In this episode, Katy Stevick shares her expertise on transitioning from military service to entrepreneurship, covering financial planning, business startup strategies, and resources tailored for military families and veterans.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to Business After Military Service
• 03:48 Understanding the Purpose of Your Business
• 06:41 Financial Preparation for Business Launch
• 10:05 Navigating Income Fluctuations as a Business Owner
• 12:52 Setting Realistic Expectations for Business Success
• 15:42 Retirement Planning for Business Owners
• 18:58 Evaluating Business Viability and Exit Strategies
• 21:43 Utilizing Resources for Business Startups
• 24:59 Advice for Transitioning Service Members
• 27:55 Conclusion and Resources

 

Key Topics

• Transition from military to entrepreneurship
• Financial planning for business owners
• Resources for military families and veterans

Links

Katy’s Firm: https://www.alignfinancialplanning.com/

Katy’s Bed & Breakfast in Fayetteville: Macpherson House https://www.macphersonhouse.com/

Military Spouse Employment Partnership:  https://msepjobs.militaryonesource.mil/msep/

MySECO:  https://myseco.militaryonesource.mil/portal/

 

Meet with Mike or Amy

Schedule a consultation with Mike: https://nextmissionfinancialplanning.com/contact/

Schedule a consultation with Amy: https://www.instarfp.com/contact

Transript

Mike Hunsberger (00:00)

Hi, Amy. So today we’ve got Katie Stevick from Align Financial Planning. We’re going to be talking about business planning. ⁓ And she is a fantastic resource. She does financial planning, so she owns her own business. But she also has another business that we’re going to kind of dive into and talk about that. So if you’re considering ⁓ maybe doing a passion project or you’ve got a business idea, this is definitely the episode for you.

 

Amy (00:28)

If you’ve ever even thought about running a business, this is a good one. ⁓ I’m excited. Looking forward to it,

 

Mike Hunsberger (01:08)

All right, thanks for tuning in today. We’ve got a great show. We have Katie Stevick from Align Financial Planning here. She’s going to be talking about how you might want to start a business after you retire from the military or separate from the military. She both owns a firm.

 

that does financial planning for military folks, but also works a lot with owners and has a whole separate business. So we’re excited to dive into that. ⁓ Katie, you want to say hi and just tell us a little bit about your firm and also the other business you’ve got going.

 

Katy Stevick (01:41)

Sure, I so appreciate you guys having me on. ⁓ It’s a pleasure to be here. I have spent the majority of my 14 year career so far working with military families and I’ve grown into this niche of working with small business owners because I am one. And ⁓ also I was a child of entrepreneurs so I grew up with this different business mindset and it really is a different mindset. So you could say it was kind of inevitable. ⁓ But I worked with many…

 

military families who became business owners or were also business owners for years before launching my own. ⁓ And that’s in 2020, I launched Align Financial Planning as an independent firm and a historic boutique bed and breakfast in downtown Fayetteville, North Carolina, just outside of Fort Bragg with my active duty husband. So that became a whole different lens to advise from as a fellow small business owner.

 

and gave me a lot of perspective. So the very long story short is that business started as a home for a line. know, how many attorneys will buy a real cool historic house downtown and like turn it into an office. Like that was concept A. But the house that we found and fell in love with was 6,000 square feet, a lot more than I needed.

 

Amy (02:42)

you

 

Katy Stevick (03:06)

And our original financial plan that we made as a couple had a goal of restoring a historic home someday and opening a business together someday. We assumed both would be after the military and retirement, but we didn’t specify that. So we learned to be really specific with a financial plan and then the opportunity knocked sooner. So we opened that at the same time in 2020 while my husband was deployed to Iraq. It was fun.

 

Amy (03:34)

my goodness. ⁓ So, I mean, so you’ve been down this road and I mean, so that’s that’s gonna help a lot as we get started. Now, you know, as people transition from the military, you know, you, you go to transition assistance classes and one of the things they talk to you about is maybe you want to start a business.

