The job market is stagnant. Unemployment is rampant. Nearly half of America is on some sort of public assistance. As a veteran returning home from some far-off clime, it came seem as if you’re doomed to tough times. But that’s entirely up to you. In times like these, one needs to think “outside the box” – economic guerilla warfare if you will, in regards to your career. One tactic in that battle lies with self-employment. More specifically, franchising. If you are willing to work long hours, can follow a system, afford to buy and operate a business, can manage people and are passionate about achieving success, a so-called “veteran friendly,” franchise is great option.

Military Mind-Set Leads to Success

Could Snap-On Tools Be a Franchise Opportunity for you?

In the military, service-members are taught to follow orders. With time, good conduct, and expertise, those receiving orders will soon transition into giving orders. It’s the soldierly way – and it works. I can remember the early days of my Marine Corps career – observing, memorizing, reading, and ultimately gleaning knowledge from my senior Non-Commissioned Officers. With time, I gradually understood what it meant to be a leader.

Following a script written many moons ago, I was able to properly instruct junior Jarheads in the Marine Corps way. My experience is not unique – through trial and error, the US Military has honed a very sharp system of troop management. And as such, the progenitors of this system – veterans, have been imbued with these qualities. For many searching for purpose in their post-military career, it would behoove them to capitalize on their unique skill set. For many, helming your own business can be an especially satisfying career move.

Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov) operates an extremely helpful website for those interested in self-employment. Just about everything you need to know about owning and operating a small business or franchise can be located via the SBA. From writing a business plan, getting that first loan, registering your business, and even establishing a health care program for your employees, the SBA provides an invaluable service.

Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative

Recently, the Small Business Administration established the Patriot Express Pilot Loan Initiative. As per the SBA’s website, the Express program “offer[s] streamlined and expedited loan procedures for particular groups of borrowers, notably active-duty  military personnel, veterans, and borrowers from distressed communities.” Military members currently in the Transition Assistance Program, Reservists, National Guard members, and widowed spouses of the aforementioned groups also qualify for this new SBA initiative.

Shouldering start-up cost, the Express program also covers inventory, equipment, infusion of working capital, and a myriad of other essential expenditures required for the operation of a small business. Interest rates vary from 2.25 percent to 4.75 percent over prime, featuring some of the SBA’s lowest interest rates.

Veteran Friendly Franchises

Among the many self-employment incentives for current/prior service-members, includes a number of top-rated veteran friendly franchises. According to the International Franchise Association’s “VetFran” program, some of these franchise opportunities include:

• Snap-on Incorporated: The leading global innovator, manufacturer and marketer of tools, diagnostics, equipment and service solutions for professionals. They offer honorably discharged veterans a $20,000 discount on the initial inventory purchase for their franchise.
• Liberty Tax Service: A low-cost tax preparation service. They offer a 10 percent discount on the franchise fee to military veterans.
• 7-Eleven Incorporated: The world’s largest convenience store retailer and the #1 franchise opportunity in the U.S. They provide a 10 percent discount off franchise fees for all honorably discharge veterans.
• Interim HealthCare, Incorporated: Provider of full continuum home care and healthcare for the past 45 years. They offer a 10 percent discount on franchise fees of $40,000.
• ACFN Franchised, Incorporated: The premier provider of ATMs in hotels and other travel and entertainment-based businesses since 1996. They offer $1,000 discount off franchise fee for veterans.
• CruiseOne: One of the nation’s largest cruise retailers and a part of World Travel  Holdings. They offer retired and active duty military member 20% off initial franchise fees.
• GoWaiter, Incorporated: Industry leader in restaurant marketing, food delivery and catering. Franchise fees are reduced from $19,500 to $17, 500 for veterans.
• Huddle House Incorporated: For over 47 years, Huddle House has been serving communities “Any Meal, Any Time.” Veteran incentives include a reduction in initial franchise fee from $25,000 to $12,500.

Rise Above

Starting your own business – be it an independent venture or established veteran friendly franchise, requires hard work and tons of determination. For veterans and active-duty military, the Small Business Administration and the International Franchise Association’s “VetFran” programs, are there to assist you. Despite a dreary economic outlook, remember the unofficial maxim of the United States Marine Corps – Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. The future is yours.

Photo credit: TOMTEC

It has been called the Great Recession. When 9.4% of the population is unemployed, and another 20% is on some sort of public assistance, it’s no secret America is in an economic rut.  Job seekers – highly educated and adroitly skilled, line up by the hundreds, pursuing meager vacancies. The scramble is on, gents. You’ve a new mission – and failure isn’t an option. As such, it would behoove veterans and those transitioning from active-duty, to utilize an old axiom regularly associated with the United States Marine Corps: Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.

Improvise

Think outside of the box in your job search!

A guerrilla job search uses everything in your arsenal to help you find a job, whether conventional, or unconventional. Take the Internet, for example. We’re an online culture. From Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Craigslist, and the plethora of other social networks staking their claim on the web, it’s essential to tap this vast resource. In terms of websites specifically dedicated towards career building, visit Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, and Indeed.com. Literally thousands of job opportunities can be found on the aforementioned web pages. Make certain you check the dates of prospective job openings – unfortunately many are months/years old.

Along similar lines, Craigslist.com has a rather large employment section. With the ability to focus in on specific industries – and even snag a medical research gig, Craigslist offers a vast array of employment options. For those interested in the entertainment industry, EntertainmentJobs.com can provide veterans/active-duty members their big break. The United Talent Agency Job List is another means of landing a gig in the entertainment industry. Once a coveted insider-only source of Hollywood avocations, the UTA Job List is now readily available on the net. Cataloging full/part-time jobs, one can also land a sweet internship. Although the majority of these internships are un-paid, they occasionally lead to full-time employment. To learn more about the UTA Job List, check out: www.tempdiaries.com.

Adapt

The age-old practice of scouring your local newspaper’s “want ads” for employment has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Especially in times like these, one must take extraordinary efforts – guerrilla tactics, if you will, in finding gainful employment. Cold calling (typically a marketing process inherent to sales via the telephone) is one of those unconventional strategies. Scout successful companies. Learn what they’re all about – and remodel your resume accordingly. Simply call them up and introduce yourself. Request to speak to the Human Resource department. Invite a manager or HR rep out for coffee and interview them about their job, what is involved, industry trends, etc. Learn all you can about the industry. In addition, seek out local businesses involved in highly visible projects. Suggest an improvement or addition to said activity. In essence, create a job opening where there was none. Remember, research is vital when employing such tactics.

Overcome

Just because equally capable candidates are swamping the job market, doesn’t automatically mean you’re headed to the unemployment office. As a veteran/active-duty member, you’ve a unique set of skills. Assure prospective employers are made aware of said aptitudes. As cliché as it might sound – think outside the box.

Utilize MOS translators, contact the Veterans Administration, seek out veteran’s employment initiatives, reach out to friends and family, attend job fairs, and visit your local university’s employment center.

Let’s face it; you’ve confronted some mighty tough challenges in the military.

Accomplishing diverse missions – sometimes under the stress of hostile gunfire, enemy rockets, and unspeakable horrors. But guess what? You survived. Don’t let the dismal economy dictate your future – Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.

With warm weather arriving you’re probably getting that spring cleaning itch. Not only will spring cleaning remove clutter from your home, but you can actually make money by cleaning up your clutter.

Spring and summer are a great time to clean out your house and earn money for your trouble. You can end up with more money in your pocket and a cleaner, less cluttered home space. Here are some spring cleaning tips to get going.

Sell items online

Having a yard sale can make a lot of money

The easiest way to make money from cleaning is to have someone buy your stuff. For some of the better items, selling online can be more profitable than selling it at a yard sale. Here are a few sites you can use to sell items online.

eBay. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard of eBay — “the world’s largest garage sale” — but there might be some aspects of selling there that you haven’t heard of. Of course you can go on and list your item via the traditional auction method and hope the price gets bid up. If you want to get a certain amount for your item (for example, what you think you might be able to sell it for in a garage sale or what you think is close to the items value) you can put in a reserve. To figure out how much money you’ll get after eBay and PayPal fees, make sure to use a great online calculator.

eBay has a new and less stressful way you can sell items, too. It’s called eBay Instant Sale. With this section of the website you put in what item you want to sell (usually electronics) and its current condition (brand new, used with no scratches, etc.). A price quote pops out that you can choose to accept or not. If you accept it you put your item in a box, print a free shipping label, and send it off to eBay. The item is inspected, and if it is as you described it originally, you get paid.

