A U.S. House committee is examining a decades-long decline in entrepreneurship among military veterans.
U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo. 4th District, sits on U.S. House Committee on Small Business. During a hearing last week, he said many veterans want to start their own businesses when they return home.
“They have the skills, they have the discipline, they have the leadership that makes them a natural fit for starting a small business in America,” he said. “But we also know the reality is that veteran entrepreneurship has declined sharply.”
Alford said nearly half of all returning veterans after World War II and Korea became business owners, compared to just over 4% today.
“Our veterans today are not less capable than they were 70 years ago,” he said. “In fact, I think they’re more capable than they were 70 years ago, but we no longer support them in the way that we did 70 years ago.”
A bill co-sponsored by Alford would explore ways to make credit more readily available to military veterans wanting to start businesses. The U.S. House passed the bill in February but the U.S. Senate has not.
Among those testifying last week was Kevin Schmiegel, CEO of ZeroMils — a company that works to find jobs for military veterans. Alford asked him what the federal government can do to help veteran entrepreneurs.
“I think we start with investing – investing in them and make sure that they have access to capital,” Schmiegel said. “What happened in World War II and Korea was we invested and empowered veterans to come home and run businesses. We need more of that and less of what’s going on now – it’s as simple as that.”
Another witness — Misty Fox, Director of Entrepreneurship and Small Business for the D’aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families — testified that military veterans are turned down for business loans 6% more often than other applicants, and once denied, they rarely if ever try again.
“Once they feel like they are not able to access a resource, they don’t feel as comfortable going back, whereas a civilian might be a little bit more comfortable just trying it again,” Fox said.
She also suggested that better access to resources can help would-be military entrepreneurs to focus more on their business plans than on navigating the system that’s supposed to help them get started.
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