Workplace Flexibility Lets Mothers Thrive (Entrepreneur.com)

Workplace Flexibility Lets Mothers Thrive

Get creative with scheduling and tap into the experience and talents of women seeking a mom-friendly workplace.

By Lisa Druxman | September 24, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/mompreneur/mompreneurcolumnistlisadruxman/article197268.html

Since I started my company seven years ago, a majority of my employees have been moms, women working the majority of their hours from home.

After I became a mom, I quickly realized that few workplaces understood the demands of motherhood and were supportive of mothers. I figured if I could offer supportive opportunities through my company, I could create a dedicated and loyal team.

It worked. I have created a flexible work plan so my employees can work within and around motherhood. We have seen each other through pregnancies, new babies and a host of different life experiences. I feel good that we can break the rules about what hours constitute a work schedule and where work must take place. But sometimes, our greatest blessing can also be our greatest curse.

Children often take precedence over work. Naps fall through, nannies cancel and tantrums get in the way of a typical work day. Plus, with most work being done outside of our corporate office, it's hard to get a feel for how our employees are doing. That's why I asked some of my favorite mom entrepreneurs for their tips on managing a mommy force.

Lesley Spencer Pyle
Founder of HBWM.com and Hiremymom.com

"I've found it very important to clearly communicate expectations and make sure those are realistic for the mom who will be working for me. I also try to give plenty of lead time, so there isn't a lot of stress or rush to the job or project," Spencer Pyle says.

"I do recommend moms have some type of outside help for their children if they work over 10 hours a week. I feel it is not good for mom, baby or business if you try to do it all without outside help." If moms go it alone while trying to work more than 10 hours a week, Spencer Pyle says, "it can create an atmosphere of stress and pressure instead of fulfillment for the mom who is looking to use her creative talents while bringing in some additional income."

Donna Bliss
President of Mymiraclebaby.com

"I've been in business for nearly eight years, and we now have four employees--all moms with homes, families and this job. I pay the girls a fair wage but cannot offer benefits. So I believe that giving them the flexibility to work when they want and when they can is as important as a 401(k)," Bliss says.

Bliss does have a schedule for her employees but keeps it very flexible. When they can't come in because of a class play or a brownie meeting, she just asks that they check e-mail and help with phones or follow up on issues with customers.

Julia Tanen
President of The Tanen Group

"When hiring a mom who works from home, make sure she has a good office setup, separate telephone line and office, as well as child care. Obviously you cannot get anything done when you are supervising your children. However, you need to make sure you say that. You never know," Tanen says.

"Second, let them set their own schedule and then tweak it to fit yours. After seven years of working with moms who work for me from home, I've found that people work best on their own schedules. Just agree on the number of hours per week. Then ask them for a schedule." Tanen's company keeps a spreadsheet of everyone's schedule and updates it weekly. "It works very well," she says.

She adds, "It is easiest if people work the same hours every week. However, if they cannot, they need to let you and the team know when they are available."

More than 5.4 million mothers put their careers on hold to stay home with children.

"That adds up to a lot of talented women with experience, education, skills and the motivation to find flexible work that can be done from their home office," Spencer Pyle says.

It's true that not many careers are supportive of motherhood. But as mom entrepreneurs, we have the opportunity to create those careers and change the status quo. What we might lose in traditional hours or work space, we gain from hard work, loyalty and talent. And the best part is: We have given children a chance to be with their mom and moms a chance to be with their children.

Lisa Druxman is Entrepreneur.com's "Mompreneur" columnist and the founder and CEO of fitness franchise Stroller Strides. Druxman is also a nationally recognized speaker and author, and is considered an expert in the field of fitness, particularly pre- and postnatal fitness. She hosts a free monthly webinar during which she answers questions from fellow mompreneurs. If you are interested in participating, contact her at lisa@strollerstrides.com.

Creating a Green Office (Entrepreneur.com)

Creating a Green Office

Think in terms of financial payback when considering and implementing your eco-friendly office.

By Bill Roth | September 18, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/greencolumnistbillroth/article197146.html

The sustainable or green action item with the highest potential for gaining CFO acceptance is conservation. Why? Because conservation is about savings and paybacks, which CFOs can relate to their calculations of cash flows and paybacks. It makes sense to start in your office when it comes to conservation.