 

Katy Stevick (03:37)

file.

 

Yes.

 

Amy (04:00)

⁓ And I think that appeals to a lot of people. You’ve spent a lot of your adult life being told what to do and the idea of working for yourself and getting to, you know, maybe tell other people what to do and not be told what to do can be appealing. ⁓ But it’s kind ⁓ of a fraught decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. So as you think about, you know, a person who’s preparing to transition from the military, what do you think some of the central questions that they should be asking themselves are?

 

Katy Stevick (04:29)

my goodness. ⁓ There is so much power and intentionality in setting that first business plan. And I think the core questions to ask are what is the purpose of this business? ⁓ And the core questions that any business plan is going to ask, what is the purpose of this business to your clients, to your customers? What does it serve the community? That is really important. Making sure it’s a service that people want to pay for. But then also asking what is the purpose for

 

yourself or your family. Is the goal to be self-employed, to create a job for yourself, ⁓ where you’re working in that all day, every day. Is the goal to have more time flexibility with your family, like that is really important. Is your goal to make every one of your kids soccer games? ⁓ I can tell you my active duty husband missed the whole last soccer season, he wasn’t even deployed. So like that is a real important goal.

 

Or is that goal to create a business that scales where someone else is operating it, not you and when. So I think that is the first thing that I guide clients through when they are in that transition point and considering, do I want to get out of the military or retire and start a business? What will that business do for you? Is it self-employment? Is it a passion project? Is it that you just want to do X, Y, Z and have a business to do that independently? Like that is a great goal, but know that that’s your goal.

 

or is the goal to have someone else operate it and for you to run the business.

 

Mike Hunsberger (05:59)

Yeah, those are great things to, know, that clarity is important. And it might shift over time, but at least having, you know, an initial idea of, you know, this is the next few years, at least, this is what I’m going for. And then, hey, maybe it started out as something small, but then, hey, I do want to grow this, I do want to scale it. And, you know, that can change. So.

 

So what else should people be thinking about, you know, maybe from the financial side before they go about this, ⁓ you know, developing that business plan, but really understanding their own numbers, if you will, before they maybe launch.

 

Katy Stevick (06:41)

okay, so there’s so much that you can do to get yourself financially prepared to launch the business, but there’s something that you said about, you know, maybe this business will grow over a number of years. And it’s important when you’re starting, even though you can’t know all of this, it’s really important to consider the lifespan of a business. ⁓ A friend of ours who separated from the military and has become a very successful business owner just offhand mentioned this at the start of my journey.

 

of opening a business, and it really stuck with me, is that most businesses have a lifespan, and it’s not as long as you would think. Like, three to five years might be the average, or maybe one person’s life, their livelihood, and then they pass it down to their kids if they want it. And like, what is your exit strategy? That is so key. You need to know what your exit strategy could be before you ever start a business. And that will drive so many of the financial decisions. ⁓ But before…

 

So with that in mind, where do you start? I think it’s so important to know what that business should do for you financially, because then you know what that business needs to produce. And then you know how much working capital you need to have for yourself and for the business and how to raise it or where it should come from. So like if you’re really locked in, most of my clients have a goal of being work optional in retirement someday.

 

So we talk about military retirement, full retirement, or separation and starting a business. ⁓ And a lot of the clients that I work with say, I’m never going to sit around and do nothing. Absolutely. But at what point does your money work for you and pay your bills, and your work is truly optional? Your business is truly optional? If you really dial in when you want that to happen and exactly how much money you need, then you can work backwards and say, what does this business do to bridge that gap? And how much does that business need to earn?

 

to fulfill our personal goals of retirement, of travel, of, you know, a forever home. These are common goals, whatever your personal goals are. And then what kind of runway do you need to of business capital and a personal emergency fund that can cover expenses until that business does. If that goal of the business is to cover your personal expenses, which it isn’t always, it’s a gift that very few can by being retired in the military, you know, having health insurance, having a pension.

