Mission Entrepreneur: Applying Lessons from Military Life to Create Success in Business Startups

#1 Amazon New Release! ─ Women + Military = Entrepreneurs

Career military? Leaving the military for civilian life? You can leverage your experience into some great new business startup ideas.

Business success: Military spouses can face serious challenges when trying to develop a career while part of the military life, or equally serious challenges when they transition to civilian life. But, help is on the way in Mission Entrepreneur: Applying Lessons from Military Life to Create Success in Business Startups

Finding startup ideas that can make you a business success: Are you trying to find your niche in our modern world of underemployment and the self-employed, where many are looking for great startup ideas and the opportunity to build wealth and find happiness and fulfillment? Some of the best startup ideas are yet to be discovered and Mission Entrepreneur will guide you through Jen E. Griswold's journey toward realizing her personal dream of becoming one of the successful women entrepreneurs. Experiencing underemployment as a military spouse, she learns how to turn her military experience into business success.

The underemployment problem: Being a military spouse comes with sacrifices. Spouses give up college degrees, careers and put other plans on hold due to military relocations. The country feels the effects. Reports show that 90% of female spouses face underemployment and countless income tax dollars are lost. As both a spouse and veteran for 20 years, Jen E. Griswold witnessed many spouses trying to keep a career going through their first few assignments. After multiple failed attempts and the addition of kids, they often gave up, deciding their efforts were futile. Their confidence waned and they began to question their self-worth.

Women entrepreneurs: Ironically, these same people have the perfect set of skills needed to become successful women entrepreneurs: work ethic, vision, passion, and resilience. These are the exact same skills that have helped them endure a life of sacrifice in the military. But, in most cases, they have given up on their own personal big visions to change the world. Using a lifetime of experience, military trained veterans entering the job force know how to manage the bumpy journey to becoming men and women entrepreneurs and finding those great startup ideas.

Mission Entrepreneur: From her extensive training in the Air Force and experience coaching women over the past several years, Griswold discovered that by giving back to her military community, she could change the world a little bit every day. America needs more men and women entrepreneurs who pay it forward and here is where we’ll start. Welcome to Mission Entrepreneur.

Jen Griswold met her husband while attending the Air Force Academy. He became a pilot and she went on to become an Aircraft Maintenance Officer, which meant that, like him, she was often deployed. When the couple decided to have children it made sense for Jen to join the reserves and stay at home, at least for a while. After three years, no longer willing to put her identity on reserve, she began to look for part-time work. Despite her level of education, she was unable to find suitable work for part-time hours, and decided to go into business for herself as an interior designer. Her business was a success, but ended for her when the call of duty sent her family to a new location, and Jen prepared to start all over once again. Fortunately, Jen understood the power of entrepreneurship, and began a new business in an up and coming network marketing company. She decided at that moment that she would give a large portion of her earnings to a nonprofit micro loan organization, and asked them to earmark her money for loans that go to military spouses. And that is only the beginning of her story. Many years later, she continues to give generously every month to causes she believes in. “The desire to help people has always been in the forefront of my mind,” she says. “And I know it’s the reason I have succeeded in my business.” Jen’s passion to help military spouses achieve success and her desire to educate people about their lives comes from experience. She knows very well how hard it is to move every three years, to struggle to find work, to lose yourself in the constant inconsistency. “So many of these women are highly educated people who have given up their careers. And they don’t always want to move around all the time, but they do, and they do it without complaining. It’s a big sacrifice, and I feel like the least we can do is help them a little.” With her new company, Jen’s spirit of generosity has been contagious. The team she co-founded, called Team GIVE (Genuine Inspired Vibrant Entrepreneurs) all give in some way, whether it be money or their time, and it is the overarching drive behind the team’s success. Jen’s main focus is teaching women leadership and entrepreneurial skills. The sense of empowerment that comes with owning your own business is something she feels very strongly about sharing. Confident that there are many women out there who have it in them to do this, she encourages those who feel intimidated by being their own boss. And she freely admits that when she got into this business, she didn’t always know what she was doing herself. Today, Jen Griswold has reinvented life for herself and her family. She embraces the change that has come with working with women, where there is a spirit of collaboration. She loves that the people she works with now are always helping each other, and nurturing each other’s growth. In a society where the business world can be cruel, Jen has created a business based on support and sharing, which is so hard to come by. Further, she has built a group of people who can be proud of their achievements, in whatever measure they choose. When asked how she measures her own success, her answer came easily. “Watching leaders grow. The more people empowered and the more leaders I inspire – that’s how I measure my success.”