PeopleFund

Funding our Nation’s Heroes: Financing Veteran Entrepreneurship

The following article was written by PeopleFund staff as a guest post for the new SCORE blog on entrepreneurship, financing, lending, and business practices.


“Show Me the Money”

“Vetrepreneurs” Want to Know   

We routinely hear  that “veterans make great business owners,” because they do— specialized training,  job experience, teamwork and discipline and are all part of military service and  also essential characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. For example Nike, Chik-Fil-A, Fedex, and Little Caesars were all started by veterans with a dream and determination to succeed. Veterans are twice as likely as their civilian counterparts to become entrepreneurs, frequently referred to as “vetrepreneurs”.

The real question is: if veteran-owned businesses are more likely to succeed than civilian-owned businesses, why aren’t they getting financed?

Transitioning veterans may have  limited   credit history, cash or collateral  as a result of modest pay, family separations due to deployments,  and frequent moves . Many veteran businesses are start-ups and do not qualify for bank loans. All these factor combined, make veterans want to know who will “Show me the Money”

PeopleFund has a  proven  lending and education program designed for  veterans. PeopleVET provides six three-hour sessions covering personal credit, financial statements, business planning, marketing, product
pricing, capital needs  and other relevant topics needed for business success. Subject to very basic criteria,  graduates qualify for  a $20,000 loan at fixed  5% interest rate. In fact, all veterans automatically qualify for a 5% interest rate at PeopleFund, whether or not they participate in PeopleVET. Currently  20% of PeopleFund loans are to veterans, with average loan size of $40,000.  Visit
https://peoplefund.org/education/peoplevet/ to find out more.

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