There are numerous organizations to assist new and want-to-be vetreprenuers, but Veterans’ Initiative Center & Research Institute (VICTRI) is one of few that was designed exclusively for veterans by veterans. The non-profit was spearheaded in late 2008 by Jimmie Coulthard, a veteran and business owner himself. VICTRI is what Coulthard refers to “an initiative center” where veterans and their families can go for assistance with starting their own businesses, a one-time project, or with a research issue.

The idea came from Coulthard’s work as the CEO of Minnesota’s Assistance Council for Veterans where he saw many homeless veterans, folks with good ideas and initiatives, but needing help getting on their feet and back into the workforce. “Many of these guys had great ideas, but no way to get there,” he said. The more he explored the idea, the more he realized that there were many veterans who wanted to create their own businesses or had a one-time project that they needed assistance to complete. The VICTRI Center was created and located at the Veterans and Community Housing Project that Coulthard helped to organize in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

To help him achieve this goal, Coulthard, chairman of the board of VICTRI, reached out to fellow veterans he knew who were assisting other veterans in their own careers. Guy Gambill was one of these veterans. A well-known expert on homeless veterans and currently serving as a Soros Justice Fellow, Gambill had the same goals as Coulthard – to give veterans a viable means to have a productive living. “Veterans listen best to other veterans. This seemed like a good way to advise and help them,” he said.

While VICTRI has been in operation since late 2008, they recently kicked up their efforts to reach more veterans a notch by hiring Larry Josephs as the chief executive officer.  Joseph,  the president and CEO of Minnesota Sales Training, Inc., conducts sales training and motivation seminars,  and brought his own business experience to VICTRI in May.

One of the unique avenues that Joseph is pursuing is to provide his sales training and knowledge for a donated fee to the center. “The ‘fee for service’ gives companies the same training that I would normally provide, but it is a charitable donation. This helps us reach our goal so we can continue providing services to our veterans,” he said.

The goal of VICTRI is to provide one-on-one counseling to would-be business owners, a place to conduct business and hold meetings for new businesses, resource sharing, networking with other veterans who have compatible services, workshops and seminars, and mentoring. “Next week, we have a representative coming from PTAP to help the new business owners understand how to bid on government contracts and do business with the government,” said Josephs.

Dave Hall Jr. has over 40 years of experience in non-profits and serving other veterans, and also serves on the board of VICTRI. The tables were turned when he recently opened his own business. Dave Hall Marketing Inc. and he took advantage of VICTRI’s services. “Larry (Joseph) helped me find out how to start a business as a disabled veteran. He also put me in touch with another veteran who knows how to design Web sites,” he said. Hall said Josephs saved him lots of time and overwhelming research, factors that could have prevented him from starting his own marketing company. “I may know a lot about non-profits, but I didn’t have a clue on owning my own business. I figured if I could use these services and didn’t know something after 40 years of working with veterans, there are probably a lot of others who need help.”

Resource sharing has also been huge for Hall. Joseph put him in touch with Ben Swartzer, a veteran who came to Josephs for assistance in starting his Web site design business, The Web Redesign. In addition to working with VICTRI and their technology needs, Swartzer helped Hall set up his Web site.

After learning about VICTRI through a workforce center, Swartzer turned to them for assistance to start his business. “Larry has been an inspiration to me as a leader since meeting him.  He has helped me network with other veteran entrepreneurs and I have generated three possible veteran clients for my business in just a week,” he said.

Coulthard and Josephs both hope that other cities will follow suit and offer similar programs for their own veterans. “We would love to train trainers so that we can reach more people and get more veterans up and running in their own businesses,” said Josephs.

The opportunities are limitless said Joseph who hopes to reach as many veterans as humanly possible through the efforts of VICTRI. “If there is a veteran with a need, we are going to help them,” he said.

In the meantime, Josephs works with the veterans referred to him both at VICTIR and through his other outreach efforts. “I tell these guys, if you weren’t afraid to put on your uniform and go to the battlefield, you shouldn’t be afraid to succeed back here.”

 For more information about VICTRI visit www.vitri.org or contact 1-612- 353-5600.

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