 

and starting a business. That’s a really magical combination.

 

Amy (09:08)

So, I mean, what you’ve said a couple of times, and I think it’s important to highlight this. So, transition is complex. Financially, planning for yourself is complex. If you’re going to start a business, you have an entirely separate financial plan almost for the business. So there’s almost two financial plans that you’re building, ⁓ One for the business and one for yourself, and they’re integrated. So to me, that adds a whole extra level of complexity.

 

Katy Stevick (09:16)

Yes.

 

Amy (09:37)

⁓ but it is completely worthwhile as a business owner myself. ⁓ You just have to decide whether it’s also worthwhile for you as somebody who’s transitioning. ⁓ You mentioned that there’s some things that retirees, some advantages that we have, right? So we’ve got some fixed floor of income through a pension, we’ve got health insurance, we have to worry about those things. But there’s gonna be things that most business owners deal with that you just like…

 

the military background’s not gonna help you with. So ⁓ little income upfront or maybe lumpy income through a year. How do you help business owners kind of prepare for and think through how to address challenges that none of us have ever faced before with a paycheck that shows up on the 1st and 15th, barring some government shutdowns from time to time, but almost always on the 1st and 15th. How do you prepare military clients for that?

 

Katy Stevick (10:32)

my goodness. It is a whole different ballgame and your income can fluctuate so much over the course of a year. The first thing is we get very, very clear about what you need to live on and what your lifestyle and what your family expenses are. Like once you really have that locked in, then you know where it’s coming from. Is it coming entirely from your pension and VA disability? Is it coming from this new business? What portion comes from where?

 

Is it coming from your emergency fund or a runway for six months before the business can start paying you? Those are going to vary depending on your business and your situation, but knowing those numbers first is so important. ⁓ I would also recommend a separate personal emergency fund from business funding. So really having like, if you’re going to go into business and your livelihood at all depends on that business.

 

I would recommend six to 12 months of your financial needs in a savings account ready to tap into it anytime. High yield savings could be great, but like not exposed to the market. isn’t your retirement account. This is just cash on hand ready to go for you. Then you have cash on hand for the business. So that’s a lot at once and it can take a while to build that up. So even if you’re like five years out, this is a really good time to plan. If you’re right at that pivot point, we plan a little bit differently.

 

⁓ But then knowing what your level of risk is, is really important too. So, depending on the goal of that business. So, I’m in this similar situation where I have one secure paycheck. My husband is active duty and we have one paycheck that comes in on the 1st and 15th every month. We have health insurance paid for that is so huge for civilian business owners. Like that’s a huge part of their budget. That is already locked in. We figured out how much that’s going to cover. And now…

 

what I do with my business, Align Financial Planning, or our business, The Bed and Breakfast, we have very different goals for that. And because of those different goals, we have different savings requirements for each of them. And we had different capital that we were willing to put into it and risk. So before we opened The Bed and Breakfast, we had really candid conversations about this. And I find that almost every business owner, it’s a family conversation. So having this conversation with your spouse with…

 

your business partner, whoever is involved in this with you, is saying like, if everything goes fantastically, what could this look like? What goals could this fuel? What is our exit strategy? But when life happens, and it will with the business, there are business cycles that happen, when we hit a rough year, when we hit a rough point, what are our limits? What’s the most that we are willing to put into this business? And my husband and I sat down and said, we would love to pursue this business.

 

We don’t ever want it to jeopardize our retirement. That was our personal limit and saying that we won’t, we decided then and there, we’re never going to tap into our IRAs or TSP or any of our other retirement funds for that business. And some do, that’s a personal decision, but that was our decision that before we start out, we know this is our floor and we’re going to have an exit strategy that if things go south, that we have a way to get out of it without having to jeopardize all of our personal investments towards that.

