Attention, veteran business owners and aspiring veteran entrepreneurs: Budweiser is donating seed funding to veterans and their business with a new social media campaign. Now through Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2022, veteran entrepreneurs can apply to be one of 16 grant recipients for the Budweiser Veterans Project.
All veterans have to do is comment on Budweiser's Facebook, Instagram or Twitter posts with the military branch they served in and how this money could help grow their own business, along with #BudVeteransProject. Winners will be announced by the end of November 2022.
This is the first Budweiser Veterans Project launched by the company, an effort to support veterans with capital to build or expand their budding businesses. Access to capital is perennially listed as the No. 1 issue for all small businesses, veterans included.
In a statement, the company says the Budweiser Veterans Project was created because veteran entrepreneurs face unique problems accessing capital for new and developing businesses. Data from Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) agrees with Budweiser, citing trouble navigating government bureaucracy, access to credit and inadequate awareness of resources available as top barriers to capital.
A number of other companies have offered seed funding to veterans in the past. Black Rifle Coffee Company teamed with the Barstool Fund to support veteran-owned businesses after 30% of vet-owned businesses closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. FedEx runs an annual Small Business Grant Contest routinely won by veteran entrepreneurs. Those looking for angel investors can stop by Hivers and Strivers anytime, as the firm is always looking for new vet-owned ventures.
To kick off the Budweiser Veterans Project, the beer giant has enlisted the help of chef Andre Rush, an Army veteran, former White House chef and veterans advocate, to encourage vets to share their stories while offering business tips of his own. He will also reveal the challenges he faced as he retired from the Army as a master sergeant and became the owner of a civilian catering company.
Investing in veteran-owned small businesses is a good investment in the country itself. The latest available U.S. Census Bureau data show veterans employ four million Americans, pay nearly $200 billion in annual payroll and generate nearly $1 trillion in receipts. An estimated 5.7% of all American businesses are run by veterans, a number that dropped significantly amid the pandemic, down from 10.3% in 2017.
The Budweiser Veterans Project is a good addition to an effort to reverse that downward trend. Funding provided by the effort is a grant, which means the money will not have to be repaid. There's no purchase necessary to enter the competition, and it's open to any veteran looking to start, build or expand their business.
All vets have to do is share their branch of service and talk about how the grant money will help them in their entrepreneurial journey and be sure to include the hashtag #BudVeteransProject. This Bud could be for you, but only if you post before Veterans Day.
-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.
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