup cost he could manage and a reasonable timeline for becoming profitable. It also helped that Puroclean knocked $5,000 off the $45,000 franchise fee because of his veteran status.
“It was important to me that they valued and appreciated veterans,” he said.
Belgrave officially started his PuroClean franchise in January. So far, he’s done the work himself with temporary help from friends, but he said he’s already gotten to the point where he’s considering hiring his first real employee. He said the success he’s had so far is directly related to the discipline instilled in him in the military.
“There are going to be no such thing as regular hours,” he said. “You’ve got to have the discipline.”
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