But even with this potential affinity from such a key senior officer, most businesses still confront the question: how to conserve or adopt a sustainable business strategy? If you're struggling with that issue in your business, you are among the majority. Florida International University recently conducted an international survey of companies and found that 50 percent of companies don't have a green strategy or are in the early stages of drafting one. Only 21 percent of the companies surveyed were considered to be in the category of immediate or advanced sustainability. Now is the perfect time to get a green edge because 80 percent of the world's businesses are still trying to figure out how sustainability applies to them.

The typical first action to take in the greening of an office is to figure out how to use less electricity and possibly do something with all that stuff in everyone's waste paper basket. What many offices end up doing is replacing energy-draining incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs because they produce an approximately four-month financial payback in electricity cost savings. And there's typically an effort to recycle, but this often produces marginal results.

The businesses that are aggressively adopting sustainability in the office take a "systems thinking" approach that recognizes greening the office cuts across the organizational structure. It requires cultural change, and results must be financially measured just like all other activities within the company. It also requires recognizing that the office is not an island, but part of a supply chain involving stakeholders, keeping in mind that one oft-forgotten stakeholder is the customer.

The most important question to keep in mind is: How can your business's procedures help curb your customers' emissions? Not only is going green in your business marketable, but it could also soon be law in many states. For example, California is working on legislation that would require reduced carbon dioxide emissions and the state is also exploring the impacts of shopping malls, housing density and availability of mass transportation on the generation of carbon dioxide.

This systems thinking approach recognizes that lasting change engages everyone involved in the greening movement in your office, and is based on the same highly disciplined performance monitoring that's applied to the reporting of financial performance. This broader perspective expands the range of scope to include suppliers, work associates, management, waste handlers and customers. It implies that focusing on the low-hanging fruit--easy greening measures such as energy-efficient lighting or recycling what's in the waste basket--can only produce limited results. Success in greening the office requires the same cultural commitment, engineering design, management, leadership and performance monitoring as applied to the business's core operating criteria.

Starting an Online Business in a Down Economy (Entrepreneur.com)

Starting an Online Business in a Down Economy

As shoppers flock to their computers instead of driving to the mall, entrepreneurs with e-businesses can make a hefty sum.

By Melissa Campanelli | September 22, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/gettingstarted/article197198.html

We all know we're in less-than-stellar economic times. While there's no official "recession," every person you know is probably watching his daily spending and cutting back wherever possible.

Since money is tight, is it really a good time to start an online business? You bet.

To begin with, internet startups have low overhead and startup costs--as low as $3,000, thanks in part to inexpensive, yet robust e-commerce software and services on the market. What's more, the business can be set up in a home office and attended to at nights and on weekends, allowing new entrepreneurs to keep their day jobs. In addition, many budding entrepreneurs can set up their online businesses in less than one week.

Another reason an internet startup could be lucrative even in a down economy is that online shopping is growing. In the first quarter of 2008, revenues generated by online-based businesses (and the online aspects of traditional retail businesses) were $32.4 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That tally is up 13.4 percent from results for the third quarter of 2007.

In general, e-commerce is the bright spot in the retail world today.

"Online retail continues to grow at a pretty nice clip," says Jeffrey Grau, retail e-commerce senior analyst with eMarketer. "If you look at total retail sales, annual growth is in the low single digits. However, the online channel has been growing in recent years in the low to mid-20 percentile."

While Grau warns that the economic downturn is slowing e-commerce sales, online sales are still growing at triple the rate of store sales.

"It's still a very desirable marketplace," he says.

And more and more online shoppers are turning to the web instead of paying for gas to go to the mall.

A new poll conducted by RetailMeNot.com, an online coupon website, found that nearly nine out of 10 American consumers have changed their shopping habits as a result of high gas prices.

The poll found that out of more than 1,000 respondents who voted multiple times:

• 45 percent said they plan shopping trips together to use less gas
• 42 percent said they shop less
• 22 percent said they do as much shopping as possible online
• 11 percent said there was no impact

Whether or not the economy is bad, there are some best practices to keep in mind when opening an online business. Here are a few of Grau's tips:

1. Have a niche or focus on a specialty category. Since you're essentially competing with box retailers like Wal-Mart or Target when you enter the online retail space, "be sure [you're selling] something niche-oriented, such as fashionable maternity wear or urban street wear," Grau says. "Or focus on a specific category, like shoes, but that's all you do. But offer great custom service, such as making it easy to return shoes."
   
2. Offer an innovative marketing technology. A good example of this is Diapers.com, a small web retailer.
   
   "[The company is] very successful in part because it has an innovative referral program where if a Diapers.com customer refers somebody else to the company, that customer gets a discount. That is one way it has built up its customer base."
   