 

So having that outlined, it’s just your own threshold of risk in the business. And then you can look at the risk in your portfolio. Like this carries over to so much, but having that conversation from the outset is so key. And we decided there might be years that we stop our contributions. The first year cashflow is tight. We stopped TSP contributions, we stopped IRA contributions, and we just opened the businesses. But we made a commitment that we would start that back up again, and then the business would help fuel those contributions in the future.

 

So that was a combined decision.

 

Mike Hunsberger (14:26)

And how, yeah, I think so. ⁓ How often do you see folks coming in with kind of really rosy, ⁓ this business is going to take off and maybe under appreciating how hard this can be and how long it takes and how do you kind of inject reality into that?

 

Katy Stevick (14:26)

Did that answer your question?

 

You have to have a certain degree of optimism, whether that’s delusional or not, to go into business. I just think that is a precursor. If you don’t have that vision and that excitement, ⁓ you’ve got to have that to ride through the challenges and that will come. And that’s the other thing versus like, you want to invest and use this business to build wealth and scale and, you know, maybe exit someday and sell it, like that’s a very different goal than if it’s just like, I want to pursue this hobby.

 

Mike Hunsberger (14:55)

Ha

 

Amy (14:58)

you

 

Katy Stevick (15:17)

I find a lot of people go into business for the enjoyment of that thing. And then the actual running of the business is like, my God, I did not know I’d spend all my time doing HR. So I try to temper that as softly as I can. And it really comes back to like, what are your goals and what do you think you’re going to be spending your time doing? How are you actually going to be spending your time? Let’s talk to people in that field. Let’s discuss it. Let’s see.

 

Amy (15:26)

you

 

Katy Stevick (15:42)

You know, if it has, and then it’s just setting those, those limits and say, if it has runaway returns, fabulous, these are wants things that we would like to fund. These are things that are non-negotiable. Um, and then these are options. If it goes great, if it, and if it doesn’t, let’s talk about that and let’s have a backup plan before you ever start. So that helps. people come to me often, um, with a lot of excitement about short-term rentals and that because I own a bed and breakfast and it operates in that hospitality space.

 

And that’s a sector that has boom and bust years like a lot of sectors do. And so I’ve had to temper some like, okay, there’s great years to invest and there’s years where mortgage interest expenses are really high and I would not recommend it. And that might be right now. So like, I just use the numbers to break down, is this the right opportunity right now? ⁓ And then also just looking at what industry is that business in and making sure that your whole portfolio is diversified.

 

Like real estate is one where it can be really tempting to go into a real estate business and also have your personal home in real estate. And that’s where I see the temptation is so real to take out of your TSP or out of your retirement to invest in here because it could have a higher multiple. But then you’re entirely concentrated in one sector. And what is that risk? So making sure that you’re diversifying risk across your business as well as your portfolio and that those integrate well. That’s a really important.

 

Amy (17:10)

And I think that’s something unique that, you know, we don’t talk about a lot in like traditional financial planning spaces. And when people are doing this themselves, they probably don’t think about it. But this idea that, ⁓ you know, you’re diversifying with ⁓ different kinds of assets to include a business and it fits into a portfolio. doesn’t, it shouldn’t necessarily consume your portfolio. Just like a single stock shouldn’t consume your portfolio.

 

And same for income streams. And we talked a little bit about this before the session, this idea of diversification of income streams and assets. ⁓ And you’ve touched on it. Can you just kind of you know, just maybe just drive the point home for people when we think about a business as an asset and an income stream or one or the other.

 

Katy Stevick (17:58)

Certainly. So I see a business as part of a total portfolio, to be sure. And even if that business owns real estate, that is real estate within the portfolio, that goes into your whole family’s financial picture. But a temptation I see often is to compare the return of a business with the return of the market. And this is usually in a question of like, well, should I take funds out of the market to invest in the business? Should I take funds out of a brokerage account? Should I take funds out of a retirement account? Because…

 

What is the most the stock market can earn versus what is the most return a business can earn? And before anything, those are not apples to apples. Unless your business is truly passive and you are a business investor, in which case it’s not really a question of opening a business. It’s a, I invest in this company? We’re kind of back into the stock market, right? So if you are opening a business and you are an active, involved member in that business, your time is where that multiple tends to come from at first.

