Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business.
Over the last 13 years, roughly 2.4 million active and reserve members of the U.S. armed forces have left military service and returned to civilian life. In the next four to five years, another million will also be making this transition, according to the Washington Post. So, as these service men and women return home, what happens? How are they being taken care of? What services do we have available for them after the remarkable service they gave to our country? A lot of veterans are going back to school, starting a business or looking for guidance to start their own business.
Veteran-owned firms are having an important impact on the national and state economy. According to veteranownedbusiness.com, these firms have sales of over $1 trillion with just under 6 million employees and an annual payroll of $210 billion. Utah alone is home to just under 18,000 veteran-owned companies and increasing.
To support this growing demographic of business owners, the Utah Veteran Owned Business Partnership will be holding the first Utah Veteran Business Conference on May 7 at the Miller Campus of Salt Lake Community College, 9750 S. 300 West in Sandy. This event is open to any veteran entrepreneurs or those veterans already operating a business. The main idea behind the conference is to offer a forum to connect veterans with the resources they need to be successful in the marketplace.
This is a collection of agencies and organizations dedicated to helping veterans and service members have success in their business endeavors.
The general session of the conference will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. It will be immediately followed by mentoring and network sessions from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Registration should be done online by May 5 at veterans.utah.gov/business.
If you'd like to find out more about how to build your company's global presence, you can attend the fourteenth annual Zions Bank Trade and Business Conference on May 12. For more information or to register, visit www.zionsbank.com/conference.
For Zions Bank, I'm Chris Redgrave, speaking on business.
Utah Veteran Business Conference Thursday, May 7, 2015 Salt Lake Community College Miller Campus 9750 S. 300 West Sandy, UT 84070 www.veterans.utah.gov/business
