Army Community, Army Spouse and Family Resources - Army Times

Building businesses through networking

There is a long tradition of military spouses stepping up to the plate to help improve things for other military spouses and families.

Important programs such as Army Family Team Building, Tragedy Assistance Programs for Survivors and the National Military Family Association were started by military spouses.

Thanks to the NMFA’s efforts before Congress, for example, we have many benefits available, including the Survivor Benefit Plan, space-available travel for college-age children and our dental benefits.

Now, three more military spouses are working to leave a lasting legacy for other spouses.

Lanette Lepper, Joanna Williamson and Rebecca Poynter each own a business. Their paths crossed, and they started meeting informally by phone to discuss business and financial topics and, of course, military lifestyle issues such as deployment dates. They enjoyed talking to each other, sharing business tips and staying motivated in the process.

They discussed the time and energy they spent “reinventing the wheel” as they started their businesses. They could have saved one another a lot of time and effort if they had met sooner. They decided they wanted to help other spouses, so they wouldn’t have to learn so much the hard way. Plus, they wanted to help military spouse businesses more easily network with one another for leads, joint work projects and continuing support and inspiration.

From those early informal meetings, the Military Spouse Business Association was born.

It’s a potentially large network when you consider the numbers. An estimated 50,000 — or nearly 10 percent — of active-duty working military spouses are self-employed.

There are other ongoing initiatives that will increase those numbers. Military Spouse Virtual Assistants training (http://www.staffcentrix .com) and medical transcription training (http://www.trsinstitute .com) are examples.

MSBA serves all military spouses, not just military spouse business owners, and includes businesses and organizations that support military families.

This nonprofit organization provides business and financial information suitable for the military lifestyle. MSBA can help military spouses in the same geographic area or area of expertise network with one another. The really wonderful thing is that some of these members may become your “virtual water cooler” friend, virtual project partner, business mentor, customer or supplier. The organization also provides the opportunity to make military families and others aware of a business service or product.

“One big goal we have is to educate members about how business ownership can provide family income now, fund financial goals and develop individual retirement savings,” Poynter said.

MSBA’s Web site, http://www .milspousebiz.org, includes forums on business success, self-motivation and financial readiness, with experts providing answers to questions. There will be free online seminars, as well.

The founders welcome any military spouse who would like to get involved in the growth of the association. Because this is a nonprofit and every member has her own business, “our goal is to ask something, but not too much, of each person who wants to get involved in the association development,” Poynter said. But it’s OK to join and take advantage of the benefits without taking part in development efforts, of course.

Military spouses can list their businesses in an external directory and find other military spouses in an internal directory.

As two military spouses with separate businesses who have been partners for years and have worked with other military spouse virtual businesses on projects, we applaud the new association.

And, yes, we joined up.

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Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer are military spouses who have written articles and presented workshops based on their research and experience for more than 10 years. They are the authors of “Help! I’m a Military Spouse — I Get a Life Too!” Now in its second edition, the book is available through the Military Times online store, http://www.mil-mall.com. Send your questions and suggestions to marriedtomilitary@atpco.com.