Nominate a White House Champion of Change for Veteran Entrepreneurship

Since taking office, President Obama has been committed to upholding our sacred trust with America’s veterans and wounded warriors. As the President stated in his last State of the Union address, “We’ll keep working to help all our veterans translate their skills and leadership into jobs here at home.  And we all continue to join forces to honor and support our remarkable military families.” Entrepreneurs and small businesses are a big driver of our national economy, and veterans offer our country a set of skills that make them uniquely well suited for success as entrepreneurs.  Research demonstrates that veterans are at least 45 percent more likely than those with no active-duty military experience to be self-employed and are twice as likely to succeed. According to the most recent U.S. census data, nearly one in 10 small businesses are veteran-owned.  These businesses generate over $1.2 trillion in receipts annually and employ nearly 5.8 million Americans.  It is in the best interest of our country to tap into this incredible resource of veterans and find ways to help them succeed as entrepreneurs who fuel job growth and expand opportunity for all Americans.

Recognizing the need to fuel this entrepreneurial spirit in our service members, the President launched Boots to Business – an intensive entrepreneurship education program for transitioning service members to learn how to start a small business. To date, Boots to Business, delivered by the Small Business Administration, has trained more than 6,000 transitioning service members on how to start a business, while also informing them of the network of resources available to them, such as access to capital.

However, this is only one step along the path to providing opportunities for veterans to become successful entrepreneurs. Therefore, the administration would like to honor those who have supported this effort by serving as examples and demonstrating their desire to help other veteran entrepreneurs.

Today, we’re asking you to help us identify and honor veteran entrepreneurs and veteran spouses who are entrepreneurs or organizations that support veteran entrepreneurs by nominating a Champion of Change for Veteran Entrepreneurship by midnight on June 24th. Nominees may include:

• Veterans who have started a for-profit or non-profit business.
• Veteran spouses who have started their own business.
• Organizations that support veteran entrepreneurs by providing them with skills, capital, or other necessary resources.

Click on the link below to submit your nomination (be sure to choose Veteran Entrepreneurship in the "Theme of Service" field of the nomination form).

Nominate a Veteran Entrepreneurship Champion of Change

We are looking forward to hosting this event and to highlighting the achievements of the veteran entrepreneurship community.

Robert McFarlin is a White House Fellow at the National Economic Council. 

Rural-Made Goes Worldwide

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's blog. See the original post here.

This week, I visited Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, a small city outside of my hometown of Pittsburgh, to kick off the first of five Made in Rural America forums designed to help rural small businesses access the information they need to grow through exports.

The global appetite for high-quality, American-made products is well established. Over the past five years, rural America has achieved record agricultural exports, but the rural economy is diverse. Last fiscal year, agricultural exports reached a record $140.9 billion, and we are on track for another record year, with fiscal year 2014 agricultural exports projected to reach $149.5 billion. Last year was also the fourth-straight record-setting year for U.S. exports as a whole, reaching $2.3 trillion.

Yet few American companies today have capitalized on this demand — just one percent of U.S. companies export. At the same time, the vast majority — 95 percent — of the world's consumers live outside the borders of the United States, creating significant opportunities for our exporters, particularly rural businesses.

Nominate a White House Champion of Change for Raising the Wage

In his 2014 State of the Union, President Obama announced, “It’s time to give Americans a raise.” President Obama called on Congress to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour and index it to inflation. The President has also made clear that even as he continues to try to work with Congress, he won’t wait for them to act. That’s why, in the meantime, the President has worked with business leaders, governors, mayors, and activists to find ways to raise wages for millions of working Americans.

As part of the White House Year of Action, the President has signed an Executive Order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for individuals working on new federal service contracts, introduced a new rule to expand access to overtime pay, and two new Executive Orders protecting workers from retaliation and encouraging equal and fair pay.

The reality for too many Americans is that they are working harder and longer and still struggling to get by. No American should be working 40 hours a week and still have to live or raise a family in poverty. The face of the minimum wage has changed; nearly 90 percent of the workers who would benefit from raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour are 20 years old or older, and the average age is 35 years old. More than a third are married, and over a quarter are parents. In fact, nearly 16 million children have at least one parent whose paycheck would increase as a result of passing this legislation.

Raising the minimum wage nationwide will increase earnings for millions of workers, giving them more money to spend in the community, and boost the bottom lines of businesses across the country. 

Today, we’re asking you to help us identify and honor local leaders and ordinary Americans taking initiative, often at great personal sacrifice to raise wages for working women and men around the country. Nominate a Champion of Change for Raising the Wage by midnight on Wednesday, June 11. Nominees may include:

• Community leaders who worked to raise wages in their city or state
• Citizens who have raised wages at their own business
• Advocates who fought for better pay and benefits on the job
• Community leaders who helped to organize grassroots efforts around this issue
• Citizens who created innovative tactics to engage the public to support raising wages

Click on the link below to submit your nomination (be sure to choose Raising the Wage in the "Theme of Service" field of the nomination form):

http://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/champions/nominate/

We are looking forward to hosting this event and to highlighting the great work communities across the country are doing to advance fairness, opportunity, and stability for America’s working families.

Carri Twigg Is Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement.