The Business Journals: “Working from Florida, having an impact across the East Coast”
2 min read
Knowing what you know now, what advice regarding business would you give yourself 10 years ago? Find a mentor and take advantage of all the small business assistance that’s out there, such as from the SBA. I came back from my time in the Army and started my own small business and I didn’t know there was any help out there back when I first started. When I started seeing some success with my business, I was looking for a way to start giving back, and I started mentoring returning servicemembers who wanted to start their own HVAC companies through Troops To Trades. I also would take the time to go around to some of the neighborhood basketball courts and shoot some hoops with the young people there, then talk to them about their future, and I ended up mentoring quite a few of those young people and helped them start learning the trade and helped some of them get that crucial first job to start getting established in business. I also would advise anyone just starting out to look at all the programs out there — like SBA, HUBZone, 8(a) and any other programs they can qualify for. Working with these programs and having that expertise behind you, which doesn’t cost you a penny, is like having experts you can call whenever you need a professional opinion. This is especially important when you are trying to get into government contracting, be it for your own city or county, your state, all the way up to the federal government. (More)