MR. MCMAHON: Glad to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
MS. CASEY: Okay, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey as an entrepreneur. The year is 2015. You are just retired from the military with the rank of lieutenant colonel, 22 years in. You worked in intelligence. What would have been a typical path after that?
MR. MCMAHON: Yeah, I had a Top Secret clearance and, you know, government contracting or any kind of government job would have been the natural path. You know, there’s tons of–especially in the D.C. area, there’s tons of people out there looking to hire guys like me.
MS. CASEY: I mean, really, I–you really are someone with a career in high demand. So, what makes you say, instead, “I want to open my own business?”
MR. MCMAHON: The bug started somewhere in my career. The Small Business Association, the SBA, offers classes, and there was a two-day class on entrepreneurship that they offer, and I was able to go to it. And it was just about starting your own business. And it really opened my eyes up and kind of got the bug started. Okay, I can–I can start my own business someday. So, it was in the back of my head way back when. And I wasn’t scared to do something different. Actually, I was an intelligence officer when I retired. I started off as a physical therapist. So, I had a medical officer degree, you know, and medical officer career to start up 10 years. I got burnt out on patient care, and then convinced the Air Force to retrain me into intelligence. And then when I retired–you know, I got married late, I had young kids. And I was like, you know, I don’t want to be busy, busy working an eight to five, nine to five job every day. I wanted to do something that eventually I could step away and spend more time with the kids.
MS. CASEY: How hard is the transition for Lieutenant Colonel McMahon to become Tom, business owner in D.C.?
MR. MCMAHON: It was easier than I thought. You know, it was–it was scary at first. And then once you get your feet into it, it wasn’t so bad.
MS. CASEY: Your wife is also an Air Force veteran. She’s still on reserve duty. How did she encourage you to take this step? Because, you know, as you pointed out, it becomes a family decision. Because you’re thinking about not just how you’re going to make your money, but also what your lifestyle is going to be.
MR. MCMAHON: Yeah, we were lucky. So, you know, I retired, so I had the military income coming in right after retirement, and my wife had a full-time job. And so this was kind of an easy button. You know, nice thing is if you retire out of your–out of the military, you kind of can do almost what you want to do instead of what you have to do because you have that income right after you retire coming in. And so we talked about it.
And then the other stimulus was my wife has two sisters that have stores like mine in Philadelphia and New York, and they were influential at doing it. We didn’t really know what we wanted to do, and we toyed around with different ideas. And then they said, well, we’ve been doing this for 20 years. We can show you how this works. And so that was–kind of got the bug started. My wife actually is the one that wanted to do this. But she’s a little younger, and she had her career. And she said, you know what, it’s your turn. You retired, go for it.
MS. CASEY: So, you become like–so suddenly, you’re going to like jewelry shows and touring around. I want–yeah, go ahead, tell me about that.
MR. MCMAHON: Yeah, I make a joke about my time in Afghanistan was less intimidating than going to the first jewelry show. I was really clueless. I had to ride the coattails of my sisters-in-law because I was eyes wide open and in shock and scared, like, how do I navigate this? I was able to navigate the deserts of Afghanistan easier than I was able to navigate a jewelry show or a tradeshow.
MS. CASEY: Well, I want to talk more about how you actually launched your business because it’s really relevant to thinking about how veterans can become entrepreneurs. But just tell us about your store a little bit and how did you–we’ll talk about the business side of it in a minute. How did you figure out just, you know, how to get into this kind of a business specifically?
MR. MCMAHON: So, this specific was, as I said, you know, my wife’s two sisters had stores. So, I went to work–and for anyone you’re going to do any kind of business, you really need to get experience in what you’re doing. I’d never worked in retail before. So, I actually went up and worked in their stores, went up to the–Philly for a few weeks, went up to New York for a few weeks and worked with them, visited them. They’d kind of showed me what they do, walk around. They took me to trade shows. Because I really got an exposure to what I was going to do. And then it seemed–it seemed not bad. It seemed like it was doable.
