Why don't more Veterans choose Entrepreneurship?

My business partner and I are both veteran entrepreneurs, http://citywide.k3client.com/index.html. Its been my experience that vets that have entrepreneurship in their core test the waters first before taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. The real question comes down to what is their financial risk tolerance.

It is absolutely a risk. But there are plenty of opportunities that are low risk and very low overhead. There are lots of people who have started businesses from home including construction, teaching, sales, etc. I started a business and worked it part time until it out payed my full time job. It was no risk at all. There are obstacles, but another thing the military instills is the ability to overcome challenges. I think people get out and they are so stuck in the "follow orders" mentality that they simply fall in line and give up on their dreams.

Most of us just have the daily responsibilities that interfere with starting our own business. I personally just started my own business in finance and had to still work a job for 6 months before going with time with my company. Cover the basics first and make sure you have a great foundation. Plus when I first got out of the military, the transition program just sucks. Shove a bunch of information down your throat and boot you out. Lol.

As a vet that is in the process of transitioning out of the military and starting my own business i think I have an amazing explanation. I think it starts when you are a kid and the hopes and dreams that are proposed to you. We are told we can do whatever we want to do but if people become more specific they preach that "American dream" BS. You know the whole good paying job with a wife and 2 kids and a house with the picket fence. We are conitioned our entire lives to get a job and work hard which kills the desire to want to start something on your own. Being in the military you are literally taught all the important traits that are needed to run a business. If a person would research and learn the aspects of business we are set up perfect to start one. So in the end it's just fear

Hey Buddy,
i have asked myself the same question because I got out and built my own company to help veterans find franchises. The reasons have ranged from " I don't have the money" to "I am trying to start a family." There are many reasons but only some are even worth the time it takes to hear them. Many don't have a penny to their name getting out. That is valid to an extent. The others are just excuses for the underlying reasons of fear do to lack of information and knowledge. Some guys have truly given up and are ready to take a nine to five and become comfortable. I personally think it is spiritual suicide.

I have been toying with the idea of starting a business for a few years now. I don't want to start off with a massive amount of debt to run it and be a slave to the bank. I have been trying to get my family in on my plans to maybe make it a family business or partnership. But in the mean time I have just been making connections with other people who have done what I want to do.

I would love to start my own business! My problem is that I have yet to have that "Ah Ha" moment. I genuinely just have not yet thought of something that could really take off.

One problem is that too many service members who transition out use a 501c3 and yet not provide services that are really redundant of the VAs. And a guy from SCORE in Raleigh told me that there should be an integrated and cooperative effort rather than a rag tag web site and promises they cannot deliver. Networking is the due diligence to find people with a kindred motivation and this includes businesses outside of veteran support. SPC Lucas Predmore

SGT (Join to see) Nailed it. It's risky I recently got back from a deployment that got cut short. I really thought hard about going out on my own in construction, but we came back early. Now I sit here in the winter instead of spring. I've got to feed the family in the mean time. I take a job now, and quit in 3, 4 months?
I'm National Guard, so I'm somewhat used to fending for myself. I think it would be hard to go from Active Duty security to trying to fend for yourself, especially running your own business. Unless you put in the 20 and had some retirement pay to back you up.

Many of them transition from a steady occupation-the military and back into the civilian world, which is sometimes anything BUT stable. Running a business requires time resources that many service-members simply lack. They have to continue to feed their families. It's a risk.
My husband has been self-employed for years. However, contracts are hit or miss. Highly unstable. To even have a store-front requires capital, an investment that we can't afford to make. And that's the case with many soldiers I have spoken with.