Your Next Business Challenge Could Be Someone Else's Career Breakthrough
By Robyn J. Grable, U.S. Navy Veteran, Founder of The ASCEND Collective and Creator of Vanguard Rising
What if the business challenge holding you back could become the career breakthrough someone else needs?
As veterans, we understand the importance of having a mission, assembling the right team, and getting the work done.
But as entrepreneurs, we also understand a different reality: sometimes the mission is clear, but the resources to accomplish it aren't.
Perhaps your business needs a stronger marketing strategy, documented operational processes, improved financial reporting, a more effective hiring system, or a business development plan to reach new customers.
You know what needs to happen. You may even know exactly how to make it happen.
You simply don't have enough hours in the day or enough people on your team to move everything forward.
For many veteran-owned small businesses, this creates a difficult choice: invest in additional staff before revenue supports it, or postpone important projects until resources become available.
But what if there were another option?
A Different Approach to Business Growth
Through The ASCEND Collective, a veteran-founded 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, we've created Vanguard Rising, an experiential applied learning program that brings together two groups with complementary needs.
On one side are businesses with important work that needs to get done.
On the other are veterans and military spouses with valuable skills who need opportunities to demonstrate those capabilities in today's civilian workplace.
Vanguard Rising connects them through structured, six-week business engagements.
Businesses identify a real challenge or project. We assemble a skills-aligned team of military-connected professionals, supported by a Product Manager, to work toward defined objectives and deliver tangible results.
These aren't hypothetical classroom exercises. They're real business challenges requiring collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and execution.
The business gains additional project capacity and meaningful deliverables.
The participants gain current professional experience, portfolio-ready accomplishments, and the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities.
One business challenge. Two opportunities for success.
What Could Six Weeks Mean for Your Business?
Imagine having a team focused on a project you've been postponing.
For a veteran-owned construction company, that might mean documenting operational processes, improving project tracking, or developing a more consistent customer follow-up system.
For a consulting firm, it might mean researching new markets, identifying prospective clients, or developing a business development pipeline.
For a growing service business, it might mean improving onboarding, creating performance management tools, or analyzing operational data to identify opportunities for greater efficiency.
Vanguard Rising teams work across business functions including:
Business Development and Market Research
Project Management and Operational Logistics
People Operations and Workforce Strategy
Data Analytics and Business Intelligence
Marketing and Communications
Finance and Business Analysis
Cybersecurity and Technology
Process Improvement and Documentation
Each engagement is scoped around the business's priorities, with clear objectives, milestones, and expected deliverables.
The goal is simple: help businesses move forward instead of letting important work stand still.
Seeing Talent Beyond the Resume
There's another reason this model is particularly meaningful to the veteran business community.
Those of us who served know that military experience develops valuable capabilities that don't always translate neatly into civilian job descriptions.
Leadership. Adaptability. Accountability. Problem-solving. Teamwork. The ability to operate under pressure and accomplish a mission with limited resources.
Military spouses bring equally valuable experiences, often navigating repeated relocations, career interruptions, changing circumstances, and the need to continually adapt.
Yet many highly capable individuals struggle to get the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do.
Traditional hiring often asks employers to make decisions based on resumes and interviews.
Vanguard Rising provides an opportunity to observe talent in action.
Over six weeks, business owners can see how individuals collaborate, communicate, take initiative, solve problems, and deliver results.
There's no obligation to hire participants, but employers gain meaningful insight into skills that are difficult to evaluate on paper.
And participants leave with something a resume alone cannot provide: tangible evidence of their work.
Veteran Entrepreneurs Supporting Veteran Talent
As veteran business owners, many of us talk about continuing to serve after our military careers.
But what if supporting the military-connected community could also help us strengthen our businesses?
That's the opportunity Vanguard Rising creates.
When a veteran-owned business sponsors a Vanguard Rising engagement, it isn't simply supporting a workforce development initiative.
It's investing in getting important business work accomplished while helping fellow veterans and military spouses build their next professional chapter.
It's an investment in business growth and human potential.
And it reinforces something we learned through service: successful missions depend on people working together toward a shared objective.
What's Sitting on Your Business To-Do List?
If you're a veteran or military spouse entrepreneur, I encourage you to consider one question:
What important project would move your business forward if you had a dedicated team helping you accomplish it over the next six weeks?
Maybe it's a process that needs improving.
A market you want to explore.
A business development strategy that hasn't moved beyond the planning stage.
An operational challenge that keeps taking time away from serving customers.
Whatever it is, that challenge may represent more than an opportunity for business improvement.
It could also become someone's career breakthrough.
At The ASCEND Collective, we believe businesses and talented people can grow together when we create the right opportunities.
Through Vanguard Rising, we're putting that belief into action.
Get Real Work Done. See Talent in Action. Business Progress. Career Momentum.
About the Author
Robyn J. Grable is a U.S. Navy veteran, workforce strategist, and Founder of The ASCEND Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to removing barriers to economic mobility through skills-first career pathways. With more than 25 years of experience in human capital and workforce development, she created Vanguard Rising to help businesses address real challenges while giving veterans and military spouses opportunities to demonstrate their professional capabilities.
Learn more: https://theascendcollective.org
Comments