 

And it can grow. It can definitely grow because ⁓ the key is to not see the return of a business simply as a passive investment versus the return of the market where you have to maybe take some time to pick what funds you invest in, but then the market is doing that return for you. You are not actively creating the return. So I challenge people to think of business return as a return on your time, like employment income.

 

And that you absolutely can multiply. Working at a company, there is a cap on how much you can earn and someone else chooses that. And on a business, that upside is huge, but that is your employment time upside as a multiple. ⁓ Don’t compare that directly to your portfolio. So I think that’s the key.

 

Mike Hunsberger (19:46)

Yeah, ⁓ I like that framing ⁓ just to make sure again you’re comparing apples to apples and not be an overly optimistic type thing and return on time is you know important as you know You you may think ⁓ yeah, I’m gonna have a lot of free time and things like that but owning a business and running a business can be all in you know, all consuming ⁓ you know where

 

Katy Stevick (20:13)

Yes.

 

Mike Hunsberger (20:14)

sometimes it could be even better to just have that 40 hour a week and keep the business, keep whatever you like as a hobby versus trying to monetize it and things like that. So, no, think that was a great framing, Katie. How about, there are some specific options for business owners when it comes to their retirement planning. So can you talk a little bit about that? How you think about that?

 

Katy Stevick (20:44)

Yes, ⁓ definitely. One thing that you mentioned with the 40 hours is when I first became a financial planner and I was an independent contractor working for a broker dealer, like working for a big company. And they said, you’ll be an independent contractor. You’ll be self-employed. You can work whenever you want. Take your own schedule any 60 hours. So it’s very true. And then I became a fully independent business owner. my God, it’s any 80 hours. Who needs sleep? ⁓

 

Amy (21:12)

laughs

 

Katy Stevick (21:14)

So again, consume at first. ⁓

 

But then if you’re doing what you really love, know, sometimes it honestly feels like I’m working less. So once you have that business growing and building wealth for you and fueling your plan, how do you pull that back into your personal financial plan? Great question. So the common things that we go to are a SEP IRA or setting up like a solo 401k or setting up a 401k for your business.

 

The key considerations here are going to be how much can you put into that? So if you’re just starting to earn income from the business, ⁓ having a 20 % cap on how much you can put in might be a lot lower than setting up a solo 401k or 401k for your business where it’s a set dollar amount. And then also if you have employees, that factors in because then you have to contribute a certain percentage to your employees. Is that something you want to do? Is that something your business is prepared to do?

 

⁓ So those are a couple of the options that are available in some of the considerations. A third thing that I see people overlook, but can be just as powerful is when you’re starting a business, you tend to have high, ⁓ high expenses in those first few years and great write-offs. And as tempting as it could be to channel David and say, everything is a write-off. ⁓ it really is a great tax strategy year. ⁓ if you have a few of those years.

 

Mike Hunsberger (22:32)

you

 

Katy Stevick (22:39)

to consider how that tax fits into your overall tax bracket in your portfolio. Those are key years to do conversions. And if you have a TSP account that you’ve been funding for years, they just, my gosh, I love that you had Omen talk about TSP in your last episode. And I have been so stoked about the ability to do in-plan conversions. So you don’t have to move it out of a TSP into an IRA to do a conversion now.

 

and I can talk a little bit more in detail about that, but that is just as important and how you fund your own retirement as setting up those extra retirement accounts that you can as a business owner.

 

Mike Hunsberger (23:20)

And I’ll say I did exactly that. I had a couple of years where there were more expenses than income those first couple of years coming in and it’s super low tax rate either to harvest capital gains or do some Roth conversions was prime. So yeah, can really help doing that tax planning is super smart.

