Two women smile and chat while holding shopping bags during a festive holiday evening. One wears a brown coat and white turtleneck, the other wears a red sweater and plaid scarf. They stand near a decorated Christmas tree with lights and ornaments. “Collective Agency” is written across the center of the image, and the Collective Agency logo appears in the bottom right corner. Colorful geometric shapes frame the image corners.
Hi friends,
If you’ve ever run a small business through supply chain delays, rent spikes, or sudden staffing changes, you already know, adaptability isn’t optional, it’s survival.
For veteran entrepreneurs, that truth runs deep. The same resourcefulness and resilience that guide military service show up powerfully in entrepreneurship. Their lived experience offers lessons every microbusiness owner (from solo creatives to café owners) can learn from.
This week, we’re exploring what adaptability looks like in real life, why it matters, and how to strengthen it inside your own business.
Adaptability Is More Than Reaction
In the military, adaptability isn’t about scrambling when things fall apart. It’s about preparation, scenario planning, and trusting your training so you can act with calm clarity.
Veteran-owned businesses often model this beautifully: they don’t just pivot when crisis hits, they build flexibility in from the start.
For small business owners, that might mean:
Designing services that can be delivered online or in person equally well.
Having a primary supplier and a backup option (or two) ready.
Knowing your baseline expenses and priorities so you can cut strategically, not reactively.
Adaptability becomes less about winging it and more about building operational resilience.
Lesson 1: Resilience Under Pressure
Business resilience isn’t about ignoring stress, it’s about having enough structure and clarity in place that you can think straight when things get tough. In military environments, people train to stay focused through uncertainty by preparing for different scenarios, practicing calm decision-making, and leaning on routines that hold steady even when the situation changes.
For small business owners, that same idea applies. Resilience grows when you know your priorities, have a plan for stressful moments, and give yourself tools that help you respond with clarity instead of panic. It’s less about powering through and more about creating conditions that support you when pressure hits.
Lesson 2: Resourcefulness With What You Have
Veterans learn early to maximize limited tools and adapt quickly. In entrepreneurship, that mindset becomes a superpower.
Instead of waiting for the “perfect” moment or expensive gear, resourceful entrepreneurs ask: “What can I do with what I’ve got?”
We see this in local microbusinesses that:
Turn empty wall space into rentable shelves for other makers.
Use affordable AI tools to repurpose content and save time.
Share commercial kitchens instead of taking on full build-outs.
Resourcefulness is creativity in motion, it’s turning constraints into design challenges.
Three service members in camouflage uniforms sit at desks during a classroom session. The person in the center looks toward the camera and smiles. The others are writing in notebooks. Soft natural light comes through the windows, and a small colorful graphic sits in the lower-left corner.
Lesson 3: Team Orientation- Even When You Work Solo
Military service builds strong teamwork instincts, and that doesn’t disappear after discharge.
Veteran entrepreneurs often excel at forming networks of mutual support, they know the power of trusted advisors, accountability partners, and collaboration.
For non-veteran business owners, the takeaway is simple:
Join a peer group so you don’t carry it all alone.
Build a small circle of advisors you can reach out to when needed.
Share what you learn; generosity fuels community resilience.
Even if you’re a team of one, you can run your business like part of a supportive unit.
Recognizing the Barriers Veterans Face
Veteran business owners move through a unique set of challenges as they build their companies. Access to capital can be uneven, mental health care doesn’t always match the need, and transitioning from military service into entrepreneurship asks people to learn new systems while carrying experiences that most civilians never see.
The recent shutdown added another layer. Many of the programs veterans rely on (from education and counseling to lender approvals and licensing support) were slowed down, paused, or stretched thin. Staff across VBOC, state partners, and local veteran service organizations kept showing up with what they had, even when capacity was tight and funding cycles were stalled. Their steady effort helped keep veterans connected to guidance during a stressful time, and it deserves acknowledgment.
As we recognize veterans this week, we’re also grateful for the people working inside these support systems who held things together the best they could.
A Simple Way to Support
If you’re looking for a way to honor Veteran’s Day in a meaningful, everyday way, one of the most impactful things you can do when shopping small is to support veteran-owned businesses. Your dollars help strengthen the local economy and show appreciation for the leadership, resilience, and commitment that veteran entrepreneurs bring to our communities.
Adaptability as a Whole-Person Practice
At Collective Agency, we see business growth and personal wellbeing as connected. Adaptability is a practice that can help you stay solid on your toes.
From veterans, we learn that grounding matters: breathing through stress, leaning on rituals, taking care of yourself, and staying anchored in purpose.
To strengthen adaptability in your business, try:
Reflecting on the skills you’ve already built in past careers or life experiences.
Making decisions using your Vision and Mission as your true north.
Focusing on what you can control (not what you can’t.)
Nurturing relationships that help you adapt with support, not isolation.
Prioritizing your health so you can stay at the helm.
This is adaptability as a whole-person practice, not just a business tactic.
A silhouetted service member stands outdoors at sunset holding an American flag. The sky behind them is layered with bright orange, pink, and purple tones. A small colorful graphic sits in the lower-left corner.
Beyond Adaptability: The Evolution of Leadership
Adaptability helps you survive change. Evolution helps you grow because of it.
For many veteran entrepreneurs, the transition to business ownership isn’t just about reacting to new environments, it’s about recalibrating how they lead. Their military experience builds adaptability and helps them survive change. Evolution helps them grow because of it.
For many veteran entrepreneurs, the transition to business ownership isn’t a departure from service, it’s an expansion of it. The discipline, focus, and mission clarity that guided their teams now fuel their ability to build, lead, and innovate in new environments. The mission simply evolves from serving a cause to shaping one.
Research from the Institute for Veterans and Military Families and the SBA’s Office of Veterans Business Development shows what we’ve witnessed firsthand through our time supporting VBOC’s Boots to Business cohorts and their symposiums: veterans bring collaboration, creativity, and courage already forged through experience. They lead with purpose, communicate across differences, and stay grounded through uncertainty.
In entrepreneurship, those same instincts take on a new form; structure becomes strategy, precision becomes innovation, and command becomes co-creation. It’s not about learning new ways to lead; it’s about translating hard-earned skills into new expressions of service and impact.
Their journeys remind us that adaptability isn’t just reacting to change, it’s redefining what’s possible together. That’s the kind of leadership that moves communities, not just companies, forward.
Gratitude for Veteran Entrepreneurs
Veteran-owned businesses bring more than goods and services; they bring the values of service for others, discipline, and purpose into local economies. Many hire fellow veterans, mentor new entrepreneurs, and build community spaces where people feel they belong.
From the café that employs returning service members to the tradesperson mentoring the next generation, these businesses strengthen local economic fabric in both visible and quiet ways.
This week, we pause to say thank you- not only for military service, but for the steady, values-driven leadership veteran entrepreneurs bring to our communities.
Reflection Prompt
Military training includes simple tools that help people stay steady under pressure. One of those tools is the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), created by Air Force Colonel John Boyd to support clear decision-making in fast-changing situations.
When things shift in your business, which part of this cycle do you move through with confidence, and which part do you tend to rush past?
Veteran entrepreneurs remind us that adaptability isn’t about bracing for the worst, it’s about building businesses that bend without breaking.
Through resilience, resourcefulness, and relationships, they show us what sustainable entrepreneurship looks like.
In Partnership,
Tricia + Chandra
Collective Agency
P.S. Know a business owner or resource partner who’d love this kind of support and community?
Feel free to forward this email or invite them to sign up—we’d love to welcome them in.
