The War's Toll on Reservist-Entrepreneurs

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National Guardsman Stanley Adams is one of the MREIDL recipients, which he says helped save his business. After spending more than 30 years developing a livestock-trailer business in Montgomery, Ala., 50-year-old Adams was called up for duty in April, 2003, and had three days to prepare before he was shipped to Fort Benning, Ga., for training. He had more than $1 million worth of trailers on site and thought his business would fall apart while he was gone. In October, 2003, he borrowed $350,000, which he used to cover bills and keep his head above water, though he says he still fears for his business as rumors circle of his unit's redeployment.

Some advocates say the SBA's MREIDL doesn't have the reach to support the thousands of veteran small-business owners. And other federal funds devoted to helping veteran small-business owners through non-SBA programs are also hard to depend on, says Louis Celli, a 22-year Army veteran who in 2004 started Northeast Veterans Business Resource Center, a Boston-based nonprofit providing courses, coaching, and mentoring to help veterans start and maintain small businesses.

Kerry's Plan

Celli's center depends entirely on federal money, and he says, "Every year we're waiting on pins and needles to see if they will keep funding us." He points out that the already limited funding aimed at helping servicemen rebuild their businesses is spread among several government agencies, so cohesive help is hard to come by.

Other advocates worry that what little funding out there could go away. Jim Boylston, a SCORE counselor in Silicon Valley and coordinator for armed services veterans programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, worries that many soldiers won't reap the benefits of the existing programs before funding is cut. "My concern is that, having lived in Washington, D.C., some pencil pusher is going to cut the programs, and that the money isn't going to be there for [returning soldiers]. When they finally let [the soldiers] come back and stay back, we need the money to be there for them," says Boylston, who served in the Korean War.

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chair of the Senate Committee for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, has been working for several years to introduce a Military Family Bill of Rights, a bill that includes comprehensive and direct assistance for military members and their families, including loans, grants, and tax credits for Guard and Reserve members who own their own small businesses or work for one.

Veterans advocates say that, by integrating the family into the process, the bill is critical to the overall reintegration of a veteran when they return. "Many times, it's through the family network that we can identify needs and seek out services critically important to getting veterans reintegrated into their previous lifestyle," says Celli.

Click here for a slide show profiling five reservist-entrepreneurs.

Jeffrey Gangemi is a freelance writer based in Mendoza, Argentina.