 

Katy Stevick (23:23)

West.

 

Yeah, I think that’s where the tax planning also goes into like the business structure. We talked about that a little bit of what kind of business structure you set up. And sometimes the structure that you set up initially can change once you’re earning a lot, your revenue is really high and you’re paying yourself consistently. And that’s when it might make sense to change tax structure, to change your investment portfolio strategy personally.

 

The tax strategy really comes into play once that business is up and running and thriving, building your wealth.

 

Amy (24:16)

For sure. ⁓ One of the things that you brought up a little bit earlier is this idea of exit strategy. And you mentioned the idea that some businesses don’t stick around for more than three to five years. Sometimes that’s intentionally. Sometimes things just didn’t go well. If we have folks who are listening who have already started a business, ⁓

 

and maybe they feel like they’re crushing it or they don’t feel like they’re crushing it. How do you help business owners sort of get a feel for where they are? Make hard decisions like you either put more money in, close the business down. What are the things that you’re helping people look at and understand?

 

Katy Stevick (24:59)

Oh, goodness. The primary reason that people bring this up to me right now, it comes down to their time in the business. And maybe that business does really well with a certain amount of their time, but they hit burnout and say, like, how long can I sustain this level of personal investment in the business? What are other options? And so we start to look at just the business fundamentals of what is your capital? What is your payroll? How could you personally take a step back? then if

 

Amy (25:06)

Mm.

 

Katy Stevick (25:28)

this business is near its exit, how can you sell it? If it’s done really well and you’re ready to step aside and let someone else step in, let’s do a valuation of the business. And that can be the first step in determining market value. And market value is ultimately what anyone else is willing to pay for it. So I can do a business valuation looks fabulous, but it depends on that industry and what market there is right now for someone to buy into your business. But I’ve seen some really cool buyout strategies and

 

all sorts of businesses and it’s really neat to see there is such a market out there for a business that’s up and running and profitable and for someone to just jump into your passion and it’s really cool to see other people carry that forward.

 

Mike Hunsberger (26:11)

And that’s really a good option for, know, if somebody’s considering this, you know, don’t think you’ve got to start from scratch. You can go out and potentially buy somebody else’s business and step in, you know, figure that out. So if you’ve got capital or like you said, some some potential, you know, ways to fund that even through kind of ongoing, you know, payments to the old owner, depending if they need the money right away or.

 

Katy Stevick (26:18)

Mm-hmm.

 

Mike Hunsberger (26:39)

if they’re willing to finance or through a small business loan or something like that. So definitely, definitely options out there for somebody who, yeah, maybe I’m not the creator, but I’m a great operator and think I could step in and continue to run that business. ⁓

 

Katy Stevick (26:58)

also a really good option if you know your own risk tolerance. It’s a good option to lower some of that risk if a business concept is proven. know, most businesses don’t last the first few years. So if someone else has proven this and developed the systems, that takes a lot of time. Like that is the one thing that I underestimated the most when I opened the BNB is how much time it would take to create the business structure and the systems that could keep it going without my, you know, operation.

 

my involvement all the time. And if someone else has already done that for you and they’re willing to sell it, ⁓ that is something to consider for sure. And then how you fund it. That’s another great question. There’s a rule of thumb or a school of thought to always use other people’s Depends very much on the interest rate, but ⁓ there’s so many great options available to veterans for business loans, business funding, and

 

Mike Hunsberger (27:43)

Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Katy Stevick (27:55)

Those opportunities are really significant, especially if you could buy into a business or scale a business or have a higher capital to start it up at a lower interest rate than your civilian counterparts. That’s another huge advantage, just like if you’re to retire first and have the pension as well. mean, it’s a leg up you have over civilian starting businesses from scratch. And there’s a local.

