To begin with, veterans should be mentored and taught how to manage a business budget. Managing a personal budget and a business budget are two very different things. In the military, you don't learn how to manage a budget at all because it's not really part of military life as such. For entrepreneurs, however, it's extremely important.
You make your own luck, and I was lucky to some extent because my idea worked. I listened to a lot of advice from business leaders and adopted a business model that works extremely well, which is why we have been so successful.
However, whether you want it or not, there's always the question of financial aid. You can go into business from one day to the next with a small federal pension plan and a small provincial pension plan, but it might take several years before you can pay yourself a salary. It's therefore important to know how to manage a budget.
If the Canadian Armed Forces wanted to train entrepreneurs, then they would have to begin by providing mentoring sessions to really show people what entrepreneurship is. The entrepreneurial environment is not a bed of roses; it's difficult, people are often negative, there's a lot of competition, and mutual assistance is hard to come by.
Fortunately, there are more and more mentoring associations or former business leaders who have sold their business and would like, after retiring, to pass on their knowledge. If the Canadian Armed Forces could work with these associations and business leaders, it would be extremely beneficial to our veterans from the entrepreneurial standpoint.
As for reservists, I know that you asked a question…