Tweet

Active Duty or Retired Military (Or Dependents) Owning a Business

Guest post by: Tracy Emerick

Article Overview: Military people and their dependents have a tough time owning a business because they move so often. There are answers to this challenge all based around OPM (Other People's Money) and the Internet.

Active Duty or Retired Military (Or Dependents) Owning a Business

Military training and experience, in general, does little to equip you for operating a business. Military training at many levels does prepare you to work for a business where the profit and loss (P&L) responsibilities reside with others. The reasons military training doesn't train you about P&L is because there is no profit or loss in military accounting, there are budgets and expenditures. All military management is about expenses, there is no responsibility in the military to make a profit, actually there is no concept that might relate to income outside of government appropriations to increase or decrease funds for the budgets the military puts forth to congress.

This is true for all forms of government employment, responsibilities are for managing expenditures compared to budgets. Moreover the goal is to make sure every budgeted dollar is spent so the next year's budget will be the same or more. In business the objective is to minimize expenditures whenever possible so that the profits of the business will be greater. So, military and government training are counter-productive in business when the discussion is on reducing expenditures.

However, when a military person retires s/he quickly discovers the need for expense management. Personal income drops to 50% - 75% of active duty pay and government housing is no longer an option. So, cost controls and expense management become essential for survival. Therefore, it would be a good idea for all active duty personnel or their dependents learn how to own and operate a business prior to retirement - easier said than done. Active duty personnel are always on the move from one duty station to another duty station so operating a "brick and mortar" business is difficult if not impossible.

Military and government employees need to find a business that has these three characteristics:

1. Mobility - the business can travel without loss of continuity

2. No Inventory - there is no volume of anything to be lugged around the country or world

3. Services Provided - the suppliers service the customers not the military person

Mobility is the watchword of business today. All employees and owners use the Internet to coordinate activities. Smart businesses are the ones that have figured out how to move all processes online so access is global using browser technology. This is the type of business military personnel and/or their dependents need to get involved with.

Inventory has two problems: First, dragging around boxes of stuff is just that, a drag and the goods can become obsolete overnight. Second, inventory ties up cash that is better spent developing a business. Dragging around goods that can only be converted to cash through sales that may or may not be competitive of convenient, is yesterday's marketplace strategy. Today the goal is to sell off someone else's wagon, let them drag the goods around and tie up their cash.

Once you learn how to sell off someone else's wagon the next step is to make sure that they provide the support to the customers so you don't have to. Let the supplier ship and service then you don't need to get in the middle of any issues anyone has with a product or service. You don't need to learn about the details of products and services and how they are delivered.

Related Articles
  Protecting the Military
  Business and the ESGR
  To Be Self-Employed or Not To Be Self-Employed
  Franchise Discounts: Straight from the veteran's mouth
  Hire a Vet
  Franchise Industry Reaches out to Veterans
  Baby Boomers - Turn your Creative Practical Hobbies into a Business
  Do You want to retire EARLY?
  Attract and retain the right people for your Company
  Time To Honor Real Inspirational Leaders
  Are You Following Me?
  Retirement Strategies for the Younger Generation
  Lesson #4: Work For The Experience, Not The Money
  Patriotic Proprietors
  Jail Time for Bloggers - Milblogs, Blogging & Laws
  Wills: Software Package vs. Lawyer
  Is Home Care Funding Right For Your Private Duty Agency?
  What Makes A Leader
  Private Duty Agencies can Factor in Today’s Banking Crisis
  Successful Executives know when to be Still and how to be Rreceptive

Article Tags: air force, army, coast guard, dependents, employee, governement, inventory, marines, military, mobility, moving, navy, PL, profit and loss, retire, retirement, retires, services
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Trying to buy own building - For that matter, what is best? Owning your own building, or renting office space?
Great To Be Here With You - Hello New Friends Fellow entrepreneur, dozen boot strap companies, grew last from $137 to $15m plus Chairman, President and CEO, Founder, ..... Retired Mentor and international business adviser to 100's of CEO's/MD's start-up and growth companies, Business models, business, financial and marketing plans Large scale international real estate development project financing, sales and investment Forex Trader Writer Thanks, enjoy yourself
LEADERS - L- Loyal E- Eager to learn and serve A- Active D- Delegate E- Efficient R- Reliable S- Smart
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Angel Investors - Where To Find Angels - Hi Julie - here are the most common places to look for angels: Informal networks (Accountants, lawyers, business associates etc.) 6 degrees of separation $100-250k income individuals Retired professionals / entrepreneurs Angel groups Most angels don't put up their hands and let everyone know they are angels - the funding process comes by information networking and getting the word out. Good luck!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Small Business Internet Marketing

E Mail Marketing Campaigns

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Log On

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.