enlisted to entrepreneur By Vicki Garcia
Veteran Entrepreneur Movement Growing When Veteran Entrepreneurs Today (V.E.T.) started 18 months ago nobody in the San Diego veterans’ community understood how entrepreneurship applied to veterans. No big surprise. Almost everyone in the business of watching out for vets in San Diego has a job or is in the public sector. Helping vets to start and grow a business was so radical an idea that it didn’t show up on anybody’s radar. Now it appears V.E.T. wasn’t the only ones with this brain storm. Several organizations in the country, and even the moribund SBA, have woken up and realized that there aren’t enough jobs to employ all the recently discharged service members. Here are the newest (and probably the only ones for now) organizations on the national scene aiming to make boss-hood a veteran option. It’s a small, but good, start. http://veteranbusinesscoalition.org/ http://www.momentumtexas.org/support-mt/ http://muster.bunkerchicago.com/ http://riata.okstate.edu/veterans/ http://www.navoba.com/default.aspx
Adaber’s Story Veteran Entrepreneurs Today (V.E.T.) currently has 14 veterans in an intensive 13 week group program focusing on building their businesses. One of them is Adaber Nazario, the CEO of Urban Pickles. That’s right. Adaber makes pickles…the delicious, spicy, salty, crunchy green things you eat. Adaber’s job in the Army was as a 92G-Food Service Specialist. She went to culinary school after the service and stayed in the restaurant industry until a couple of years ago. Cooking was her passion so she rolled up her sleeves and dove into making pickles. Family and friends couldn’t get enough. Adaber’s pickles are currently in 2 San Diego restaurants, Uptown Tavern in Hillcrest and West Coast Tavern in North Park. In the V.E.T. program she can focus on growth and goals for the future with feedback from the group. Urban Pickles makes 2 flavors, Dill and Habanero. You can visit her Facebook page for more information and upcoming restaurants, as well to sign up for the e-blasts to get your hands on some of her mouthwatering gherkins at www.facebook.com/AdahbersPickles
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V.E.T. Joins Reboot A program note worth mentioning is that Veteran Entrepreneurs Today has aligned with the San Diego based National Veterans Transition Services, the parent non-profit of Reboot, as their new fiscal agent. This is outstanding news for V.E.T. because of NVTSI’s stellar reputation, many contacts in the veteran service community, and strong leadership. If you would like to apply for the V.E.T. program, visit https://www. surveymonkey.com/s/veteran-entrepreneur www.homelandmagazine.com
For more information, visit www.joinSDPDnow.com Or contact a Recruiter at (619)531-COPS For more info contact Officer Steve Markland @ (619)531-2202 or smarkland@pd.sandiego.gov
HOMELAND / June 2015 17