Message from our Founder: Rosie's List

It seems like a lifetime ago that we started this journey. Like so many other small businesses, it all began with a problem. In my case, I was looking for someone to do repair work on our home in San Diego County. After many frustrating hours on Craigslist and Angi (formally known as Angie’s List), it hit me: how could I find veteran and military spouse-owned businesses to patronize?

If we were going to spend our hard earned money, my priority would be to support a military family-owned company. Turns out I wasn’t alone. More than 70 percent of American consumers were like me. We wanted to patronize these businesses, but finding them was a challenge.

That’s why Rosie’s List was born. It began by talking to almost 150 veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs. How can we help you? What are your greatest challenges? Their answers provided us with the framework for The Rosie Network, a publically supported tax-exempt organization whose mission is to support and promote our nation’s military family-owned small businesses.

What we learned along this journey has been remarkable. Veteran-owned businesses are two and a half times more likely to succeed than their civilian counterparts and 10 times more likely to hire other veterans and military spouses. We knew we were on the right track. If we could help these businesses succeed, we would be creating jobs for other veterans while strengthening our military families and economy. A win-win.

Since its launch in early 2014, Rosie’s List has grown to more than 5,000 verified veteran and military spouse-owned businesses! Our direct financial impact has been over $4.2 million dollars in revenue for our members. Rosie’s List is growing and our goal is to surpass Angi as a trusted source for service/business providers and become the first place American consumers go to “Shop Military Family Owned.”

M.E. MAG is for you, the military entrepreneur. We hope you enjoy it, share it and provide feedback. There are articles that range from prioritizing your work/business/life balance, financial security, how businesses came to be as told by the CEO and more! You can view the recent editions at https://issuu.com/therosienetwork. Find out about new businesses and then support your local military small business owners by using Rosie’s List or consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us meet our mission.

Thank you.

Stephanie Brown Proud Military Spouse CEO & Founder, The Rosie Network