To ensure that some of Bunker Labs’ more educational blogs and other resources don’t get lost in the shuffle to newer community members, we’ve created this helpful listing to help you find exactly what you need, when you need it, without a ton of unwieldy bookmarks. This is a living document that will grow and evolve over time as we add more content, so be sure to bookmark!
“How To” Series Blog Directory
The key to success in almost any professional endeavor is to focus on fundamentals. The Bunker Labs How To series of blogs aims to explore a wide breadth of fundamental skills and decisions related to launching, growing, and running a business.
Business Administration
When you’re starting out small, there are countless administration and management tasks you have to investigate and check off to give your business the best chance to grow and succeed.
A Crash Course in Small Business Financing: Learn some small business finance basics with Transition Podcast and “Iron” Mike Steadman in this podcast series!
How To Choose a Business Tax Structure: Learn about the different tax structures available to your business, and the pros and cons of each
How to Build and Maintain a Strategic Partnership: Explores the basics of how and why to form a strategic partnership, especially for small or early-stage businesses
How To Get VOSB or SDVOSB Certified: Outlines simple steps with links to getting your veteran-owned or service-disabled veteran-owned small business certification, as well as its benefits
How To Shop for Small Business Insurance: Explores the various types of insurance, as well as when, why, and how much you need it
How To Write a Bio: A tool for crafting a simple short bio, with guidance for expanding it into a longer form bio
Capital
Everyone always seems to be talking about capital. Make sure you’re educated on the basics, and are approaching capital strategically to optimize your business growth.
Explore Venture Capital with the Transition Podcast: A collection of Transition Podcast episodes with guests discussing venture capital
How To Access Capital for Your Business: Explores what barriers sit between you and access to capital, ways to access capital, and advice on when to seek it out
Small Business Marketing
You can have the greatest product or service in the world, but if your ideal customer doesn’t know about it, the business is destined to fail.
Early-Stage Market Research Pro Tips with Reggie Ordonez: Big picture do’s and don’ts of early-stage market research with Bunker Labs Chief Operating Officer Reggie Ordonez
How To Choose your Business Name: Explores process, tips, tricks, and pitfalls to selecting a name for your business
How To Conduction Market Research in Four Easy Steps: Makes the case for doing market research early and offers a simple process for performing market research to adapt to your business
How To Get Your First 10 Customers: Step-by-step plan that meets you where you are, leverages your resources to start driving customer acquisition and revenue.
Market Research Tools and Techniques: Explores ten different ways to conduct market research, including six suited for early-stage companies
Pitching Your Business
Pitching is a basic, critical skill every founder needs to develop, as it’s part of how you attract investors, partners, and even customers.
Pitching 101: How To Pitch a Business: Explores the basics of pitching, including a glossary and an elevator pitch creation tool
Pitching 102: What Goes in the Pitch?: Explores the content investors expect pitches to contain about your business
Pitching 103: The Leave Behinds: Explores business cards, business plans, and other branding or information to leave with audiences
Pitching Pro Tips With Chris Carlson: Big picture tips for making your best pitch from experienced pitching coach Chris Carlson
Other Bunker Labs Resources
Bunker Labs has some key resources beyond our How-To blog series.
Bunker Labs Conference and Pitch Competition Calendar: A quarterly updated calendar of conference and pitch competitions of interest to veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs, including application dates where applicable
Bunker Online: An online hub for reaching out to fellow members of the Bunker Labs community for support, guidance, and help. Also home to the First Friday series of entrepreneur workshops, held the first Friday of every month
Transition Podcast: Join host “Iron” Mike Steadman once a week at Bunker Labs’ official podcast. The Transition offers key insights from veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs about today’s business landscape!
External Resources
The following resources are not created by Bunker Labs, but have great value to veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs and small business owners.
IVMF Entrepreneur Resource Library: A searchable collection of over 300 presentations, white papers, and websites
US Chamber of Commerce Resources: A list of 48 grants, loans, and programs to help you start your business
VA Veteran Entrepreneurship Portal: A collection of resources from the VA related to launching and growing a small business.
Bunker Labs is Now Part of IVMF
As of January 2024, Bunker Labs is now a part of Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF). In addition to ongoing Bunker Labs programming, we’d encourage you to browse IVMF’s deep wealth of entrepreneurship programming, much of it available virtually or at locations across the country. Find the program to help your business take the next step today!