Military veterans receive crash course in entrepreneurship

REGINA – For many ex-military personnel, the transition to civilian life can be difficult at times. This week, men and women who’ve served in the Canadian Armed Forces from across the country gathered in Regina for a crash course in how to start their own businesses. The program originally began at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Now, the Prince’s Charities Canada are helping to expand the program and make it an annual event in the queen city.

“Not surprisingly after 33 years of military, I knew almost nothing about running a business,” explained one of those participants, Chris Linford.

However, Linford did have a business idea. It stemmed from a darker period in his military service.

“I have three military deployments overseas. The first one to the Gulf War in 1991, the second to Rwanda in 1994, and my third one was to Afghanistan in 2009,” he said.

Linford suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for more than 10 years. He wrote about his journey in a self-published book, titled Warrior Rising and he plans to start a speaking tour. This week, he focused on how to make that viable.

“Many of the skills they’ve learned in the military are very applicable to entrepreneurship: risk-taking, leadership. These are all things that are traits of good soldiers, but they’re also traits of good entrepreneurs,” said Matthew Rowe, from the Prince’s Charities Canada.

“Based in Business” paired twenty participants with student volunteers. Faculty from the U of R School of Business volunteered to teach the sessions, while the Prince’s Charities picked up the tab for food and accommodation for the veterans, who have come from across the country.

“It’s something that we can do to help the people who have been out there protecting our country,” said Brittany Bray, a student volunteer and manager of the Based in Business program. “You get to meet these people who have experienced such a different life than we have and we’ve been learning a lot from them just hearing their stories.”