America’s veterans thrive in the small business world

For James Fawbush, transitioning from 20 years in the Army to life as the civilian owner of a small media company was as simple as swapping his boots for dress shoes.

After serving as an infantryman, with combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 40-year-old Phoenix native cut his teeth in communications while working for the Army’s mobile public affairs detachment. His work interviewing and reporting on his tight-knit team suited him. So did the fast pace.

And then it hit him: Why not translate all these skills into a business?

Fawbush isn’t the first military veteran to have this revelation. In fact, there is approximately one veteran-owned business for every 10 veterans, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Allstate agency owner and Army veteran Steven James, 44, believes the reason goes back to their core military values.

“With a military background, you’re almost programmed” for discipline and organization, said James, who rises at 5 a.m. each day to get a head start running his offices in Jackson and Gluckstadt, Mississippi. “The military teaches you so many things, and two of the most important are respect and the importance of giving back. Being able to translate the skills and values I attained in the military allows me to better serve my customers and help the communities I’m a part of thrive.”

Veterans’ commitment to helping their communities flourish reflects their experiences serving the nation, according to this year’s Allstate/USA Today Small Business Barometer. The annual profile of the U.S. small business environment rates veterans’ optimism and expectations of growth at 99 on a scale of 100, compared with a still-high rating of 92 among all small business owners. The Barometer uses a proprietary mix of federal data and a survey of small business owners to create a unique index of this sector in America.

When Fawbush decided to make the leap into entrepreneurship in the summer of 2015, he was armed with not only the invaluable skills from two decades of service, but also the optimism and drive that the Barometer found common among vets. Two years later, his five-person company is marching ahead, creating ads, news programs and marketing content for about a dozen military and federal agencies.

“Veterans are used to succeeding,” said Fawbush, who retired from the Army in July 2016. “When they know what they want to do and surround themselves with like-minded people with the same goal, and pitch in and do it together, everything moves forward.”

Driven team players

According to the SBA, veterans are 45 percent more likely than non-veterans to be self-employed. These 2.4 million veteran-owned small businesses employ 5.8 million Americans and generate more than $1 trillion in revenue. The small businesses wise enough to employ vets are clearly benefiting from their golden touch, as well. In a survey conducted for the Barometer, veteran-owned and veteran-employing businesses were more likely than small-business owners in general to say they were doing well. These businesses also had increased revenue and were growing and hiring.

“Most military members I’ve worked with are highly driven and motivated and positive and just get stuff done,” said Kandis Porter, a former Air Force officer and weather forecaster. The 35-year-old is now the founder and managing director of Effective Flow Connections, a Reno, Nevada, firm that helps companies boost their productivity.

Porter started her business after working at several consulting firms. One thing that stood out to her in the civilian world is that people have trouble making decisions.

“The most important lesson I learned in the military was that the worst decision is no decision,” she said. “The ability and confidence to make decisions and choose a direction and go down that path, that’s something the military instills. You have to think fast.”

For James, teamwork is a strength of military service — a necessity, really — that translates well to the world of business.

“I structure the whole office around team-building exercises and workshops,” he said. “In the military we would work together to move logs or dig foxholes.”

At his insurance business, he pairs newer people with more experienced employees to ensure everyone has a mentor, which helps build camaraderie.

Up for a challenge

Many veterans have slept on the ground, hiked through muck and put their lives on the line in war zones. They bring that toughness and grit to their work as accountants, consultants or insurance agents.

Fawbush says these experiences serve him well when he’s filming a documentary on tight deadline. “If I can go three days without sleeping and two days without eating, then this is nothing,” he said.

Others, like Gregory Cotton, 58, continue to be drawn to a good challenge. He spent 23 years in the Army before joining a large engineering firm and then founding his own firm, COTTON7 Global Enterprises in New York. His company is developing technology that facilitates the building of roads in unstable places, such as war-torn South Sudan.

Though Cotton hires people with and without military experience, he said that because his business operates in difficult parts of the world, military experience can help.

“People who’ve worked in the military have a background in working in challenging locations,” he said. “It’s much easier for them to adjust.”

Transferable skills

Civilians might associate military service largely with preparation for combat and, ultimately, deployment to war zones. However, the skills required for the armed forces are rich and diverse and go well beyond what’s needed during wartime. According to the SBA’s Office of Veterans Business Development, more than one-third of veteran business owners say that on active duty they learned skills that directly transfer to the business world.

Tabatha Turman, 47, said her time as an Army finance officer was the genesis of her career as an entrepreneur. After returning from Iraq in 2005 and going into the U.S. Army Reserve, she wanted to put her military accounting and financial management skills to good use. She attended an Army workshop for women on how to start a business and in 2007 launched Integrated Finance and Accounting Solutions, now a multimillion-dollar government contracting firm in Woodbridge, Virginia.

“The government essentially is buying all of the things they trained me to do,” from data analysis to auditing to cost management to program budgeting and execution, she said. “I’m selling back my capabilities.”

Veterans who could benefit from additional training turn to the Veterans Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor and the SBA, whose Boots to Business program trains former service members to be entrepreneurs.

More than anything, what veterans really need to succeed in business is a chance, Porter said.

“They have so much to offer … skills, core values, they want to do a good job,” she said. “I feel like we owe it to them to give them the chance to prove it. They take off like rock stars when given the opportunities.”

View the Allstate/USA Today Small Business Barometer, a comprehensive profile of the small business environment across the nation and in 25 of its largest cities. It combines a survey of nearly 2,800 small business owners with federal data to create eight key indicators and an overall measure.