The Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, which helps disabled veterans start and run businesses, is accepting applications until Feb. 29.
Columbus Cook, an Army National Guard veteran, received an email from VEP in 2013, the year it was established at UF.
Cook launched Columbus Cook Studios, Inc., in May 2001, and he said the program helped him realize that his visual communications company needed work.
He later turned his one-man operation into an enterprise with a staff of retired professionals. VEP helps the population of veterans switching from military to civilian life, Cook said, but the transition isn’t easy.
“Don’t waste the resources, because there is lots of work needed on your end as a veteran and as an entrepreneur,” he said.
Michael Morris, the founder of Gainesville’s VEP and the academic director at UF’s Warrington College of Business, said the program started at Oklahoma State University eight years ago.
He described parts of the program, which includes an eight-day class online and five months of in-person training, including a “Shark Tank” for veterans.
Forty veterans throughout America are picked each year, and their training is funded by donations from alumni and other private donors, Morris said.
He said graduates of the program have gone on to start anything from security services to non-profit homeless shelters.
“These men and women have paid a very high price for our freedom,” he said. “This is a way to help them create their own future.”
