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According to a 2017 report from the Small Business Administration (SBA), veterans own more than two and a half million businesses. That’s nine percent of all U.S. companies. Veteran-owned firms employed more than five million people and paid $195 billion in annual payroll. To highlight these businesses, the SBA has designated November 5 – 9 as National Veterans Small Business Week. The SBA’s Office of Veterans Business Development offers specialized guidance and support for veteran entrepreneurs, including programs for women veterans and members of the Reserve and National Guard. The Federal Trade Commission also has tips and tools especially for small businesses. Here are a few examples of resources to help protect your customers, employees, and the bottom line.

  • Steer clear of scams. Con artists are pros and know exactly how to target businesses. Read Scams and Your Small Business, a free booklet that explains fake invoices, directory listing scams, utility company imposter scams, and other common frauds that target small businesses and organizations.
  • Keep your data safe. Check out Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business. You and your employees probably collect credit card or other account data, Social Security numbers, and other sensitive personal information to do your work. The principles in this brochure will go a long way toward helping you keep data secure. What if the unthinkable happens and your business experiences a data breach? Figure out your plan of action using our Data Breach Response: A Guide for Business.
  • Avoid tech traps. Your business can’t afford to get thrown off-track by a hacker or scammer. The FTC has developed new resources – fact sheets, videos, and quizzes – that will make it easy for you to talk about cybersecurity with your employees, vendors, and others involved in your business. The 12 topics cover issues like Cybersecurity Basics, Ransomware, Phishing, Email Authentication, and Hiring a Web Host.
  • Stay connected. Subscribe to the FTC’s Business Blog.
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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
  • We won’t post threats, defamatory statements, or suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity.
  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.