Vets to Business Owners Program
By: CNN News
Updated: March 26, 2012
Navy Veteran Wade Franklin has big plans after serving for nearly seven years, deploying to Japan, South Asia and Afghanistan. He's going into business for himself.
"One good thing about the Navy is they really taught me how to make good decisions and how to, you know, manage things and you know, I felt 'hey, I want to take a chance on myself'."
Franklin is opening a UPS store.
UPS waived the nearly $30,000 franchise fee for ten veterans this year and Franklin is one of them He will still have to invest thousands in getting the store up and running, so he's applying for a $170,000 loan.
Franklin found the opportunity at UPS through VetFran, a program that helps returning service members open franchises. VetFran has helped more than 2,100 vets go into business since the 1990s and wants to recruit 75,000 vets and military spouses to be franchise owners or employees by 2014.
According to Steve Caldeira of VetFran, "The franchising industry, it's proven model, it's structured, it's very scaleable, and one that lends itself well to veterans, given the structure that they have to follow, each and every day, to be successful in the military."
The hope is that efforts like these will help bring down the unemployment rate among veterans. For post 9/11 vets, it's 7.6 percent, below the national average and nearly five points lower than a year ago.
"One good thing about the Navy is they really taught me how to make good decisions and how to, you know, manage things and you know, I felt 'hey, I want to take a chance on myself'."
Franklin is opening a UPS store.
UPS waived the nearly $30,000 franchise fee for ten veterans this year and Franklin is one of them He will still have to invest thousands in getting the store up and running, so he's applying for a $170,000 loan.
Franklin found the opportunity at UPS through VetFran, a program that helps returning service members open franchises. VetFran has helped more than 2,100 vets go into business since the 1990s and wants to recruit 75,000 vets and military spouses to be franchise owners or employees by 2014.
According to Steve Caldeira of VetFran, "The franchising industry, it's proven model, it's structured, it's very scaleable, and one that lends itself well to veterans, given the structure that they have to follow, each and every day, to be successful in the military."
The hope is that efforts like these will help bring down the unemployment rate among veterans. For post 9/11 vets, it's 7.6 percent, below the national average and nearly five points lower than a year ago.
