Evaluating Veteran
Business Owner Data
a research report of
prepared in collaboration with
Jack Faucett Associates, Inc.
Bethesda, MD
and
Eagle Eye Publishers, Inc.
Vienna, VA
with additional assistance from
Waldman Associates
Arlington, VA
REDA International, Inc.
Wheaton, MD
Release Date: December 2004
No. 244
December 2004
SMALL BUSINESS
RESEARCH
SUMMARY
Evaluating Veteran Business Owner Data
An Advocacy Research Report (2004, 64 pages)
This Small Business Research Summary (ISSN 1076-8904) summarizes one of a series of research papers prepared under contracts
issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. The opinions and recommendations of the authors of this study do
not necessarily reflect official policies of the SBA or other agencies of the U.S. government. For more information, write to the Office of
Advocacy at 409 Third Street S.W., Washington, DC 20416, or visit the office’s Internet site at www.sba.gov/advo.
Purpose
Veteran business owners as a group have received
increasing attention in recent years, particularly since
enactment of the Veterans Entrepreneurship and
Small Business Development Act of 1999, P.L. 106-
50. This legislation included provisions calling for the
development of more information about businesses
owned by veterans and by service-disabled veterans
and about the role they play in the Nation's economy.
Unfortunately, data available for these groups of
entrepreneurs are limited. The last authoritative
Census Bureau data on veteran-owned firms dates
from 1992. Currently, there are some lists of busi-
nesses that include veteran status; however, their
information is thought to be incomplete, and at best
they include data on only a small fraction of all
veteran-owned businesses.
The purpose of this study is to examine currently
available data sources on veteran business ownership,
to compare the quality of major data sources, to
review existing literature on veteran business owner-
ship, and to