Your next customer, partner, or biggest supporter could already be in this community. But do they know what you do? As veterans, many of us are used to keeping our heads down and letting the work speak for itself. In business, we also have to help people understand that work. Share something you’re building. A problem you helped a customer solve. A lesson you learned. A challenge you could use help with. And keep sharing. One post won’t reach everyone, and people need time to connect your name with what you do. The more we understand each other’s businesses, the easier it becomes to make an introduction, recommend someone, or pass along an opportunity. That’s part of why this Veteran Business Community exists. Veterans should take care of veterans. Knowing what another veteran is working on gives us a place to start. What are you working on this week? Drop it below. Then take a minute to see what another member is building. You might know someone who could help.

There's a big difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it. And that difference is why so many aspiring entrepreneurs and side hustlers are still working a 9-to-5 while trying to build their business on nights and weekends. Reading another book. Watching another YouTube video. Taking another course. Researching another business idea. Gaining more information. This is NOT taking action! Don't get me wrong. Education is important. But information only becomes valuable when you put it to work. After building nine businesses over the past 30 years, I've learned that you don't build a business by knowing everything. You build a business by taking action, making mistakes, learning from customers, and adjusting along the way. Jeff Arredondo, a veteran who went through the 5-Day Startup Veteran Challenge, shared this after completing the program, and it perfectly captures what I'm talking about: "Hal has been instrumental in getting me from an over analyzer of information to taking action! Sometimes you have to have enough information to take the jump and just take action!” That's exactly why I created the FREE 5-Day Startup Veteran Challenge. Not to give you another five days of information to consume. But to give you five days of specific actions designed to move you closer to building a business that can replace your paycheck. Five days. Five missions. All action. 👉 Join the challenge: https://startupveteran.com/challenge

This new PenFed Foundation Study highlights where the resources, networks and opportunities are strongest, ranking the top 20 large U.S. cities for veteran entrepreneurs. 👉 Read the full report: https://penfedfoundation.org/2026-top-us-cities-for-veteran-entrepreneurs/

It's the same skill I had to master when I started my first business in 1997. And 30 years from now, it will still be the most important skill you can learn. SALES. Think about how much has changed in business over the past 30 years. The internet. Social media. E-commerce. Automation. And now AI. Today, you can build a website in minutes, create marketing content with AI, and launch a business from your kitchen table. But there's one thing technology hasn't changed. Someone still has to get a customer to part with their hard-earned money. When I started my first business in 1997, I quickly learned that having a great product or service wasn't enough. I had to learn how to find customers. Start conversations. Understand their problems. Communicate the value of what I was offering. Ask for the sale. And handle rejection when the answer was no. Nearly 30 years and nine businesses later, those fundamentals haven't changed. Here's what I see happening with a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs today. They're spending months building websites, designing logos, creating content, and perfecting their business plans. But they're avoiding the one activity that actually generates revenue. SELLING. And if your goal is to turn your side hustle into a full-time business, you need to understand something. You don't replace your paycheck with a business idea. You replace it with paying customers. That's why Day 5 of the FREE 5-Day Startup Veteran Challenge focuses on building a simple sales strategy to start finding customers and generating revenue. Because you can have the best idea in the world, but until someone is willing to pay for it, you don't have a proven business. The tools will keep changing. The technology will keep advancing. But 30 years from now, businesses will still need customers, and someone will still need to make the sale. 👉 Join the FREE 5-Day Startup Veteran Challenge: https://startupveteran.com/challenge

Most people who want to quit their 9-to-5 have no idea how much money their business actually needs to make. And that’s a big reason why their side hustle stays a side hustle. When I left the military and started building businesses, I learned pretty quickly that wanting to be your own boss and being able to afford to be your own boss are two very different things. A steady paycheck gives you something most aspiring entrepreneurs take for granted. Predictability. You know what’s coming in every two weeks. But when you’re running your own business, nobody guarantees that next paycheck. And here’s where a lot of people get the math wrong. They assume that if they’re making $80,000 a year at their job, they just need a business that generates $80,000 in revenue. Wrong. Your business has expenses. You have taxes to account for. You may need to pay for insurance, equipment, software, marketing, and other operating costs. And you need enough margin to survive the months when revenue isn’t as predictable. That’s why I teach you to figure out what I call your Bravo Foxtrot (Break Free) Number. It’s the number your business needs to generate so you can realistically break free from your paycheck. Let’s say you’re earning $80,000 a year. Depending on your expenses, margins, and financial obligations, your business might need to generate $150,000, $200,000, or more in annual revenue to replace that income sustainably. That’s a very different target. And once you know your number, something changes. You’re no longer just saying, “I want to quit my job someday.” You have a financial target you can work backward from. How many customers do you need? What do you need to charge? How many sales do you need each month? What kind of business model can realistically get you there? That’s when your side hustle starts becoming a business with a plan. It’s also why Day 1 of my FREE 5-Day Startup Veteran Challenge is dedicated to calculating your Bravo Foxtrot Number.