In This Issue:
- Message from Managing Director, Noah Harris
- Veteran Company Spotlight: Spice Monkey
- Advising Corner: Negotiate Your Lease
Friends,
Military service provides training that helps veterans become successful small business owners. Among many others qualities and skills, military experience enables veterans with confidence, discipline, risk management, and focus. We see successful veteran entrepreneurs exhibiting these skills everyday as they work to start or grow their businesses.
In the military, we also learned that it takes a team to achieve a goal, and this also holds true for entrepreneurship. Advice and expertise are critical to successfully running a business. While you may be great in the kitchen like Kanitha, Army veteran and owner of Spice Monkey, or Silvia, wife of a Coast Guardsman and co-owner of Nido, developing a business plan, successfully negotiating a lease, and establishing good accounting practices are just as critical to helping you achieve business success. We offer resources to those businesses pursuing a loan at Veteran Launch to help support their goals. We also work with partners who offer additional resources that can help you develop a business plan and take your idea to the next level.
If you’re not sure about your next step, give us a call. We can help you get connected to the right resources to help you take your business to the next level.
As always, thank you for helping us spread the word about Veteran Launch and for your continued service to our communities as small business owners.
Noah Harris
Managing Director
Veteran Launch
Meet Our Clients: Spice Monkey
When Kanitha Matoury started Spice Monkey, a restaurant and bar in Oakland, she followed her passion for food and her desire to have a bigger impact in her community. Since it opened doors in 2008, Spice Monkey has grown to be a truly community-focused business, living their mission by operating in an ethical and sustainable way while becoming more lucrative to support professional growth for their employees and more products for their customers. Spice Monkey brings mouth-watering, globally inspired cuisine together with a warm-hearted service staff. “Seeing the joy when someone relaxes around a table with the people they love is the real benefit I get from my business,” says Kanitha.
As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Kanitha draws on her military experience to help her business development. “The biggest thing I learned in the military is that to do things well you need focus, systems, and clearly defined roles. At Spice Monkey and Howden Market everyone on my team has their area of expertise and we trust them to do great work. Growing from five to 40 employees smoothly was only possible because of the systems we have in place.”
Advising Corner:
Negotiate Your Lease
- What is the length of the lease?
- Is the rent comparable to other spaces?
- Are there hidden costs?
- What favorable clauses are included?
- What is the termination clause?
