Leveraging your Military Experience to be a Successful Business Owner

SGT Marion Townes — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 11:52:30 -0400

The intangible benefits you gain from serving in the Military are priceless. Work ethic, self-discipline, interpersonal skills, determination, and the ability to work as part of a team are just a few of the benefits. For 3 ½ of the last 7 years, I have worked in a virtual environment.

The office and my manager were 5+hours away; I was entrusted because of my self-discipline, determination, and integrity all from my Military experience. I didn’t have anyone telling me what time to start and end work, no one to tell me what to do every day - I just knew what needed to be done.

One of my responsibilities was to act as a business consultant to small business owners, formally titled Agency Distribution Sales Specialist. In this role, finding an office location, furnishing the office, assisting with hiring staff, developing a marketing strategy, and reviewing financial statements were some of the things I did on a daily basis. As an entrepreneur, you need to be resilient, productive, focused, disciplined, and a hard worker. These are all skills learned in the Military which is why being an entrepreneur is an excellent option for those that have served our country.

Here are some tips to be a successful business owner:

Hiring the right employee is the first thing that needs to be done. Think of the interview process in the same way as a Promotion Board. Reviewing soldiers’ records is similar to looking at resumes. Pay attention to qualities you are looking for in a team member. Once you have selected who you are interested in, the interview is the next step. The questions asked in the interview should be based on the applicant’s job history, experience, and the qualities you are looking for. During the interview, assess their conversational skills, ability to respond under pressure, question if they coachable, ask yourself if you would want this person on your team, etc.

Once you find the right person, you want to keep them as long as you can. Employees are an appreciating asset because they can become more productive and valuable with time. Compensation is one way to keep someone engaged. In the Military, you promote someone when you want to keep them. As a small business owner, you have the option to create a solid compensation plan. Some ideas to consider are: paying for performance (this will allow someone to make their own raise), paid vacation days, flex time, continuing education fees paid, life insurance, etc.

Now that you have your team in place, it’s important to define success. Determine what the goals are so everyone is on the same page with ‘the mission’ or what needs to be accomplished. In the Military, you kept score. You knew how many pushups needed to be done in order to score 100; you knew how many points you needed to make the cut off for promotion. It’s no different in the business world. One way to keep score is to keep track of where your business comes from. Marketing and advertising are expensive; a review should be done on a regular basis to assess the return of investment for each system. Many small business owners get their business from word of mouth, so having a loyalty or referral program might be something to consider.

Hopefully you will find what I have written useful so you can apply it to your operation. My advice to you as an entrepreneur is based on my experience working with small business owners and salespeople in my organization. Good luck with your entrepreneurial journey!

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Aug 17 at 2015 11:58 AM

SGT Ben Keen — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 11:58:01 -0400

SGT Marion Townes - Have you filed to be recognized officially as a Veteran-Owned Business? If not, I highly recommend you do that as soon as possible. Great work keep it up!

Response by SN Greg Wright made Aug 17 at 2015 1:14 PM

SN Greg Wright — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 13:14:59 -0400

SGT Marion Townes Excellent post, Sarge, great information. From a fellow Oregonian, too! Welcome to RP!

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Aug 17 at 2015 1:25 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 13:25:06 -0400

I spent the better part of my life as an entrepreneur, sometimes successful, sometimes not. Yes, my military experience helped, not directly. Training to kill people and destroy things doesn't translate well to the civilian world. But the training and experience in self reliance, leadership, etc sure didn't hurt. I have posted several essays in my weblog on entrepreneurship, WTMI to repeat here, so check them out. In fact, this posting may inspire me to continue the series...

http://www.jackdurish.com/4/category/entrepreneurs/1.html

Category: Entrepreneurs

I remember those early days, fresh out of the Army, pursuing a career, learning a new trade: Consultant. I began working for another, someone with experience, a mentor. As the new kid, I had to take...

Response by GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad made Aug 17 at 2015 2:14 PM

GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 14:14:29 -0400

Excellent post SGT Marion Townes --- thanks for your insight and advice!

Response by Capt Brandon Charters made Aug 17 at 2015 5:57 PM

Capt Brandon Charters — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 17:57:54 -0400

SGT Marion Townes This was an excellent piece. Thanks for letting us in on your entrepreneurial journey. So many great bits of advice. Hiring the right people can't be emphasized enough. The less internal issues you have to deal with on the performance front, the more time you'll have to advance ROI and the bottom line. Veterans like yourself offer so much to a business in respect to motivation and training. You're a force multiplier. We've all had to do it in uniform, and it's really no different in the civilian world. Measuring the goals, holding your team accountable, and following up with support to remove roadblocks are all critical pieces as well. Thanks again for your unique perspective!