   Grau also says Diapers.com uses innovative packaging that enables it to cut down on shipping costs. Finally, the company is innovative in its focus on convenience; it makes it easy for young parents to have diapers delivered to their door without having to make a midnight run to the store because they are out of diapers.
   
3. Keep pricing in mind. Even if you are selling a niche product, always keep pricing a priority.

"You are never going to compete with big box retailers on pricing, but perhaps there is a promotion or value-added program you can offer that helps people deflect that or takes their minds off of pricing."

A unique product, an innovative marketing technology and a promotion to help customers deflect prices are important business strategies during a recession because people have less discretionary money to spend.

"[Entrepreneurs should] focus on strategies that keep their customers coming back," Grau says.

Melissa Campanelli is a leading expert in small business e-commerce and author of the books Design and Launch an Online Boutique in a Week, Open an Online Business in 10 Days and Start Your Own e-Business.

4 Advantages to Buying a Big-Name Franchise (Entrepreneur.com)

4 Advantages to Buying a Big-Name Franchise

With borrowing leverage, purchasing power and marketing prowess already in place, big franchises handle much of the legwork.

By Janean Chun | October 06, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/franchisecolumnistjaneanchun/article197470.html

Hardy Grewal may not be as internationally known as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Howard Schultz, but his business is as much of a household name as Apple, Microsoft and Starbucks. Grewal went from corporate accountant to business mogul in one simple step: buying a Subway franchise.

That giant leap plugged Grewal into the power of a big franchise, yes, but, more importantly, into the bigger powerhouse that is franchising itself. Franchising added $880 billion, more than 140,000 new businesses and 1.2 million jobs to the nation's economy from 2001 to 2005, according to the International Franchise Association. IFA president and CEO Matthew Shay predicts growth will continue, even during the current economic downturn.

Grewal took full advantage of that power potential. Though he looked into other franchises, including smaller chains, he ultimately decided to buy a Subway location in 1989. Grewal figured a large franchise offered more sustainability in the long run and made expansion possible for an everyman like himself.

Two years after buying his first franchise, he says his "accountant brain started working," and he realized that by acquiring units, he could multiply his earnings by five, 10, 20 times. That's when he gradually started buying more units--at first, one to two a year, then two to three, then five more, then 10 more, until by 2004, he owned 25 stores.

Today, having sold all but three of his locations, Grewal serves as Subway's development agent for Los Angeles County and Orange County, a territory that earns the most sales in the entire system. In other words, he now helps others start their own franchise empires.

Grewal notes four big advantages to buying into a big system:

1. Capital. This is simultaneously the greatest asset and the greatest obstacle to starting a business in this economy.
   
   "If the brand is established and you can show net profits, the banks will lend money, even in this environment," Grewal says. "Even now, people are getting funds and buying and opening new stores."
   
2. Purchasing Power. Forget stocking up at Costco. Subway purchases food, forks, knives, etc., for its more than 29,000 stores.
   
   "That quantity gives you the advantage over someone who owns, say, five stores," Grewal says. "And those savings are passed on to franchisees."
   
   That's particularly crucial in a food-related business, as food inflation puts more restaurants on the edge.
   
   "We have purchasing co-ops run by franchisees, with locked contracts," Grewal says. "Prices have gone up, but not as much as they have with other [restaurants]."
   
3. Competition. "In downturns, the brands with the strongest financial positions and reputations are more in demand," Grewal says, pointing out that even being the No. 2 brand in a category may not be enough to survive in a tough economy.
   
4. Marketing. Subway dominated this year with its well-timed "$5 footlong" promotion. Grewal says it was an idea some entrepreneurial-minded franchisees started in their local market--the corporate advertising board got wind of it and took it system wide, and now "the numbers are mind-boggling."

Those numbers balloon in a big, corporate system that can afford national primetime marketing on all networks. "The parent company develops new products, does all the studies and focus groups to make it a stronger franchise company," says Grewal. "And the franchisees pool [advertising] money and can buy more."

---

Janean Chun is articles editor at Entrepreneur, where she has been covering the franchising beat for more than 15 years. She can be reached at jchun@entrepreneur.com.

As Credit Lines Fade, Credit Cards Step In

By JANE BIRNBAUM

The credit card offers are in the mail.

Just as the slowing economy has made access to cash a higher priority for a lot of small businesses, banks have become more reluctant to extend traditional lines of credit to those businesses, experts say. But banks have been offering “small business” credit cards.