MS. CASEY: So, you know, there’s a real challenge in raising capital for any entrepreneur so you can start a new business. How did you tackle that?
MR. MCMAHON: So, I had a mentor–SCORE mentor. We could talk about that in a few. But he was–you know, kind of explained to me the different ways and the kind of the easiest money for us was, or the cheapest money, is the way we went with a home equity line of credit called a HELOC. There are small business loans out there. The rates aren’t as good as a HELOC. So we went with the cheapest money, and that was it. But there’s a class–so when I retired, there’s a class called Boots to Business run by the Small Business Association, and I recommend any veteran getting out of the Air Force or getting out of the military to go to this. It was really an A-to-Z how to start a business and it covers everything from that kind of question of how to raise money, how to raise capital. There are a lot of resources out there: grants, loans for folks. And the Boots to Business class has a good section on that, on how to raise capital.
MS. CASEY: You dropped a word in there that people may not have caught, the SCORE program, and how you had a mentor through SCORE. So, tell us what SCORE is, first of all. And then who is your mentor?
MR. MCMAHON: SCORE is a government-funded group of men and women who have succeeded in business and have become mentors for aspiring entrepreneurs. The biggest piece of advice I could give anyone is get a SCORE mentor immediately. If you have an idea floating out there, even if it’s way far off in the distance, you can go to SCORE, SCORE.org, and tell them what you’re thinking of, and they’ll hook you up with a mentor that has done something similar to yours.
And my mentor, Richard Rose, I met him about a year before we started the business. And actually, I have a meeting with him tomorrow about some advice that I needed, became a long friendship. I’ve since called him my guardian angel. They hand hold you through the entire process from the business startup. He went light shopping for me for track lighting, they look for spaces, they give advice on the lease negotiation. And whatever business you’re thinking of, whether it’s government contracting, or opening a waffle shop, they’ll have someone out there to help.
MS. CASEY: I was reading a profile of you back in 2015 in The Washington Post, and it’s so exciting to see where you’ve come from that moment, because your business was new at that point. And one of the things that you talked to our reporter about was that even figuring out a lease, like you said, getting property can be so challenging, and there could be so many pitfalls. Can you give us an example of how your mentor was able to help guide you through that specific process of just getting the brick-and-mortar part of your business?
MR. MCMAHON: Yeah, there’s something called a leasing agent, which unbeknownst to me, was free to the person looking for a space. And so that was a good example of, you know, there are things I didn’t even know I needed to know in the startup process. And so the lease negotiation, the finding the space, getting a leasing agent, and while you’re getting the space, doing a letter of intent, which is kind of a handshake agreement with your landlord, which is very important, because you usually don’t back out of it. It’s not a contract yet, but is the kind of foundation for the contract. All this stuff, completely clueless. You know, I’ve had skills through the military I gained. I’ve had advice from, you know, what to buy in the store for my sisters-in-law, but navigating the startup process from the business side of it and kind of the physical space, no clue about.
And that’s really where SCORE mentors come in. They know this stuff in and out, and they can kind of guide you step by step on what you need to do and who you need to talk to.
MS. CASEY: How much money do you feel like that saved you just in terms of the upfront costs that you were able to head off because you had insights into ways the process worked?
MR. MCMAHON: Yeah, I mean, tons of money saved just from not having to pay for someone to kind of guide you along, but also security. There’s something called a guarantee with your lease, and a landlord will try to get you to get–say if I sign a 10-year lease, they’ll try to get you to sign a lease that says, okay, if you fail in year one, you still owe us 10 years of rent. Well, if I didn’t have a SCORE mentor, I would have signed it, be like, okay, sure. I’ll sign that. I don’t–I don’t know any better.
But there’s something called the limited guarantee which the SCORE mentor guided me on to say, you only owe a year or less if you fail, and most landlords will agree to that. But they’ll try to take advantage of folks if you don’t know.
MS. CASEY: You shared with us a couple of programs that assisted you in getting your business started. But what else should a veteran know if they’re curious about starting a business or want to find out if it’s something that’s a good fit for them?
