Bus tour owner must leave new business for deployment

photo Chuck Wilson, the double-decker bus driver, and Rufus Marye, the tour guide, are giving guided tours of Chattanooga. Staff File Photo

GET INVOLVEDThe Tennessee Veterans' Business Association is a new organization aimed at helping veteran-owned businesses network. To get involved, visit www.jointvba.org or call 423-243-3302.

Rufus Marye started Chattanooga Double Decker bus tours in June, and a few weeks later learned the Army was sending him away for a year.

Come April he'll be training infantry in Jordan, so Marye has about half a year to get his new business off the ground and find someone to run it for the year he's gone.

"It's a big risk," he said. "It's not their business. They're not going to care about it as much as I do. What if they screw it up?"

He isn't the only veteran finding himself caught between establishing a civilian life and fulfilling his military commitment.

Marye knew he could get called up at any time, it even was likely.

"I knew I wanted to start my own business," he said. "What do I do? Just sit around and do nothing?"

Don Smith, assistant commissioner for the Department of Veterans Affairs for East Tennessee, said there's no easy answer to those questions, nor is there a clear solution to Marye's problem.

It's difficult to tell how someone known personally will behave in a business setting, he said. It can be even harder for a soon-to-be-deployed business owner to find someone willing to run the business for a year, only to give it up when the veteran comes home.

Mayre hopes a new Chattanooga organization, the Tennessee Veterans' Business Association, will be able to help.

The group started earlier this year in Knoxville and already has brought together more than 200 veteran-owned businesses for networking and job posting. The Chattanooga chapter held its first meeting last week, and Mayre hopes to use the group to find someone to help him.

"I will probably trust one of these guys to take over my business more than any other organization," he said. "If I know he's a veteran, at least there's a little bit of trust."

Of course, Mayre's isn't the only business challenge facing veterans. Returning to the business world from active duty has its own set of problems.

"There's the wrong way and then there's the military way, and when you come back you've got to relearn how to do it the wrong way," said Andre Harriman, a local business owner looking to join the veterans' association.

That mentality leads a lot of returning vets to start their own businesses, Smith said. Tennessee alone has 64,657 veteran-owned businesses, according to 2007 census information.

Though there are veterans programs in place to help returning vets find work, Smith hopes Chattanooga's new veteran group will help returning veterans overcome any disadvantage to their civilian counterparts.

"One of the biggest problems I see is establishing that network," he said. "The programs are there. They're great. They help, but you've got to have that network."

Chattanooga's new veterans group hopes to establish that network, not just in the Scenic City but across the country. The organization already has plans to expand to Nashville, and will look to Jackson, Memphis and Clarksville next.

Mayre hopes that as the group expands, veterans will have an ever-increasing pool to draw on for support.

Hiring someone to help with a business often comes down to faith, he said. "The most important thing is finding the right person."

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