Bank cards and lines of credit both offer money when it is needed, but there is a fundamental difference: lines of credit have low, fixed interest rates or slow-moving, variable ones, while interest rates on credit cards can jump unpredictably.

“Small-business cards have fundamentally replaced lines of credit,” said Alan L. Carsrud, executive director of the Global Entrepreneurship Center at Florida International University in Miami.

Bob Seiwert, head of the Center for Commercial Lending and Business Banking at the American Bankers Association, said he had no hard data but appeared to agree with Mr. Carsrud’s assessment. “People are driven to cards today because bank credit lines are tougher to get” as banks have tightened credit in the last six months or year, he said. “Lenders may adjust card rates and limits as the perceived risk of lending to the borrower increases.”

Entrepreneurs have long used personal credit cards to help bankroll new ventures, said Scott A. Shane, a professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University.

The small-business cards often differ from personal credit cards in that some offer benefits like product discounts and extended payment terms. But they are identical in critical ways — users are generally liable for revolving balances that grow exponentially as interest rates rise, and lenders may sometimes raise rates and reduce credit limits at any time for any reason.

In a survey in February of 500 owners of small and medium-size businesses, the National Small Business Association, a lobbying group in Washington, found that 28 percent had used bank loans in the previous year, a record low. Forty-four percent said they had used cards to meet capital needs in the previous six months. Fifty-seven percent said their card terms had worsened over the last year.

“I don’t fault banks for charging high interest rates on cards because so many small businesses fail,” said Marilyn Landis, the group’s chairwoman and a 30-year banking veteran. But “small-business owners desperately need the ability to enter contracts with card providers that are predictable, understandable and stable.”

Ms. Landis, who owns a company in Pittsburgh that provides chief financial officer services to growing businesses, spoke from personal experience. She said that her introductory rate on a small-business card had risen to 27.9 percent, from 3.9 percent, after the lender said a mailed payment had arrived one day late.

Stephen Strachan, a flower importer in York, Pa., told members of Congress this spring that rate increases on business and personal cards had forced him to curtail ventures and lay off workers. Mr. Strachan made his remarks at hearings for a bill pending in Congress, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights.

Beginning in late 2001, Mr. Strachan said, the only new bank credit lines he could find had interest rates higher than those on his personal and business cards. So, he said, he used cards to supplement existing credit lines.

“Card lenders originally offered me very high limits at very attractive rates because of my excellent credit profile,” he said in an interview. “But once I accepted, a couple really turned up the heat.”

In 2003, he said, one bank raised interest rates from as low as 3 percent to as high as 30 percent on four cards with a total balance of about $150,000. The lender cited Mr. Strachan’s rising total debt, and late and missing payments, as the cause. Mr. Strachan said that whenever he had received statements, he had always mailed payments “well before their due date.”

In May, the Federal Reserve released proposals for limiting the circumstances under which lenders could increase interest rates on existing card balances. The limits would apply to personal cards — including any business expenses charged on them — but not to business cards, a Fed spokeswoman said.

Small-business card lenders generally grant initial terms on the basis of personal credit, with consideration of any business payment scores.

Business card usage is sometimes reported to personal credit bureaus. This can decrease a personal credit score, known as a FICO score because it was created by the Fair Isaac Corporation.

Ms. Landis said some of her business card activity had appeared on personal credit reports. And FICO decreases can also result in higher business card rates, she said. “I know because I ran up a balance on a personal card while traveling, which dropped my FICO, and the rate on one of my business cards immediately went from about 18 percent to 23 percent.”

Jason Peringer, a certified massage therapist on Martha’s Vineyard, said he discovered the connection between personal and business credit after his home burned down.

A construction loan and a houseful of new furnishings that he put on personal cards — purchases required before an insurer would partly reimburse him — increased Mr. Peringer’s debt-to-income ratio and lowered his credit score, he said. American Express cut his business card limit to $1,000, from $15,000, and the Advanta Corporation raised his business rate to 34.99 percent, from 16.99 percent, he said.

“I had never missed or been late on any payments,” he said.

There is not much data about card charge-offs — the debt that lenders write off as uncollectible — stemming from small business. The Federal Reserve found that charge-offs for all commercial bank cards rose in the second quarter, reaching 5.47 percent. Neither the central bank nor most large lenders break out business card charge-offs.

