By: Vikram Mahadevan
Soldiers transitioning from active-duty service to normal life can face new challenges and uncertainty. Without the structure and hierarchical nature of military life, many veterans face decision paralysis when forging a path after their service. Veterans have various options, from enrolling in college to jumping into the business world through transition assistance programs. Many veterans find success and fulfillment after military service by becoming entrepreneurs and starting a business. The Veteran status can help build a strong brand, provide access to development and marketing tools and resources, and stand out amongst the crowd.
Building a brand
Veterans have advantages in building strong, authentic brands, aiding their journey as entrepreneurs. First, veterans always have a story to tell. Stories, such as equipment inventories in the summer heat before a ‘Change of Command’ or an overnight mission in hostile territory, can humanize veterans as business owners and help forge connections with other businesses, suppliers, and customers. Soldiers understand the importance of presentation through their military experience. For instance, countless hours of shining boots and measuring spaces in a ribbon rack provide veteran entrepreneurs with the skill and ability to apply the same level of care to a brand image. While it can be a successful strategy, a veteran does not have to craft a gung-ho, tactical military brand (looking at you, Black Rifle Coffee Company). Veterans can translate their military experience, stories, and skills to develop a brand in any field.
leveraging veteran status
Veteran status bestows access to tools entrepreneurs can leverage for growth and development.
Small Business Administration (SBA)
The United States’ SBA provides a wealth of programs to support veteran entrepreneurs. These include training programs, funding options, access to state and federal contracting programs, advice hotlines, and networking opportunities. The Veteran-Owned Business page on the SBA’s website expands on these resources.
The SBA also holds regional Boots to Business programs as part of the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program. These programs are designed to provide entrepreneurial training including advice on developing your transition mission.
While the SBA’s excellent offerings are referenced above, the Veterans’ Business Outreach Center (VBOC) deserves a special mention. The VBOC provides veteran entrepreneurs with training and referral services at no or minimal cost. Additionally, spouses of military personnel can access VBOC benefits. The VBOC is an incredible resource for connecting with other businesses and gaining insight into the strategies of successful business owners.
tools, platforms, and strategies for marketing
Use Your Story
Life in the military shapes values, work ethic, and your business approach. Connect your military experiences to your business goals to show customers the human side of the business and help them relate to you as a person representing a brand.
Use Your Skills
The military fosters an individual’s discipline, attention to detail, and task commitment. Turn your marketing goals into a mission and draft an OPORD to help visualize progress in a way that makes sense to you. Look at the industry to gauge the “commander’s intent” toward a specific product or brand. These are just a few examples of military-business translations that can aid veterans as they start a business.
Social Media Tips
Many platforms, like LinkedIn, provide a “veteran” badge for profiles. Others have veteran support networks and local business groups that allow entrepreneurs to network, bounce ideas around, and connect to develop businesses. If you enter a space without a veteran presence, do not be afraid to establish yourself and provide the missing perspective.
Stay Authentic
The modern consumer finds inauthenticity off-putting. Putting on a false military air and embellishing stories from service can have adverse effects if a customer senses they are not genuine. The modern consumer is bombarded with air-brushed visuals dressed up with branding, so a truthful, authentic message can be like a breath of fresh air. Furthermore, as a business owner, committing to an idea you genuinely stand for instead of forcing a fit is far more manageable.
Faking it til’ you make it can work, but consumers often detect the false messages and become weary when an entrepreneur pretends to be someone they are not.
Measure Success
Track tangible metrics and assess yourself like you would prepare an NCOER or OER support form. It is easy to get lost in vague ideas of success; thus, it’s best to use the tangible metrics that social media companies provide to track successes and failures. Track views and clicks for each post on Instagram, Reddit, or Facebook. Set goals for interaction and follow through on them. Like a Commander, prepare the company for a CTC rotation by confirming unit readiness through training and health metrics, and analyze your company by tracking specific, clear, and countable statistics.
conclusion
Stay true to your service. Veterans are uniquely situated to start small businesses after military service. Remember to give back to the veteran community by offering discounts to veterans, supporting other groups underrepresented in the industry, and serving as a resource to soldiers still serving. Your service instilled incredible soft skills and now provides you access to a wealth of business resources designed to help you grow as an entrepreneur. You courageously signed on the dotted line, wore the uniform, and served your country. Channel that same spirit when making the leap of faith to start your business and life as an entrepreneur.