MR. MCMAHON: I guess the biggest thing is to know if you’ve got to kind of an itch to do it, that you already have the skills to do it. I jotted down a few things. I was–because when I started the business, I didn’t know that I possessed all these skills. It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. And I look back and I’m like, it’s because of the military and the skills I gained there, like leadership, project management, multitasking, organizational skills, problem solving, ability to face challenges, interpersonal skills, time management, independence. These are all skills that are kind of built in little by little, and you don’t even realize it’s happening. In a normal job, say you go to high school and you sit at a desk somewhere, you don’t gain these skills. And the challenges that you’re faced with and the moving that you have to do, all this stuff helps you grow and become independent and become a big–you know, bigger person than you think you are. So, you can do it. It’s much easier than you think. And you need to learn the whatever business you’re going to be in if you don’t know much it, go work in that area. But you already have the skills to do it.
MS. CASEY: Tom, how do you get veterans to recognize that and know that? I mean, you just rattled off an extensive set of skills that come from either 22 years of experience, or frankly, even just a couple of years in the military, you’re getting some of that self-sufficiency, that just kind of following directions, you know, both ends of the spectrum. How do you get that translated to the veteran community, so they know that they have what it takes?
MR. MCMAHON: There’s just resources out there. I think the Boots to Business is good, because they’ll highlight that stuff. Interviews like this, where you get the exposure out there. And just the self-experience. Once you started doing it, it was self-apparent. You know, when I was like going through the process, I was like, oh, I know how to do this. Oh, I can do this. So just having the self-confidence and not being scared.
MS. CASEY: Okay, so have you found that people are inclined to do what they can to help a business if they learn that it’s being started by a veteran or someone with military ties?
MR. MCMAHON: Sure, it’s nice at this time of our lives where the military is respected. So, I think we got customers coming in, and they always, you know, want to pay back. And I mean, I have customers come in and say, you know, I can find this cheaper on Amazon, but I like supporting you, because you’re in the military, you’re a small business, you’re independent. So, there’s a community out there that really supports us, which is nice.
MS. CASEY: What is the best thing about your job now? When you think about what you set out to do, and the goals that you had as a family, has it translated into what you hoped it would be in terms of having some of that freedom and having some of that self-sufficiency?
MR. MCMAHON: Luckily, exactly how I planned it out to be. The–I have–so the most important thing you can do besides getting a SCORE mentor is finding good people. And I was lucky in the beginning to find a manager who’s been with me since the beginning, and I have since delegated more and more responsibility to her. So, I am really going into the shop once or twice a week to check on things. I kind of dumped everything I can on her and I don’t waste any time showing her how much I appreciate her. Her name is Amanda, and she allows me the opportunity to spend all the time I can with my kids. My wife has a crazy job, and I have taken over all the home duties and I get the kids ready for school and I go to field trips, and I cook and clean. And I love it. That’s kind of what I wanted to do. So, in terms of the dream, I’m really living it, where I’ve got this business which is kind of on autopilot. I get engaged in the back side of things, in buying and selling and all that. But the day-to-day operations I’ve delegated down to a manager. And I can, you know, spend the time with the kids who are only seven- and nine-years old right now, and I’m able to spend a lot of time with them, which is priceless.
MS. CASEY: Tom, how did you adjust and how did your team adjust during the height of the covid pandemic? You know, this was so tough on small businesses in particular, especially brick and mortar-based stores. What actions did you take? How did you deal with it?
MR. MCMAHON: Yeah, there was some challenges there. It was tough. We couldn’t keep everyone on. The SBA had a PPP program, the payment–Payroll Protection Program. So capitalizing on those things really helped. Washington D.C., and the grants from the federal government were very generous. And so they’re finding out about those grants and applying to everyone and getting money for every one helped.