But Advanta, which markets MasterCards exclusively to small businesses, reported second-quarter charge-offs of 8.38 percent, up from 3.48 percent a year earlier. Advanta said it was one of the largest small-business card issuers last year.

Entrepreneurs get the most out of cards when they regularly pay off their balances. “Many of my clients use them, but in a limited way in the early stages,” said Michael Gonnerman, a financial adviser in Boston to high-tech entrepreneurs.

Timothy Ferriss, author of the best-seller “The 4-Hour Workweek” and a business consultant in San Francisco, began his entrepreneurial career selling a sports nutritional supplement. He said he had already done market testing and secured customer commitments when he put $10,000 in manufacturing costs on personal cards in 2001.

He said he had charged about 70 percent to an American Express card requiring monthly payment in full. The rest went to zero percent introductory rate cards that he paid off within three months. “I avoided depending on self-discipline, which entrepreneurs often overestimate.”

Today, Mr. Ferriss said, he often asks customers to charge their payments. Even if he must accept slightly less, he prefers the immediate payment to managing the cash flow problems of extended payment terms.

Entrepreneurs may pay dearly if they fail to understand their small-business card agreements. Victor Patenaude, a collections lawyer in San Diego, wrote in an e-mail message that he had obtained “thousands of judgments” against entrepreneurs who could not pay their business card debt. “Last week, an attorney called up, guns blazing, and said we will lose at trial if we think her client is personally liable,” he wrote. “After I faxed the application and pointed out the small print, she fired her client and suggested he pay us.”

Marc Augustine, a consumer electronics exporter in Miami, said he had negotiated a bank credit line and several cards without personal liability by building a solid history of borrowing and rapid repayment. He said he was concerned about a friend, already the owner of one business, who has put $30,000 on personal cards to start a new venture.

“I speak to him, but he says he has to have it now,” Mr. Augustine said.

Video-sharing goes to work

Video-sharing goes to work

9/02/2008 09:30:00 AM

It was a mere three years ago that YouTube streamed its first video, forever changing the way we share experiences with people regardless of time and distance. At home, equipped with ubiquitous technology like a digital camcorder, a computer webcam or even a mobile phone, we can easily create video clips and share them with our friends and family. Technology is no longer a barrier on either end. All you need is a browser and a fast Internet connection.

The same has not been true for this rich form of information-sharing in the office. Companies readily recognize the power of video as a medium for communication and collaboration, for reaching out to employees in remote offices and for knowledge transfer. Unfortunately, there hasn't been an easy way to distribute video content to an increasingly distributed workforce. Custom video sharing solutions have been prohibitively resource-intensive for businesses, and public video sharing sites don't give businesses the right level of security and privacy for internal-only content.

Enter Google Video for businesses, available today as part of Google Apps Premier Edition. Imagine YouTube's ease of sharing and watching videos, but in a secure, private environment made for content like internal corporate announcements, team member status updates, employee training materials and informal information-sharing. Videos can be easily shared with everyone in the company or with specific individuals. People can comment on, rate and tag videos that they watch, bringing even more useful information to subsequent viewers. When we started using Google Video for business inside Google, we were surprised at how quickly Googlers in 20+ countries took to the app. Many of our most popular internal videos were created of their own accord by individuals and teams for sharing with colleagues, a testament to how video has taken horizontal collaboration to the next level.

In Place of Fatigues, Business Suits

By JAMES FLANIGAN

LOS ANGELES

MAJ. STEPHEN THOMAS began to consider starting a business in the year after he was badly wounded in Iraq and was being treated at a succession of Army hospitals. “I was bored with nothing to do,” he says.

Four years after being treated for the leg and jaw fractures and burns he suffered in a roadside attack, he was talking to an audience at the University of California, Los Angeles, about his proposal to build an events center for business meetings and social occasions in Huntsville, Ala., where he is stationed as a manager of equipment procurement for the Army’s Future Combat Systems project. He plans to build the Venue, as he calls his proposed center, in the next three years and run it full time when he retires in 2011 after 20 years on active duty.

Along with 14 other military veterans, Major Thomas was participating this month in an Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans With Disabilities. The program was created last year at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University and has been adopted this year by U.C.L.A, Texas A&M and Florida State to teach disabled soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines the skills needed to start and expand small businesses and help them find financing for their ideas.

In more ways than one, the veterans may have an advantage in entrepreneurship courses. In a recent study, the Small Business Administration said it found that the experience of military service strongly predisposed people to self-employment and business ownership. Repeated confirmations of that finding were demonstrated at U.C.L.A. this month.