Vikram, originally from Boston, Massachusetts, enlisted in the Army in 2015 as a 74D Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Specialist. After completing Initial Entry Training, Vikram served in the 63rd Chemical Company and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) at Fort Campbell, KY. Upon leaving Army service in 2021, Vikram worked as a Legislative Assistant in the PA General Assembly and subsequently as a paralegal at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom. Vikram is currently a 1L student at Penn State Dickinson Law.
Sources:
https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/grow-your-business/veteran-owned-businesses
One of Dickinson Law’s most esteemed alumni is businessman, Lewis Katz. Many Dickinson Law students have likely seen his name on the side entrance and portrait in the lobby of the school. For students with a keen eye, you may have even seen one generous donation of $15 million. Before his generosity, Lewis Katz was a billionaire entrepreneur.
In 1998, Katz was a part of an investor group with his friend Ray Chambers that purchased the New Jersey Nets for $150 million. In 1999, the same investor group also signed an agreement with Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner to form YankeeNets, which owned the two teams collectively. Katz and Chambers went on to establish Puck Holdings as an affiliate of YankeeNets. Puck Holdings purchased the New Jersey Devils for $175 million in an effort to increase leverage in negotiating sports broadcasting contracts.
As the former director of the Katz Foundation, Lewis Katz supported a wide range of causes aimed at helping others. Katz valued the southern New Jersey and Philadelphia area that he spent a vast portion of his life in. As an investor in these communities, he provided funding to various projects, and donated to nonprofits, including the Boys and Girls Club. Katz was also a strong believer in education. He donated millions to both his alma maters, Temple University and Penn State Dickinson Law. His generosity helped keep Dickinson Law’s campus in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and funded Temple’s Medical School. With his Jewish background, Katz also made generous gifts to congregations and other Jewish organizations in the Philadelphia area.
Businesses around the world have quickly adapted and adopted the new AI technology, experimenting in a multitude of different areas, such as finance, education, law, science, and healthcare, where they have already changed the landscape for how those industries will operate.
e., token) into consideration, whether the dataset is just a sentence, paragraph, book, magazine article, etc.
kers in humans to detect conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Dementia, PTSD, and Huntington’s Disease. These vocal biomarkers have also been used to evaluate energy levels, and Axon Dao has stated this could be the future where individuals are evaluated before driving commercial trucks, cars, and/or operating large machinery.
chers comes in the form of paying individuals in a cryptocurrency on the blockchain called AXGT (Axon Dao). The distribution of coins to Axon Dao’s users ensure that individuals continue to provide medical data that is needed for further developments, and it also ensures researchers, doctors, scientists, etc., have all the data they need to make vast improvements in the healthcare industry.
pecially when it comes to pre-symptomatic detection, early-stage detection, and early intervention in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Dementia, PTSD, and Huntington’s Disease have already changed the healthcare/research industry. Companies like Axon Dao have the potential to grow large very quickly, and I believe the time is now for someone looking to start a business and/or get involved with a start-up business of this kind to not only help yourself out financially in the future, but also, to help out humanity.
Alec is a dedicated M&A Tax Associate at BDO, specializing in the complexities of tax law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions. Alec’s expertise is underpinned by a Certificate of Taxation from Penn State Dickinson Law. Outside of Alec’s professional life, Alec is a devoted husband and father, who cherishes every moment spent with his family. Additionally, Alec is a former Division 1 hockey player. Alec also has a passion for learning and researching the benefits decentralized AI could offer humanity.
Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in 1918 in Hot Wells, Texas. At the age of twenty-one, she became a salesperson for the Stanley Home Products company. In order to encourage people to buy the household items from the company, she would host parties. After much success with Stanley Home Products, she was hired by World Gifts in 1952. She spent roughly a decade with that company before leaving after another man (that she had trained) got promoted above her and was making a much higher salary than she was.
At the age of forty-five after becoming disenchanted with the traditional workplace, entrepreneur Mary Kay was determined to create her own business. She started her own cosmetics company from scratch, Mary Kay Inc., in 1963 with an initial investment of $5,000. She used this initial investment to rent a small office and manufacture an initial inventory of the skin care products. She also recruited nine independent salespeople. In the 1960’s, most American bathrooms were white. Mary Kay chose the infamous pink packaging for her products so that they could be displayed on bathroom counters.