And then we had to get creative. We had a–you know, we weren’t allowed to have customers. You know, we’re a brick-and-mortar store, so we rely on people walking into our door and touching our product and buying it. So, we made a window display and our own version of takeout. So, we had, you know, puzzles numbered and other things that people wanted–activities for kids or candles that people might want at home. We labeled them all in front and people with little sign on the door call and tell us what number you want. So they call, hey, I want puzzle number 17 and we’d run the credit card over the phone and then hand it out the door to them. So, it was challenging, but we made it through by being creative and capitalizing on grants that was provided by the city of D.C. and the federal government.
MS. CASEY: Tell me about resilience and some of the skills you learned in the military in terms of just not getting defeated and being able to press through during hard times.
MR. MCMAHON: Right. And I guess, again, you don’t even realize you have these skills. And then when the crisis hit, it wasn’t stressful. It was like, okay, it’s just another challenge. You know, you’re faced with crisis management, you know, people living and dying, you know? So, you know what, this is just another little blip on the screen there. So, you got to–you grin and bear it. And I think something when you’re in the military, you just learn, you know, things aren’t going to go great all the time, and you don’t have a choice but to move on. And so there wasn’t any kind of defeatist attitude. It was more, okay, we’ve got a problem, we got a challenge. It was very very, you know, what do we do now? What’s next? Where do we see ourselves? So, very methodical and calm.
MS. CASEY: Well, Tom McMahon, thank you so much for joining us and thanks for talking about your business, which, again, Urban Dwell is a local fixture here in D.C. So, really appreciate your time.
MR. MCMAHON: Thanks for having me.
MS. CASEY: Thank you so much, Tom McMahon, owner of Urban Dwell and a 22-year veteran. Stay with us. In a moment I’ll be back with a businesswoman who is focused on helping veteran entrepreneurs.
MS. UMOH: Hello, I’m Ruth Umoh, leadership editor at Fortune. Access to capital is essential for veteran small business owners to launch and scale their companies. Few know that better than Will Scott, vice president of business solutions at Navy Federal Credit Union, who joins me today to share insight on vetrepreneurship and what members of the military community needs to know about securing a loan.
Welcome, Will. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us.
MR. SCOTT: Thank you for having me, Ruth. I appreciate it.
MS. UMOH: Absolutely. Well, first of all, Will, why do members of the military community make for such great entrepreneurs?
MR. SCOTT: Yeah, they really–they’ve either brought to or have developed the skills in the military that make them great business owners. I mean, they really have the right stuff. They’ve got, you know, characteristics like leadership, resourcefulness, discipline, and hard work. Those are all things that make, you know, great businesspeople. And in addition to that, they’re used to executing a plan. And then when things come up, you know, and they face adversity, they know how to, you know, pivot and make the best of those situations. So, you know, they really–they really do make, typically very good business owners.
MS. UMOH: Well, as you know, most entrepreneurs need loans at some point to start their businesses, to grow their businesses, or even to manage through a rough patch. How can small veteran business owners maximize their chances of getting the financing needed?
MR. SCOTT: Yeah, first thing to do is turn off the social media, the TikTok videos, all these people pretending to be experts, you know, financial advice, people. You know, stick to places like the Washington Post, like Navy Federal Credit Union. You know, we actually, you know, work with business owners every day.
And so, you know, one of the surprising things, I think, for many business owners, or new business owners, is that they learn that their personal credit score is so important. I mean, that’s really one of those business assets that you don’t think about having. But if you really optimize that personal credit score, that’s going to help you out tremendously with your loan application.
Have a business model that works. And that’s simply, you know, just understand how your business creates profit. And then when you are going to borrow money, make sure that you’re borrowing money to actually help create more profit and not just to cover expenses or, you know, personal expenses. Those are not good things to have a business loan for.
And then number three, know exactly what you’re going to spend the money on. And before you fill out that application, I mean, really have it down to the penny. This is what I’m going to use, you know, this loan for. And many small business owners, they think well, I’m just going to ask for a $50,000 line of credit or $100,000 term loan, and that’s going to cover everything. You know, the lender really wants to see that you’ve taken your time and you understand exactly what you’re going to be spending the money on and you know how exactly you’re going to repay that loan or line of credit. And that’s going to really help you get to a yes on your business loan application.