Response by SGT Rick Ash made Aug 17 at 2015 6:58 PM

SGT Rick Ash — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 18:58:49 -0400

SGT Marion Townes Excellent Post! I believe you will continue to have success. I started three companies on my own and could not afford anything BUT stellar performance from the Sales Team members. I always hired based on attitude along with skills and experience. All three companies grew to around $40M in annual revenue at around 22% Gross Profit Margins. I banked around $2M each as I sold each company at around 7 years so that spanned 21+ years. Only one bad hire in that time and he infuriated me. Every team member was hustling every day except for him. And around 4:30 every day he would stand at the glass wall in his office tossing his car keys UP & Down, over and over. I fired him the day he got his first paycheck and enjoyed doing it. No free rides. Thanks for sharing your inputs, they were all dead on!
Rick

Response by MSG James Douglas made Aug 17 at 2015 7:06 PM

MSG James Douglas — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 19:06:01 -0400

Valuable information in which I will be able to utilize within the next year......Thanks for sharing!!

Response by Michelle Titus made Aug 17 at 2015 7:48 PM

Michelle Titus — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 19:48:50 -0400

Marion Townes - thanks for sharing! Your tips for small business owners are right on point!

Response by SSG Hector Guerra made Aug 18 at 2015 12:22 AM

SSG Hector Guerra — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 00:22:04 -0400

The military sees and understand these skills and value them. In the civilian world is not quite the same. I work for a gas compression company. I spend anywhere from 50 to 70 hours a week, on call every weekend. I have 150,000 horse power of compression engines, two warehouses, and three containers. I'm burned out.
I started my own company. One thing I've learned about working outside the military is this. We are LEADERS, we MAKE A DIFFERENCE, we HAVE NO QUIT ATTITUDES, we DON'T COMPLAIN.
To tell you the truth, no matter how much tenacity, dedication and the motivation, it rarely makes a difference. We need more Veteran owned companies to take care of veterans. SBA knows knows that most veterans have what it takes to build, sustain, create jobs and some.
the second phase of my company is in the works now.
I created a platform for military members, students, and homeschool students to be able to take a personality test, research over 1100 jobs that fits your personality, those jobs have minimum requirement and pay. let's face it. who wants to get out the military and work in a place that they are not satisfied in. We have money for school and people out here looking out for our best interest. The one thing Service Members lack is a Plan.

http://www.mymapplan.com

My Map Plan

Portal for use by High Schools, Guidance Counselors, Parents, Students and Colleges w

Response by SSG Hector Guerra made Aug 18 at 2015 12:22 AM

SSG Hector Guerra — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 00:22:17 -0400

My Map Plan

Portal for use by High Schools, Guidance Counselors, Parents, Students and Colleges w

Response by SSG Hector Guerra made Aug 18 at 2015 12:24 AM

SSG Hector Guerra — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 00:24:21 -0400

The military sees and understand these skills and value them. In the civilian world is not quite the same. I work for a gas compression company. I spend anywhere from 50 to 70 hours a week, on call every weekend. I have 150,000 horse power of compression engines, two warehouses, and three containers. I'm burned out.
I started my own company. One thing I've learned about working outside the military is this. We are LEADERS, we MAKE A DIFFERENCE, we HAVE NO QUIT ATTITUDES, we DON'T COMPLAIN.
To tell you the truth, no matter how much tenacity, dedication and the motivation, it rarely makes a difference. We need more Veteran owned companies to take care of veterans. SBA knows that most veterans have what it takes to build, sustain, create jobs and some.
the second phase of my company is in the works now.
I created a platform for military members, students, and homeschool students to be able to take a personality test, research over 1100 jobs that fits your personality, those jobs have minimum requirement and pay. let's face it. who wants to get out the military and work in a place that they are not satisfied in. We have money for school and people out here looking out for our best interest. The one thing Service Members lack is a Plan.

http://www.mymapplan.com

My Map Plan

Portal for use by High Schools, Guidance Counselors, Parents, Students and Colleges w

Response by MAJ Rod Harden made Aug 18 at 2015 11:59 AM

MAJ Rod Harden — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 11:59:15 -0400

Great story of your journey and really makes the connection between the military ethos and success in the business community. Thanks for sharing !!!

Response by PO2 Robert Cuminale made Aug 20 at 2015 6:51 PM

PO2 Robert Cuminale — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 18:51:11 -0400

My best employee was the only one who was a vet like myself. he had most of the qualities I needed on the skills side but what swung me over to his side was that he was working at a Burger King rather than collect unemployment. I hired him and his electronics background was easily transitioned into telecommunications installation and repair.
He passed away at age 31 from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma or he'd still have been with me until I retired. I'd have given him the business he as so deserving.