Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosie Lee.
Hi Rosie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I count myself among the fortunate few afforded the opportunity to do exactly what I am intended to do at exactly the time I am intended to do it serving the people I am intended to serve. In 2016 I fell into an opportunity to manage an entrepreneurship program at a local community college. My experience as a lifelong entrepreneur made me especially eager to support this program. I understand the chaos and struggles, the moments of elation followed by moments of desperation, random influences that could make or break my business, and the struggle to quickly adapt. I never considered my entrepreneurial experience as a valuable resource to other budding business owners, though I often engaged with them to share war stories, successes, and connections to resources or other entrepreneurs.
I was not prepared for the palpable desperation of the veterans I contacted to congratulate them on their acceptance into the program. What I discovered broke my heart. These brave individuals had served our country, experienced combat I cannot imagine; sacrificed family time and milestones their loved ones achieved; and suffered physical and emotional loss and hardship that affects them day in and day out. They struggled to achieve professional satisfaction and financial success after service, and they harbored business dreams they cherished but didn’t know how to bring to life. I immediately knew I would spend the rest of my days serving this admirable group of people to help them achieve their goals.
When the community college decided to change the program to focus on social entrepreneurship for all students, not just veterans and not exclusively veterans, a small group of us decided it was time to make these dedicated resources available for military community entrepreneurs everywhere. Action Zone launched in May 2018 in Tampa, Florida.
For the six years, I have been in this field, I have created and facilitated business startup curriculum for military community entrepreneurs. Through extensive research of business startup education, I have waded through the most popular startup curricula and more obscure theories and practices, blending them to define the means and methods most effective for those with little to no business experience as well as those more business savvy, albeit still entrepreneurial poor. Through eleven cohorts that have completed our Action Zone programs, I have tested formats, presentation methods, and extracurricular activities to support the material. I have written programs that deliver knowledge on customer discovery, customer channels, and business model canvas creation. I continue to experiment with topics and presentation styles hoping to achieve the most effective methods to support and guide these budding entrepreneurs most expeditiously to revenue generation and smart business development and growth.
I have some of the best minds – and best people – working alongside us. Retirees, veterans, military spouses, and civilian supporters, each with their own area of expertise and experience, help us bring indispensable knowledge and resources to those who need it. Even as I write this, I cannot name them all, but I know that one phone call or one email is all that is needed to get the connection needed for one of our entrepreneurs.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are no smooth roads in entrepreneurship. What some people might see as an overnight success is, in fact, the culmination of hours and hours of trial and error, days of desperate grappling with a seemingly insurmountable challenge, endless cycles of following rabbit holes for information, and implementing solutions that seemed to fit, but not quite.
I have started, grown, and abandoned more than a dozen businesses in my lifetime. Action Zone is my first non-profit. And though non-profit is just a tax status, the nuances of operations and revenue generation within the boundaries of that status can be a challenge.
WE know how important this mission is to those we serve. Nearly all the people we speak with understand its importance and commend us for taking on such a big challenge. The hard fact remains, however, that providing services with a no-cost model for our clients is a herculean feat with countless days of Sisyphean activities. Like many new business owners, and in spite of our extended entrepreneurial experience, we did not know what we did not know. The learning curve is steep, some days insurmountable, and expensive.
Finding potential financial partners is the easy part. Many organizations and individuals focus on veteran issues or entrepreneurial support in general. To generate revenue, i.e., donations and sponsorships, nonprofits face more focused scrutiny than for-profit businesses. This is, in part, because of rampant fraud among some non-profits, the perception that the founders are only in it for the money big organizations will donate to the cause, and the time it takes to prove the concept is viable and delivering the benefits the founders say it will.
We started the organization in 2018 with one grant that supported approximately 30 veterans in business startup programs and more than 500 that attended our workshops and public presentations. We struggled to find donated space to hold classes. We begged for opportunities to deliver workshops or serve on panels and roundtables. We spoke to hundreds of people about our mission and how their assistance and sponsorship – financial or providing resources – would demonstrate their commitment to “Support a Veteran/Thank a Veteran” philosophies.
All to no avail, with little interest and less trust in a new non-profit serving veterans.
After the first year, I took a grocery store job to pay my bills so I could continue nurturing this passion to help veterans and military spouses with their business dreams. At the beginning of the pandemic, I started a personal business and earned enough to sustain my pursuit of this passion.
Four years later, Action Zone is still an all-volunteer organization with operational staff who are not paid for their time creating, developing, and strengthening the organization. The few grants and sponsorships we’ve received support the cost to deliver the programs for veterans and military spouses to start or grow their own business.
But this is a challenge I will face every day to see the look of accomplishment on the face of a veteran or military spouse who has just made their first sale, signed their first big contract for services, and hired their first employee in their business. The rewards of this passion are not financial or professional accolades; they never were. I know I can help someone else achieve their dreams, and I am in it for the long haul while they fight for that success.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Action Zone was created by the Veteran community for the Veteran community. Our services are designed to help Veterans, Active Duty, Reservists, Guards, and military spouses, and dependents build businesses. We provide education and advocacy for the entire military community seeking an alternative to traditional employment. We support military spouses and dependents who create businesses that are impervious to the nomadic nature of military life for families. We connect Veterans to advocates and assets in the region to provide the most comprehensive system of support to develop and launch a business.