MS. UMOH: Yeah. Well, it seems to me that social media influencers do not make for solid financial advisors. But I am curious, what other tips should vetrepreneurs keep in mind to manage their finances while building and growing their businesses?
MR. SCOTT: Great question. I’m going to paraphrase the legendary businessman, Snoop Dogg. Keep your mind on your money and your money on your mind. And that really is great advice because cash is king. Cash is what is used to, you know, repay loans back, and understanding your cash flow, your cash cycle, and how to maximize your accounts receivable and payables is really super important to get good at when you’re in business. Whenever possible, hold on to your cash, and then use that as leverage to borrow money. That way, you’ve got your cash and you’ve got the cash from your loan, and you’ll be able to make more mistakes, you know, kind of learn as you go and have more options.
If you use up all of your cash and then you go to your lender and say, hey, I need some money, that doesn’t work quite as well, because lenders like to see that you’ve got some cash or some skin in the game on your own first.
And then keep your personal and business expenses and income separately. You know, other than the tax implications that that are there, you know, being in business for yourself, you have to know if you’re winning the game. And if you don’t know if you’re actually being profitable, you can’t see your revenues and expenses for the business member–for those business expenses as clearly if you’ve got them intermixed. And so I think those are good, solid piece of advice for new business owners.
MS. UMOH: Yeah. On the flip side, are there any financial missteps that vetrepreneurs should avoid to ensure they achieve their business goals?
MR. SCOTT: Well, if you–if you fail to plan, you’re going to plan to fail. So, you don’t need to write a book or anything, but have a good two to three-pager to work through your ideas, through your operational plan with. Don’t try to do it all by yourself. Get a good business team together. And that’s simply have a good CPA or an accountant, a good banker, and then a good attorney. It’s like a three-legged stool that provides ongoing support for your business.
And then do consider if you build it, they may not come. And so you’ve got to have a great marketing and promotional plan that’s properly funded, so that at the end of the day, people can find out about you and your business, and you know, help generate those profits that you’re going to want to have.
Last piece of advice is be a person who manages by the bottom line of your business, meaning at the end of the day, look at the profitability of your business and make business decisions. If you’re looking at the revenues, your revenues may be going like this, but actually your profits could be headed the other way. And so all you’re doing is, you know, kind of digging yourself a hole. So definitely be a bottom-line manager versus a top line manager.
MS. UMOH: Very well said. Well, as we both know, veteran-owned small businesses play a key role in the U.S. economy and financially supporting them is an investment in job creation and the myriad other benefits that come with a thriving business sector. Thank you, Will, for your time, and now back to The Washington Post.
MS. CASEY: Hi, I’m Libby Casey, senior news anchor here at The Post. And my guest is Elizabeth Gore, co-founder of Hello Alice. Welcome to Washington Post Live, Elizabeth,
MS. GORE: Howdy. Thank you so much for having me.
MS. CASEY: Let’s talk about what Hello Alice does for a veteran who’s considering starting or expanding a business.
MS. GORE: Absolutely. Well, the most important thing is access to capital and the financial health of a business. So, at Hello Alice, we serve 1.4 million small business owners, and a very large portion of those are U.S. veterans and military spouses.
So first, we look at their business health score. How’s your business planning? How’s your cash flow? Are you ready to apply for that capital. And then we work towards your ability to get grants, loans, credit, that mainstream capital. But many U.S. veterans come home, like my dad coming home from the Air Force, and had to really think through I haven’t had credit history, I haven’t built up a strong FICO score. So, one of the ways that we helped bring them in is through small business grants, which is essential to our small business owners. So, we’re very proud to be connecting millions of dollars to U.S. veterans in the form of grants and then moving up that capital continuum to credit and loans.
