Halfaker & Associates

News

February 2009

Halfaker and Associates' CEO Featured in BusinessWeek Article Offering Advice to Future Veterans Looking to be Entrepreneurs

Washington, DC -  Halfaker and Associates, a firm that provides strategic consulting and national security services to the federal government, founder Dawn Halfaker is featured in February’s BusinessWeek Magazine.  The article hopes to inspire and guide separating soldiers who are looking to start their own companies and features tested advice from 11 veterans who used their experience in the military to launch their own companies.

Halfaker, a four year Army officer veteran, was separated from the Army in 2005 after losing her right arm in a rocket propelled grenade attack while serving in Iraq.  Her severe injury forced her to rebuild her life.  "The recovery was extremely challenging and tested me emotionally.  On top of that I had to figure out how my experience translated into a civilian career."  Following her separation from the Army, Halfaker landed a consulting gig with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and laid the foundation for Halfaker and Associates, which has grown since its inception in 2006 to a $10 million, 105-employee firm.  To inspire and guide future veteran owned small business owners, Halfaker recommends that potential entrepreneurs find a mentor.  "The beauty of the veteran community is that we’re all knit together, and we need to help each other out.  Any veteran business owner would be happy to mentor an entrepreneur.  That’s what it’s all about."

For assistance in locating mentors and further guidance in beginning a company, future veteran small business owners can now turn to several organizations offering targeted help to former service people who plan to start a business.  The Department of Veterans Affair’s Center for Veterans Enterprise advises veterans at different stages of their businesses' development and directs them to local resources in their community, such as the regional small business development centers.  Once the business is established, the center can register a veteran-owned company on the CVE's vendor information pages at no cost, which could help them win government contracts and subcontracts.

After unsuccessfully embarking on a dream career in filmmaking, 13 year Marine Corps Veteran, Brian Iglesias decided to start his own company and enrolled in the intensive 14-month Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities.  Started by James M. Haynie, an Air Force vet turned business school professor at Syracuse in 2007, the boot camp includes lessons in business plan development, marketing campaigns, financing, legal issues, and supply chains.  Iglesias now plans to start filming his first documentary on February 15th with his newly launched company, Veterans Inc.  He says, "I guarantee I would have made a lot of bad decisions, and I'd be in a much darker place than I am right now without the support."  Halfaker hopes that more entrepreneurs, like Iglesias, find the mentorship required to embark on their dream careers.