 

Business resources are usually the best for this. So look up your SBA, the Small Business Administration, look up the local providers that they use. ⁓ I can speak to so many in the Fort Bragg area, but they’re often through a community college, a local college, or ⁓ local organizations that support small businesses. And they will have access to information that is not easily publicly available and so many more resources.

 

even our city’s economic development office, huge. And the director of the economic development office, a friend put me in contact and she had ideas and strategies I never would have considered and access to business assistance programs and loans that were at a crazy good interest rate and made so much sense that some things that we thought we were going to, you know, set up differently, we use their programs just to lower that.

 

interest on the capital we needed to start up. And that was based on the economic impact zone of our specific location, like specific block by block location. So they’ll have so much more information than I can give you as a whole. But there’s some great DoD resources too. And that’s from starting up your business to even operating it. ⁓ One of our goals at the end, my goal is never to operate it as fun as that sounds. And my friends call me Lorelai Gilmore with Better Life Choices.

 

the best compliment ever. As fun as would be to be an innkeeper, I run this financial planning firm full time. So my goal was, ⁓ from the very start was to open a cool, interesting business that I love that serves the community. Like it was definitely a community need and to employ military spouses. That was my goal from the start and to have them run this operation. ⁓ Military spouse employment, quality military spouse employment is a

 

Mike Hunsberger (29:48)

Hahaha

 

Amy (29:49)

Hehehehehe

 

Katy Stevick (30:17)

passion project soapbox of mine. ⁓ Not just from personal experience, but working with so many military families and seeing the impact of a quality second paycheck, especially a job that allows growth or flexibility. And that can be lacking in so many military towns. So this was my answer of what is one small part I can do. I can create a few jobs. So we’re part of the DOD’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership, MSEP.

 

And that is our commitment to hiring military spouses and also gives us access to other hiring resources and job fairs and things to attract that talent. So there are so many programs that are specific to military families and veterans that are out there to help with that business startup and funding.

 

Amy (31:02)

Now, do you think that a lot of these resources are past, you know, ⁓ service members get the information at tap classes? how do people find out, you know, if they’re not listening to this podcast or, you know, they’re not well integrated into the community that they’re going to be in and that they’re going to be starting their business. Cause a lot of us move afterwards. ⁓ Where do you, you know, how are people finding out about these resources?

 

Katy Stevick (31:31)

⁓ Great question. So if you want to find out before tab classes, I would start with the location that you’re in currently. Start there. Start with that location. Start with their local business resources because often they will translate. ⁓ Our Fayetteville State has a whole Veterans Business Outreach Center that is just dedicated to veterans. And military families can use that too. I think that is so key.

 

There are a lot of DoD resources. I will send you links. That’s probably the best thing I can do. I can send you links to a bunch of programs that can help get you started.

 

Amy (32:04)

Mm-hmm.

 

Yeah, perfect. We’ll put those in the show notes. That’s awesome.

 

Mike Hunsberger (32:11)

Yeah, as part of TAP, yeah. But I was going to say, yeah, as part of TAP, you know, they have the special Boots to Business. So that’s, you know, a kind of an entry point that also will give you a lot of, you know, other jumping off points. And then, yeah, depending on your area, we have a VBAC, the Veteran Business Opportunity Center ⁓ in St. Louis also, and I’ve used them.

 

Katy Stevick (32:11)

Yeah, are few programs that you can access at any case. Go ahead.

 

Yes.

 

Mike Hunsberger (32:39)

So depending, you know, there are fewer of them than the overall SBA offices, but, you know, look around. There may be one near you and, again, great resources for, you know, giving you coaching, helping you develop that business plan, all the things that you need to launch specifically tailored to the military side. So… ⁓

 

Yeah, there are tons of resources out there for military veterans, know, spouses. So, you know, make sure you’re taking advantage of all of those.