Allen McAfee, 26, for example, was a Navy medic serving with the Marines in Iraq when he was wounded in 2004 and earned two Purple Hearts. He got out of the service last year and joined IO Environmental and Infrastructure Inc., a company in San Diego that cleans up polluted Superfund sites at military bases and other government installations.

“I had no experience in business after six years as a nurse and in combat,” Mr. McAfee said. But he said he now hoped to help IO Environmental, where he has become a partner, because he has a disabled veterans preference in government contracting. The company is bidding on major contracts, and Mr. McAfee says that if it wins awards, IO Environmental will need “investments of some $200,000 in bridge financing” to help with gearing up for expanded work. Mr. McAfee presented his case for raising that capital to his fellow veterans at the boot camp as well as to business school professors and local entrepreneurs.

Another participant, Chihung Szeto, 31, said he led a company of 140 soldiers as an Army captain in Baquba, Iraq, was wounded and was awarded the Bronze Star. Mr. Szeto has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point but said he wanted to learn the techniques of business management.

“Business is simply knowing people,” he said. “I learned leadership at West Point and with men in combat. I’ll keep in touch with those people all my life. But I need to learn business management; that’s what this program gives me.”

Mr. Szeto manages sales of dental supplies in the Los Angeles area and, with a cousin in China, shares in a business that makes souvenirs and marketing novelties for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Angels as well as other businesses. He says he wants to expand “by having personalized promotional items, pens and other gifts, designed here and manufactured in China.”

Alfred E. Osborne Jr., senior associate dean of U.C.L.A.’s Anderson School of Management, said: “These guys are smart. They understand that running a business is like being on a battlefield. You have to do everything you can to survive and achieve an objective.”

Mr. Osborne is running the university’s boot camp program with Elaine Hagan, who directs the Anderson school’s center for entrepreneurship. The program is more than a quick study. Participants take three weeks of online courses at the start, then come to the university for an intense week of lectures, culminating with presentations of their business plans. After that, university faculty members counsel the students for a year to help them with raising capital and general business issues.

The boot camps have enrolled 60 veterans so far at the four universities, which pay for the program. At U.C.L.A., that is about $250,000, which Mr. Osborne said he raised from private donors.

“We’re going to have a small capital fund, almost a grant program funded by donors, to help guys get over the hump and drive home the message that folks really care about you,” said Mr. Osborne, who was among the first to develop entrepreneurship programs for groups running health clinics and schools as well as minority groups that had difficulty attracting capital in the past.

Indeed, developing their own business may be ideal for veterans with disabilities, Mr. Osborne said. “Many of these guys have medical problems that make it almost impossible for them to work at a traditional business. But if you own a business, we reward that as does no other country on earth.”

Jeffrey Hopson, 39, is an example of a veteran trying to turn his disabilities into a service business for other veterans. A machine gunner in the Marines, Mr. Hopson served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was injured and has to go to Veterans Affairs hospitals frequently for examinations and treatments.

“But I have to wait hours sometimes even though I have appointments. It takes my whole day,” he said. So Mr. Hopson, a developer of Web sites before he joined the Marines, is devising an online service that can link veterans more conveniently to V.A. hospitals and to general hospitals where they can arrange treatments, easing the burdens on veterans and the hospitals.

At a Saturday session of the boot camp on Aug. 9, other veterans cheered Mr. Hopson’s business idea. But they and Mr. Osborne said his challenge would be to create a Web site that could bring so much information about veterans and medical services together. “You have a great idea, but a big job to implement it,” Mr. Osborne told him.

Other veterans presented plans both ambitious and down to earth. Greg Murray, 24, a former Marine sergeant, said he wanted to raise $3 million to build a factory in Central America to turn banana leaves into paper, using an ecologically responsible process invented by an Australian. Shawn James, 33, also a former Marine sergeant who grew up around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, wants to improve the technology of hybrid engines.

Alejandro Galicia, 40, an Army veteran, wants to expand BPI Plumbing, a business started by his uncle, to serve the military in the San Diego area. Rico Edillor, 47, a Navy veteran, wants to start a health-focused Asian foods business catering from vans. Christopher Mahoney, a former Marine sergeant, wants to open a Buffalo Wild Wings franchise near Camp Pendleton, in Orange County, Calif.

U.C.L.A., says Mr. Osborne, will offer another boot camp program next year.

This column about small-business trends in California and the West appears on the third Thursday of every month. E-mail: jamesflanigan@nytimes.com.