Most veterans understand that preparing to separate from the military is more like a long-term process than a single event. Plans should start a few years out. Cheryl Ford, DrPH started writing down ideas for her future company’s name 10 years before heading into her military retirement. She had at least 70 names collected as she got closer to her retirement date, and none of them touched her heart. She was considering the possibilities of starting her own business, working as a federal employee, or becoming a consultant. If she couldn’t pick a name that means something to her, she’d have to take entrepreneurship off the table.

One day before going to sleep, Ford picked up a piece of paper and added ATHOS to her list. When she woke up, everything clicked, and her path was set. She looked at the letters and saw, “At The Helm Of Success.” She looked up what “athos” means and learned it’s a mountain where monks go to pray, and women are not allowed. Ford thought she’ll be the first woman to go to that mountain. She’d found the name that spoke to her heart. Although the domain was purchased just two weeks earlier, Ford was delighted to learn ATHOS1 was available and made it hers. It turns out that’s even better because the 1 completes the vision: “At the helm of success, one must pay it forward.”

“I’ve had a great career, and I know I can pay it forward with less restraints by being in charge of my own vision,” she said.

Ford’s distinguished career in public health service has included roles as a health services officer, enterprise architect, White House fellow, and more. She knows how to synthesize high-level information and make it actionable and how to direct emergency response and managed care operations. She’s had three presidential initiatives under her watch and has the honor of being the first White House fellow to receive a meritorious service award from the Department of Defense.

Knowing the experience and capabilities she brings to the table, Ford initially approached entrepreneurship programs with some healthy skepticism.

“I can’t get stunned with a bad connection and blow my opportunities,” she said. “I didn’t want to be sold anything.”

Then, a woman she met at a networking event assumed she must have gone to V-WISE. Another woman in the same circle had attended V-WISE and spoke highly of it. The experience prompted Ford to investigate.

“When I first looked up the IVMF, I didn’t even look at the program selection. I had to find out about what they were first,” she said. “The mission of Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE) and focus on women was near and dear to my heart, and the way they described the program, I knew it was worth the investment.”

Ford attended V-WISE as part of the Nashville cohort this spring and she’s glad she did. She especially cites the speakers, who didn’t take for granted the foundation of knowledge the participants needed. What’s more, Ford was impressed to find unprecedented access to all those speakers. She came prepared with questions she wanted to ask and found the access she needed to get specific answers to help her with what comes next. For example, she got answers about seeking her SBA 8A designation and getting SBA certified as a woman-owned business. She walked away from V-WISE with clarity, homework, and actionable knowledge to go and build from.

“I believed what they promised, and they delivered,” she said. “I looked, listened, and felt. It did not disappoint. It’s where preparation meets opportunity.”

Monica Alvarado, military veteran, V-WISE graduate, Veteran EDGE and EBV accelerate participant.

Air Force Veteran Monica Alvarado left the military and entered the corporate world after serving for six years as an intelligence analyst. She enlisted out of high school. Alvarado credits the military with instilling the work ethic, the ability to focus, and the ability to collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds. “A lot of military folks come out with this innate ability to really focus on issues and be able to just charge forward and resolve them without getting bogged down in the details,” she says.

Toward the end of her enlistment, she was assigned to Fort Meade in Maryland and decided it was a great place to raise a family. After getting out in 1997, she worked as a government contractor and eventually moved into corporate IT.

Though the role she was in was instantly aligned with the skills she learned in the Air Force, she still had dreams of starting her own business. She found IVMF and attended their free training program V-WISE – Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship — where she learned the basics of running a business in a program that caters solely to women veterans and military spouses. At V-WISE she realized she could branch into any other industry in which she was interested, the restaurant industry. She later attended EBV Accelerate, an advanced training program for established businesses, and she loved how focused that intensive program was on her individual business idea. Just before the onset of the global health crisis, she attended Veteran EDGE, a four-day conference bringing business owners together with companies and resources that want to work with them. There she was paired in networking sessions with other people also interested in the restaurant industry.

Her business, Bread and Butter Kitchen, opened in 2016. Despite the global pandemic, her business has endured. She helped develop an idea with one of her customers: pay struggling restaurants to make food for families struggling with food scarcity in the pandemic. The program, Feed Anne Arundel, supports struggling businesses, feeds hungry people, and keeps restaurant employees working. She credits the skills she learned in IVMF programs that allowed her pivot while serving her community. “All these different training programs emphasize getting to know your community building relationships, because you never know when they’re going to come in handy.”

Alvarado recently spoke to CBS Radio’s Eye on Veterans and described how “Feed Anne Arundel” is feeding those in need while saving restaurants in Annapolis, MD. And her experience transitioning from the corporate world with support from IVMF.