 

Katy Stevick (33:18)

Yes, yes. ⁓ One in particular, ⁓ MySeco, which is spouse education career opportunities, they have career counselors. And I only learned this recently doing a small business panel with them, that those career counselors can also help with business startup, not just in progressing through your career. And they’ve got some really good resources, knowing which one to use. Like that is half the battle sometimes. ⁓ And then in our case, starting a business, like we don’t have access to TAPS, my husband is still out.

 

of duty, right? We didn’t have access to any of that. Where do you start? And then some of these things are labeled veteran and that’s important, but then you don’t know which ones military family members can use or not. And he’s not going be able to go through all of this. Like literally he was in Iraq for half of this. You know, he’s not going to be looking this stuff up. The path that he was there for the startup, he did so much of like the physical labor of getting the building up and running. But knowing which ones to use, that one’s a great resource. An organization that I’ve

 

Amy (34:03)

Yeah

 

Katy Stevick (34:17)

co-founded the Military Family Foundation has a veteran and military families organizations resource map that we put together that just helps you identify what organizations exist in the space and do what. So ⁓ I can share a link to that too, just to know where to start of all of those resources.

 

Amy (34:35)

Yeah, yeah,

 

yeah, that’s awesome. ⁓ Now, in an effort to kind of bring things together as we get ready to wrap up, say somebody is getting ready to transition, you know, maybe they’re a year out, maybe they’re hopefully a few more years than one year out. They don’t have any big business experience. What do you tell them that they need to do and be prepared to do for the next 12 months? ⁓

 

Katy Stevick (34:44)

Thanks.

 

Amy (35:05)

Like what are the key ⁓ pieces of advice? What are you telling them to do as they get ready to transition?

 

Katy Stevick (35:14)

Okay, save like no one’s business. Just to be quite blunt, the more cushion you have, the easier this entire transition will be. Make sure that you have a really good foundational, personal, financial plan because a business will multiply anything that’s going on in your personal life. If you have really solid savings habits and you’re a great investor and you can grow money, that will be multiplied in business.

 

If you’re a little chaotic and your finances are leaking everywhere, that will be multiplied in business. So really get your own personal finances rock solid. That’s what I’d start with. Then research like crazy. Go into knowing everything you can about that business, about that field you’re going into. Talk to people in the current space. Even if you’re not exactly sure where you’re going to end up, ⁓ use the power of the network because I found the military is a really small world and our network is fabulous.

 

and talk to friends who have gotten out or who might be in business and say like, what are the hard truths? What is this really like on the ground? Get that perspective for whatever industry you want to start a business in. I feel like that would be really key. There’s so much research you can do before you start. So much planning you can do before you start. And once you start, you’re in it. It’s consuming. So use that prep time wisely. That’s a great question.

Mike Hunsberger (36:37)

Katie, thanks. Yeah, yeah, that’s the most important thing. hey, ⁓ as we wrap up, where can people go to learn ⁓ more about Align and what’s the name of, if they’re in Fayetteville, what’s the name of the bed and breakfast so that they can stay there?

 

Katy Stevick (36:37)

And then have fun.

 

Yes.

 

Yes. The bed and breakfast is the McPherson House. M-A-C-P-H-E-R-S-O-N McPhersonHouse.com. And it’s on Hay Street in downtown Fayetteville. ⁓ Align, literally I chose the name from the word that I use with clients most. And everything that we do is aligning your money and your time and the values that you have as a person that reflected through those.

 

So alignfinancialplanning.com as well as where you can find me. And I’m super excited for all these business ventures and would love to hear if you’re thinking of starting a business or if you’re already starting a business, I’d love to hear what you’re up to and cheer you on.

 

Amy (37:42)

Katie, thank you so much for coming today. This has been fantastic. We haven’t covered this level of detail ⁓ on this topic at all. So I hope that people find it useful. Check the show notes, because I think there’s going to be a ton of resources in there. So thank you again for your time.

 

Katy Stevick (37:59)

Absolutely, it’s been a delight.