Amazon. Almost everyone I know has purchased something from Amazon. Did you know you can sell items on Amazon as well? For the longest time you’ve been able to go to an item’s page and select “Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon.” You then put in a description of the item and it will show up under the Used item listings on Amazon’s page. (I’ve bought and sold many textbooks in my time using this method.)

However, Amazon now offers a service similar to eBay’s Instant Sale. You can trade in items for Amazon gift cards. Not all items are eligible, but many are (including books). A 3rd party purchases the items and turns around and sells them, but you’re getting instant cash this way as well.

Gazelle. For the longest time, Gazelle was my favorite way of selling slightly older electronics for cash. Unlike Amazon and eBay that have various methods of selling items, Gazelle offers one: we’ll give you cash for your item if it is as described. It is just like Amazon and eBay’s Trade-in and Instant Sale options. Gazelle then turns around and sells the item for a profit — or at least they hope — on eBay and other sites. It can be difficult to find independent vendors that will do things right, but Gazelle has been an industry leader for a while. They existed before the big sites’ trade-in options were around.

Cash for Laptops. There’s a new website I came across called Cash for Laptops. As you can imagine, it is an instant sale site dedicated just to used laptops. However, be sure to get price comparisons from other sites as well. I just looked at how much I would get for my early 2011 production Macbook Pro and the price was less than 50% of what the value of the equipment is. You might have better luck with older, low-end machines that you can’t find a way to sell otherwise.

Craigslist. There’s always Craigslist. The downside to Craigslist is you can get a lot of “tire kickers” or people that want to haggle once they’re standing in front of you. The upside to Craigslist is you’re dealing with local users and don’t have to worry about shipping. You can also sell a large number of items, not just electronics or books.

Have a yard sale

Running a yard sale can help you get rid of just about anything you want. The larger of variety of items you have, the more likely you will draw a crowd. Running a yard sale well is a bit more complicated than sticking signs in the ground in front of your neighborhood.

Here are some quick yard sale tips:

• Get your friends and neighbors involved to have a multi-family garage sale. This will draw a larger number of customers.
• Advertise well. Post on Craigslist and Facebook when the sale is. Get your friends to share it with their friends.
• Put price stickers on everything. When you’ve got 20+ people walking in your drive way it can be difficult to remember what you said you would sell an item for. Get small price stickers and stick them in inconspicuous places — on the bottom of items or on the tags for clothing care.
• Have cash on hand to make change, and make sure you have enough. All it takes is someone giving you a $20 to wipe out all of your spare cash, leaving you unable to make change for the next customer.

How to decide what to sell

Deciding what to sell can be a painful and emotional process. You might be fond of an item because your Grandmother gave it to you before she passed away or because you just spent so much of your hard earned money on it.

To pick what goes and what stays, try to remove your emotional bias from the equation. Come up with a process and stick to it. Do all items that haven’t been used in 6 months go (aside from seasonal clothing)? Or maybe everything that hasn’t been used in 12 months? Should you sell the most valuable things because you need the cash? It can be hard to be honest with yourself, but a lot of the stuff you end up keeping with the best intentions of using will be sold in next year’s yard sale. Avoid that fate by selling it today. If you end up really needing it you can always go out and buy another one.

Involve the whole family

The selling and de-cluttering of your home shouldn’t be a one person operation. Get everyone involved – from your kids to your spouse. Be flexible on keeping an item if needed, but everyone can’t claim that everything that could be sold is now their favorite item. If your kids are old enough, get them involved in taking pictures of items and listing them online. Or let them make change at the garage sale or negotiate with potential buyers. Teach them what to do with the money that is earned from the sale: does it go into savings or does part of it get applied to the next major vacation? These are good money lessons for them to learn as well.

Turn an empty room into a hobby business

You could also turn an empty room into a place where you do a hobby that turns into a business. You could sell your wares on Etsy or start freelancing online.

Final Thoughts on Profitably Cleaning Up Your House

If you are looking to simple sell your stuff for cash there is less risk with sites that give you an instant price quote for your item, but you can expect to get less money for the item. It’s a trade off between simply getting an instant amount of money for your item versus hoping the price gets bid up higher or someone will buy it at a garage sale for more. Nonetheless you won’t be able to sell everything online — nor at prices you want — so having a garage or yard sale is another method to help you get rid of everything from clothes to electronics to furniture.

Photo credit: KOMUnews