NBH Celebrates National Veterans Small Business Week

We are blessed to have Veterans Day and Memorial Day to reflect on the great sacrifices and courage of the men and women of the United States military.

But did you know October 30 to November 3 is National Veterans Small Business Week?

Those who served in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, not only give the best years of their lives to keep our country safe, but veterans also play a vital role in the nation’s economy.

According to this year’s Allstate/USA Today Small Business Barometer, 73 percent of veterans say there has never been a better time to own a small business. And while the numbers are high among all small business owners — 64 percent say the best time to own a business is now and 92 percent report high optimism.

Based on the latest available data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of Small Business Owners (released December 2015 and February 2016), 2.52 million businesses in the United States are majority-owned by veterans — 99.9 percent of these would qualify as a small business.

According to the SBA report entitled “Veteran-Owned Businesses and Their Owners,” small business firms owned by veterans employed 5.03 million people, had an annual payroll of $195 billion and receipts of $1.14 trillion. The veteran-owned firms represented 9.1 percent of all U.S. businesses.

• Nearly 30 percent of all veteran-owned firms were in two industry groups: construction and the professional, scientific and technical services group.
• The industry with the largest share of veteran-owned firms was finance and insurance (13.2 percent), followed by transportation and warehousing (12.1 percent), and construction (11.4 percent).
• Five industry groups accounted for 71.5 percent of all veteran-owned firm sales: wholesale trade (22.9 percent), retail trade (19.5 percent), manufacturing (12.3 percent), construction (10.1 percent), and professional, scientific, and technical services (7.0 percent).
• About one-quarter of all businesses reported that they did not need any capital to start up or acquire their business. Personal or family savings was the largest source of capital for business startup or acquisition Business loans from banks or other commercial lenders were used by 7.8 percent of veteran-owned firms.
• About 22 percent of veterans in the U.S. household population were either purchasing or starting a business, or considering doing so in the study period. Almost 72 percent of these new veteran entrepreneurs planned to employ at least one person at the outset of their venture.

At National Business Helpers, we have been proudly supporting veterans who are small business owners offers Merchant Cash Advances, Small Business Financing Solutions, Bad Credit Funding and more.  There are also a number of small business grants and resources for veterans.