MS. CASEY: Let’s talk more about building credit history, because if someone hasn’t experienced deployments, they may not even have ever thought about this. So many people in the military can have a hard time building credit, because they’re always moving, they might be living overseas, they may not be establishing the same kind of roots other people would be.
So how do you specifically counteract that? And how can someone go to a loan officer and say, look, I know I don’t have this backstory, this credit history, but let me tell you what I can offer you.
MS. GORE: You know, it is a bit of a dirty secret I think in our country that someone has served our country, or maybe their spouse or partner has supported them serving our company [phonetic], and they haven’t built up that traditional credit history. So, we need to look at alternative ways to capitalize small business owners, particularly thinking about how do we ensure that they can walk into a traditional financing mechanism and be ready for that. So, the tips that we just heard about having your business plan ready, showing what your cash flow is, your customers, and then also what is the growth potential is important. But we as financiers, whether we are banks or CDFIs or credit unions, need to be patient and sit through that process versus just a click of a mouse and a FICO score. It’s very, very important.
MS. CASEY: In your experience, what’s the most effective way for veterans to access credit?
MS. GORE: So we really believe in Hello Alice in operational credit. There’s also something when you don’t have a strong credit history called a secured credit model, and this is where you can put up collateral or other mechanisms to get secured credit. So, we offer that at Hello Alice, and then we help you grow into unsecured credit. We also help provide grants to put that collateral up in secured credit with great partners out there like Wells Fargo, like Chase. We work with Bunker Labs for veterans to help build out your planning. This is really, really important.
MS. CASEY: We have a question that’s come in from a viewer. So, I want to send this to you, Elizabeth.
MS. CASEY: Natasha Hammond from Maryland is asking, is it possible to build business credit without using personal credit?
MS. GORE: So. this is a really, really important step. I actually advise all small business owners to separate their personal and business credit the day you start, believe it or not. So, if you can actually apply for a responsible business credit card, that is a way to start.
Now anyone can get credit, and there’s predatory credit out there that I want you to be very cautious of. But there are ways to get secured and unsecured credit for your business. We actually surveyed 30,000 small business owners who are U.S. veterans last week, and we were actually really proud to say that the vast majority of them have separated their personal and business credit. So that is really, really important to do that. And if you have to go the secured route and show what cash or collateral you’d have on hand, that is even better than leaning on your personal credit.
MS. CASEY: Tell us what else you’ve learned through the surveying process of talking to military affiliated or veteran small business owners.
MS. GORE: Sure. So of the 30,000 we surveyed, one, I want to talk about intersectionality. So, 60 percent of the U.S. veterans who responded are African American. And so we need to look at gender, ethnicity within this. Forty percent were for women. So, if you think about the challenges of access to capital for a U.S. veteran, and then you layer on ethnicity, or gender, those are really important things for us to talk about.
The very first thing that we’re challenging to these small business owners that we can’t underscore enough is getting declined for credit and loans. So, we really need to look at that. We need to dig in.
The second is network access to grow their companies. This might seem simple, but if I come home, I’ve been deployed or I’ve been on base, and I don’t have relationships with a banker, I don’t have relationships with the chamber in my city, we need to make sure that that networking connectivity–and we reach out to U.S. veterans where they are and bring them in.
On the flip side, there is a sense of optimism. Over 75 percent of these 30,000 small business owners are optimistic about 2024. I think there’s a lot of questions right now about where the economy is going. So, if I’m betting on a type of business owner, I’m going to bet on that hard work, optimism, and leadership skills that are there.
MS. CASEY: You know, I found this fascinating, Elizabeth, because as you conduct these surveys, you found that military-connected business owners were slightly more optimistic than their non-military counterparts. This is even a year ago.
MS. CASEY: What do you attribute that to?