In 1968, Mary Kay purchased the first pink Cadillac. The car served as a mobile advertisement for the business. The following year, she gave her top five salespeople pink 1970 Coup de Ville cars. She had an exclusive agreement with General Motors to sell cars in the specific shade of pink only to Mary Kay. The beauty consultant winners of the cars received a company-paid, two-year lease, and then could choose to buy the cars at the end of the lease period. Mary Kay had different car incentive levels for her beauty consultants. Some beauty consultants could earn the use of a silver Chevrolet Malibu or a cash payment of $425 a month. Other beauty consultants could earn a black Chevrolet Equinox or Traverse, a Mini Cooper, or $500 a month. The top performers could choose between the pink Cadillac or $900 a month. Ford Mustangs and BMWs have been introduced as incentive options in recent years, but the pink Cadillac remains the top award for consultants whose sales exceed $100,000 in a year.
Megan (Meg) Smith is a rising 3L at Penn State Dickinson Law. She has bachelor’s degrees in International Business and French and an M.B.A. with a concentration in finance. Prior to coming to law school, Meg spent nearly twenty years working for Alcoa Corp. in corporate finance and government affairs. Meg is interested in practicing corporate law. To contact Meg, please email her at mps6962@psu.edu.
Many small businesses are formed between family members or friends. But when a relationship, or the business itself, starts to break down, an owner may decide that it is time to move on. In more positive instances, owners may leave a business to pursue a new career, make more time for hobbies, or retire. This post breaks down some important steps to consider if you are thinking about leaving your business.
Robin Platte, at the time of this post, is a recent graduate of Penn State Dickinson Law. Before attending law school, Robin earned her B.A. in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University and spent several years managing e-commerce platforms at a digital marketing start-up.
While it is paramount that we set a standard for celebrities and hold them accountable for criminal activities or sexual assault allegations, a celebrity entrepreneur should not face the risk of losing brand sponsorship or retail contracts for their social justice activism. Huda Kattan, the founder of Huda Beauty a cosmetic company worth $1.2 billion, faces backlash for her views on the humanitarian crisis happening in Palestine. As an Iraqi makeup artist, beauty blogger, and entrepreneur, Kattan gained international recognition for setting beauty trends and incorporating Middle Eastern makeup style into her products. Because of her views, she has been ridiculed and called out for being “Anti-Semitic.” Currently, there is a Change.org petition demanding that Sephora, a French retailer of cosmetic products, remove Huda Beauty products from US stores. 31,038 individuals have signed the petition as of today. Although Sephora has not responded, it is not uncommon for retailers to cut ties with influencers amid scandal. In 2020, Cosmetic company Morphe cut ties with Jeffree Star and his cosmetic brand when he was “canceled” for his relationship with another controversial YouTuber.
Accounting has been coined “the language of business.” So you would think that all business owners are fluent in accounting. However, one study found that 60% of small business owners aren’t confident in finance and accounting! That includes a basic understanding of the difference between cash basis and accrual methods of accounting. These methods can have huge implications on a business, and this blog will discuss how cash basis and accrual methods of accounting can affect businesses differently.
The application to change accounting methods is called a 
The appropriate financial response to these historic and present day abuses would be an exodus of aspiring black business-owners to more localized, community banks. This will relieve tens of thousands of black barbers, beauticians, nail-techs, fashion designers, and retailers who’ve had to beg their families, churches and communities to do what essentially is the job of a bank or lending institution. This practice underscores the increasing deficit of underbanked and underserved black communities. Big Banks have the benefit of government and private subsidies that have allowed them to endure beyond many devastating financial crises. Black banks have not similarly had this luxury. In fact, the total number of Black-owned banks has steadily decreased since the turn of the last century. With 48 federally recognized black banks existing in 2001 being shrunk to only 20 banks, as of September of 2022. Lest we forget, there are over 4,000 banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, or FDIC. However, despite this discouraging shortfall, there are black-owned banks currently existing¬¬–––the largest being City First Bank in Washington, D.C.––and other non-federally recognized, Black owned “Fintech” banks that are increasingly gaining popularity in the minority-focused banking sector.