Our niche is specialized: it is a Veteran-owned business hub helping the military community put their business ideas into action.
We deliver three structured programs to serve our entrepreneurs.
Action Zone Activate: Starting with the development or refinement of your business model and graduating through strategic performance goals, Activate helps you build a solid foundation for a sustainable, thriving business.
Action Zone Incubate: Incubate addresses the operational challenges your business faces, offers practical, actionable steps to break through those challenges, and offers a peer-to-peer network for ongoing support and growth.
Action Zone Accelerate: Accelerate provides a personal provisional board of directors guiding you with strategic advice and critical industry connections to build a stable foundation for your business to grow. With this guidance and support you are prepared for business sustainability and growth, as well as building your professional network for success.
Our programs are different because of the personal, one-on-one experience each cohort member receives. Whether in-person or virtually, we nurture the development of the business as well as the professional acumen of the business owner. Professional maturity, networking, and resource acquisition is as much a part of the program as building a business model that leads to a viable, sustainable business.
What is most unique is the parallel to their armed service experience. While each is working on their own business individually, they work together building their success. Much like they did in the military. Much like military spouses do in their role supporting their serving spouse. There is one mission, and success is the only option. They share a camaraderie and dependence that support success.
Our facilitators and subject matter experts are experienced entrepreneurs with first-hand knowledge of the challenges you face in your new business. They share best practices, make recommendations, and connect you to other experts you may need.
We are very proud of the members in our program. Since 2018, we’ve had more than 160 veterans, and military spouses come through our programs. More than 2,500 more have attended our workshops and public presentations across Florida. And while we have only been able to compel 43% of our cohort members to complete a post-program survey this year, their results are astounding:
Businesses launched or grown: 93
Jobs created: 405
Veterans employed: 83
Capital invested: $2,805,000
Revenue generated: $15,052,000
Several of our cohort members have joined forces to create joint businesses that were not a part of their vision for their future. Others, especially during the pandemic, made critical adjustments that resulted in more successful endeavors than their original business model. While some set aside their business aspirations and some closed during the pandemic, they all have the tools they need to start anew when the opportunity and their personal situation allows.
There is another very important aspect of Action Zone that sets us apart. We are an organization of entrepreneurs serving entrepreneurs. Our experience complements each other and allows us to provide practical and impactful programs that fill the gaps for new and growing business owners. However, we never stop learning how to make those processes better to make the startup journey smoother.
Our board members and facilitators continue to advance their own professional development in ways that provide added benefit or growth to Action Zone and the people we serve.
For example, Dr. Russ Barnes, Ph.D., USAF Col (ret), our education director and fellow entrepreneur and facilitator, applies his education and experience to create structured programs that help entrepreneurs get from where they are to where they want to be. He focuses on strategy and simple goal progression to help make what seems like an insurmountable task much more manageable and achievable.
Valerie Lavin, US Army 1st Sgt (ret), co-founder and Board Chair, it means cultivating professional networking and ecosystem development skills to widen our network and reach, and to locate and enlist the support of the resources our cohort members need.
For my part, I am keenly interested in knowing the best ways to develop curriculum, instructional devices, and delivery to make learning how to start a business easier, more intuitive. I am pursuing an advanced degree to learn how that works, what it looks like, and how I can implement it in our business startup programs.
What we all know in our organization is that we can never stop discovering ways to provide the most comprehensive programs and support for our veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs. I am happy and proud to serve among the best of the best at Action Zone. We have an incredible team.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
This is what I wish everyone knew when they are just starting on a startup adventure
1. Start with a solid foundation, a business model that helps you identify all the things you need to know to move forward. Surprising to many, this model will also help to navigate around challenges that come your way during the launch and growth of your business. It’s not impossible to build a successful business with a hope and a prayer, but your opportunity for success is best served with a good business model.
2. Understand and accept that failure IS an option, even a likelihood, but it does not necessarily mean the death of your entrepreneurial goals. Learn to discover the lessons in the failures. Really dig deep into what caused it, accept responsibility for faulty logic, emotional actions, and bad decisions. We all have them. It’s okay. We all also have moments of complete despair when we are ready to throw it all away and just go get a J.O.B. Trust me; that feeling passes. What’s on the other side of that is euphoric, at least until the next episode of entrepreneurial frustration. Ride those waves like a champion surfer or rodeo rider, and you will discover you are heartier than you thought, and success IS possible.
3. Surround yourself with like-minded people and make yourself available to discover more of them. Starting or growing a business can be a very lonely endeavor. The days are long, and tasks never seem to end. Building a support system will help you through those long days and will elevate you to get through the next one. We don’t all build the same business, but we all have the same challenges in building and growing one. Cultivate those friendship and associations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.actionzonetampa.com
- Facebook: actionzonetampa
- Twitter: actionzone4vets