MS. GORE: You know, I think one word, and it’s resilience. One of the reasons when I–when I watched my dad come home from serving around the Vietnam War, that resilience is and resolve is in there. Being a small business owner, no matter who you are, where you’re from, is very hard. It’s a big roller coaster. But it’s your roller coaster. You own the highs, you own the lows. And what I love about U.S. veterans and military spouses is they have been through much more than we could ever imagine, whether they have been serving at home, overseas, in active duty. We have a lot of great small business owners, too, that maybe are still serving in some way, but also have their small business. So that resiliency is an unbelievable skill set as an entrepreneur, because we will all go through things. You look at COVID, you look at two-thirds of our counties going through a natural disaster that impacts business, the tightening of the economy, U.S. veterans go through highs and lows every day of their lives, and that is an amazing skill set in business.
MS. CASEY: How important are military spouses or partners when someone’s starting a business?
MS. GORE: Oh, my goodness, so important. So first of all, I love the digital economy, because it’s really allowed our military spouses to start businesses wherever they are, and to move. It’s not just about not being in a specific location, but the amount that you move as a spouse can be difficult. But now that ecommerce is alive and now that we have the capability to run businesses from anywhere, military spouses are really becoming a strong, employable, but also entrepreneurial base.
Second is if you look at the surveys that we’ve done, a lot of U.S. veterans start their businesses with their spouses, which I think is really cool. So, they’re seen as co-founders.
MS. CASEY: Are there opportunities that are available to military spouses along the lines of what would be available to veterans?
MS. GORE: Absolutely. So, from a U.S. government registered U.S. veteran-owned business, that does not exist yet for military spouses. I would love for it to. However, there are great grants programs and military spouse accelerators.
So earlier I mentioned Bunker Labs for veterans. They also have accelerators for military spouses. Additionally, at Hello Alice, again, we deploy millions of dollars in grants. We have a category that’s military-connected family member, so maybe you’re a child of an active duty military individual and/or you’re a spouse. We do have grants ready. FedEx has a great grants program available for active duty, for U.S. veteran and military spouses. They also have entrepreneurs with disabilities who are U.S. veterans, which is an important segment. So yes, there are resources out there.
MS. CASEY: What is Hello Alice looking for in grantees, what qualities, what metrics or markers that make a potential small business owner or someone wants to expand attractive and someone to make a good bet on?
MS. GORE: Well, we are capitalists here at Hello Alice. So, we want first and foremost a strong leader. You can have an awesome business plan, but until you have 10-plus employees, it’s really about that CEO, that leader. So, we’re looking for the leadership skills in the individual.
The second–and I heard this earlier–is numbers, numbers, numbers. Do you know your numbers forward and back, whether that’s your P&L, it’s your cash flow? How are you leveraging and paying your taxes? Those are all critical parts of your financial health.
The third for us, we love multiplayer effects. So, if you look at a veteran business that I love who actually has a commercial vehicle company, but they are taking, getting shut-ins to doctor’s appointments, or elders who do not drive to doctor’s appointments, these veteran-owned businesses that make money but also have community impact I think are very valuable.
MS. CASEY: Elizabeth, I have to ask you about the name Hello Alice. Can you explain to people what this means and more about what the mission is?
MS. GORE: Sure. So, we akin Alice to the original Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland” book. If you really look at the ups and downs and trials and tribulations that Alice went through, it’s very entrepreneurial. We say that the White Rabbit is cashflow, you’re always chasing it. As a small business owner, it seems like you’re always out of time. So, we really love the different ideas that Lewis Carroll put forward through Wonderland, which is entrepreneurship.
And our mission is equitable access to capital for small business owners, hard and fast. And whether that’s loans, credits, grants, or their own financial health, our goal by the end of the year is to ensure that 2 million small business owners are utilizing our platform to grow their business.
MS. CASEY: We talked about the crucial intersection of veteran small business owners, women, people of color. What specific challenges do women and people of color face as they try to start businesses?
MS. GORE: Absolutely. So, we believe deeply in data and really cutting the data based on industry, stage of growth, location, but also gender, ethnicity. Do you have a disability? Because if you look at, as we heard earlier, small business owners who are U.S. veterans are actually being declined almost 50 percent, where the national average floats between 35 to 40 percent. If you then layer in that that is a person of color, that actually doubles. So, it’s really important that we click down one or two steps in data to ensure we’re trying to understand where are these disparities. Are they bias or are they systemic? And then how do we reach in and pull up that capability?
