Rob Cooley grew up in the Bronx eating the best freshly made bakery items. When the family moved to New Jersey, they searched and found Chester Bakery owned by Frank Longordo who learned to bake while serving in the Marine Corps.

When Cooley was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the family celebrated with
one of Longordo’s cakes. Some time later, Longordo sold the bakery, moved to Wilmington and opened Apple Annie’s.

Jump ahead several years and Cooley is in uniform on his way to Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg by way of Wilmington. He bumps into Longordo. They talk. Longordo is thinking of selling. Cooley is looking at the next step in his career. They shake on it, and Cooley becomes the new owner of Apple Annie’s Bake Shop.

Two other veterans who recently opened a business locally are Jeremy Tomlinson and Mark Mueller, owners of Port City Brew Bus.

Mueller is a Navy veteran. Tomlinson’s college career was interrupted by service in Iraq with the National Guard.

Several jobs after completing his degree at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tomlinson
in 2011 started Enfuse Technology Solutions, which offers small business technology consulting.

He credits his time as a team leader in Iraq as greatly benefiting his approach to business.

“It’s putting your people first, making sure they’re taken care of before you are,” Tomlinson said. “I’ve applied that to my clients. It’s small things like punctuality and keeping things organized. In business it’s being able to plan out how you’re going to do a project and go after a new sale – and assertiveness too. I don’t feel like I’m a natural sales-person, but I can go and talk to people, and that’s helpful.”

Finding the right business at the right time isn’t always that easy, and the Small Business Administration’s North Carolina district office has recognized that it may be even more difficult for veterans and service members transitioning out of the service.

The office recently announced a two-year initiative with the N.C. Veteran’s Business Association (ncvetbiz.org) to strengthen and expand small business development and entrepreneurship for veterans.

“The SBA has a valuable array of tools, finance and government contracting,” said SBA spokesman Mike Ernandes. “We hope to connect more veterans in North Carolina with these resources.”

He said the first step is to identify the needs of veteran business owners, so they’re looking for input.

An SBA program called Boots to Business is offered at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. A similar program was developed a few years ago by veteran John Panaccione and his partners. Called VetToCEO (vettoceo.org), the nonprofit focuses on entrepreneurship.

“The military teaches you uniquely about decision-making and risk management. Those two go hand in hand,” said Panaccione, a veteran of the first Gulf War who moved to the Wilmington area five years ago from Rhode Island.

 “There is a certain way the military teaches planning and decision-making. It’s a very formal process; there’s a manual on it. That becomes part of your DNA. That’s directly applicable to running and starting a business.”

Additionally, Panaccione sees military ethics as being a culture that “pays dividends in business.”

Drive and determination is the third component that grows out of military training and translates well into private business, he said.

In what he calls his day job, Panaccione and partners run a cloud-based software company
called LogicBay that assists manufacturers to sell their products.

In the nonprofit, Panaccione said the group strives to connect people with resources through a seven-week program that can be completed online, so sometimes participants are on duty overseas.

“There are a lot of resources. That’s the good news and the bad news” because sorting through the options can waste valuable time, he said.

From Cooley’s perspective, one of the challenges as a small business owner is to recruit and hire veterans.

A brigade commander in the National Guard who holds advanced degrees from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the U.S. Army War College and the Joint Forces Staff College, Cooley values the skills of veterans, particularly their ability to achieve success through collaboration.

“I would love to have the ability to look at the best and brightest bakers and pastry chefs coming off duty, and it’s not as easy as you would think to have that access. I understand what they bring to the table,” he said.

He said it’s difficult to reflect on a CV or resume all the skills learned while in military service. Of his 30 employees, three are veterans and several others have a family military connection.

Although less than 1 percent of the U.S. population serves in the military, about 9 percent of small business owners are veterans, Panaccione said.

Tomlinson noted that there’s a large informal network of veterans in the area who help each other
and stay in touch, although a more formalized effort failed to get off the ground because he said many younger veterans are at a time in their lives when they’re raising families and are busy with those commitments.

For those, like Cooley, who are maintaining a career in the reserves and in business, the balancing act can be difficult, but he said the military training makes it possible.

Ernandes said that among other things, the SBA and N.C. Veteran’s Business Association hope to help veterans build successful businesses by navigating their way through procurement of large contracts.

A summer class on the required capability statement is being planned, and a procurement summit is in the works for September.


SBA contacts for veteran entrepreneurs

State district office in Charlotte
(704) 344-6563

Business outreach center at Fayetteville State University
(910) 672-2683