I want to talk about, though, also the positive side is just a vastly growing number. In a great way, African Americans are the most entrepreneurial by percentage in this country. And then you layer in U.S. veterans on top of that. We’re talking about job creators, we’re talking about economy builders, community impact. It’s very, very exciting.
MS. CASEY: What do you see as the role of the federal government in supporting entrepreneurs and also ensuring equity in being able to start a business?
MS. GORE: I think it is absolutely critical that Congress and then the different departments–if you look at Commerce, Treasury, SBA–are digging into this data and really filling gaps, particularly for our U.S. veterans. I really believe strongly in the aid program being a U.S. veteran-owned business registered with the U.S. government and allowing supplier diversity to fund and prioritize U.S. veterans is critical.
We also saw during the crunch on supply chain that still–we’re still coming out in COVID, those who had supplier diversity contracts with U.S. veterans, they brought jobs in shore, and they actually delivered when offshore supply chain wasn’t. So, we really need to continue to constantly look at how are we not just supporting U.S. veterans, but they’re–absolutely how are they supporting our economy, our jobs, even the supply chain in the Fortune 100?
MS. CASEY: And you mentioned that you come from a military family, that your father served in the Air Force. What did you see, Elizabeth, in his ability to come home and transition back to the private sector that stuck with you?
MS. GORE: Oh, man. You’re going to get me emotional, but my dad is my hero. He’s a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. He was a flight medic, and he flew inside and lead the care of wounded or POWs in C-9s and C-141s. And I think he had a very–all U.S. veterans that served have a very emotional connectivity but also learning from their experience. I think what he saw is the resilience of others. He talks a lot about those who were mortally wounded and just trying to get them home and the basic values of just wanting to be with their families, wanting to start a company, wanting to hold down a job. And I think those basic values really get you through, as a business owner, really tough times.
If you look at those who made it through COVID, there’s a high percentage of U.S. veterans who actually could make it through that really tough time. And I think a big part of that is values, resilience, and commitment to what makes you passionate, which is generally probably your community, your family, and the capability to make a living.
MS. CASEY: What’s your pep talk for veterans who are wondering if they can be a small business owner? Where should they start? And what do you want them to take away from what Hello Alice does and your belief in veterans?
MS. GORE: In two words, “Do it.” That resiliency and resolve behind you, you know, I’m sorry to say you might have to ask twice as much for capital than those who didn’t serve. But I have the confidence, Hello Alice has the competence that you will then be doubly successful because of that resiliency. And we are here for you. There are organizations here for you. And thank you for your service is the most important thing we should be saying.
And then write them a check, for goodness sake. Write them a check. Whether you’re investing, whether you’re a loan officer, whether you’re buying a product for the holidays, write these people a check.
MS. CASEY: I guess, finally, let’s leave on that message. What else would you like people to know who are looking to–you know, to put a stake in a business, who are looking to invest? How do you convince them that that veterans are a reliable bet?
MS. GORE: You know, the data disparities don’t match. You know, they’re being declined at higher rates. Yet, when U.S. veterans get equal access to capital, they outperform their non-military counterparts. So being capitalists, this is a great bet. Invest in these individuals.
And for the average consumer out there, it is very easy to find in your community. You can go through Hello Alice and search. You can go through your chamber of commerce. You can go to Bunker Labs, and really search for military-owned businesses within your community.
MS. CASEY: All right, Elizabeth Gore, thank you so much, co-founder and president of Hello Alice. Thanks for your time.
MS. GORE: Real pleasure. Thanks for having me and Happy Veterans Day that’s coming up to everyone.
MS. CASEY: Well, thanks to all of you for joining us and Happy Veterans Day to you. That’s all for Post Live today. Please do check out our interviews and upcoming campaign coverage. Check it all out at WashingtonPostLive.com. I’m Libby Casey. Thanks again.
