Tag: marc joseph

Is It Time to Be an Entrepreneur?

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Open Forum reports that there is an 11% increase in the number of small businesses closing and a 17% decline in the number of small businesses opening.

Get Busy Median reports 69% of small businesses survive at least two years, 44% of new firms survive four years, and 31% survive at least seven years. The Orange County Register states that new-employer businesses has fallen 27% since 2006, which means that startups—which, 10 years ago, would have created 4.6 million jobs—are only creating 2.5 million jobs now. Also, 10 years ago, the average new business opened with 7.5 jobs, and, today, it is 4.9 jobs.

Smart Money states that in 2009, there were 552,600 new businesses created, while 721,737 small firms closed or went bankrupt. They go on to report that in 2007, 75% of angel-funded deals came at the startup stage, while in the first half of 2011, only 39% of companies backed by angels were in the startup phase. This trend is just one more sign of how hard the recession has been on entrepreneurs. This recession has not only hurt sales, sending many small businesses under, it has also obstructed the ability to raise money for the next great idea.

So why would anyone in their right mind risk their money and reputation for only one-in-three chance of being in business after seven years?

Bloomberg Businessweek reported this week that the Walmart greeter job, which has been around for 30 years, has been removed from the overnight shift of its stores. Obviously, they will be using those hours more productively for tasks like stocking shelves or just eliminating the hours altogether. Every generation loses entire job categories—think milkmen.

So are today’s entrepreneurs desperate and opening a business because they just can’t find a job? Let’s hope not, because that is almost a guarantee your business will fall into the two-thirds that fail.

Clearly, you need a good idea, product or service before even thinking about opening up your own business. Assuming you have this great idea, then the next hurdle is [determining whether] you have the traits to run your own business. Some needed traits include being a self-starter, not getting intimidated easily, being adaptable to change, enjoying competition, being able to address risk, making decisions quickly and not seeing mistakes as failures.

[Y]ou [then] need to overcome the basics of starting a business, like cashflow (make sure you have at least six months of savings to live from), time management, a sound business plan and the ability to wear all the hats yourself.

Reading all these numbers and knowing you don’t have the equity now in your house to fund a business may be one of the most depressing things you do today, [b]ut the optimistic glass-half-full American entrepreneur doesn’t read these numbers like a normal human being. They say, “I am going to be in the one-third that succeeds, and I am going to make a lot of money doing it!”

DollarDays [is] just one small company doing our part to help grow the American dream. The rest of America needs to wake up and bring the small-business numbers back to where they were at the beginning of the 21st century. Banks need to actually begin loaning money again to small businesses. The government bailed out the big businesses and now must focus on building up Main Street again through backing small-business loans, giving tax break incentives and giving government contracts to small businesses. The average American needs to support their local small business rather than running to the big-box store. The numbers don’t lie. Supporting small businesses is an American team effort, and we need to get those numbers back to where they were—together.

Original article here:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/is-it-time-to-be-an-entre_b_1263541.html

No Nonprofit Should Be Left Behind

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Now that the holiday season is over and retailers in general are reporting slightly higher sales than last year, the business community is letting out a shared sigh of relief, because it could have easily gone the other way, continuing the recession we have all been dealing with over the last three years—[a]nd, as USA Today reported last week, “Many business[es] say they are ready to increase hiring in early 2012 after seeing stronger consumer confidence.”

With this cautiously optimistic news, why do our nonprofits continue to report having less money to provide the services our society has counted on them to deliver? Is it because, with our gridlock in Washington, our government can’t provide for those in need, so it falls back on charities to pick up the slack? Is it because America has now passed the giving season? […] [I]s it just a sign of our times, where nonprofits are in the rearview mirror to all of us lucky enough to have jobs?

The Tacoma, Wash., Tri City Herald reported last week that “families [are] turning to private charities for everything from medical care to diapers. Beverly Weber, CEO of the [local] United Way, […] calls it a “squeeze from two directions, with less government funding of human and social services and a greater demand. When families can’t get services through scaled-back state programs, they turn to charities.” [S]he [adds], “Also, some employers have dropped health insurance programs because of the expense, and many employees have opted out of their health insurance for the same reason.”

CNBC reported last month that “U.S. nonprofits see slow economic recovery, and […] many of the nation’s nonprofit organizations are digging in for another three to four years of financial distress. Most of the nation’s smaller charities saw donations drop again this year, and food pantries and homeless shelters reported funding crisis because of an increase in need, coupled with a drop in donations.”

The Daily Astorian in Oregon reports that the United Way, which receives much of the funding from donations of voluntary payroll deductions, has seen those contributions decrease each of the last four years because those generous people are not employed anymore or they have had to cut their donations to survive themselves.

This same story is repeated in community after community where the “have not’s” are suffering more than ever and the “haves” are just moving on with their lives. The season of giving is over except for anyone with a conscious. Most of us made resolutions last week and hope we can keep at least one. The one all of us should keep is to go out of our way to help our fellow Americans, at least until this economy gets back on track and our nonprofits can get healthier, even if it takes three to four years.

Businesses should be leading the rest of us in this effort to help. This month, the small contribution my company, DollarDays, is doing is giving away 1,200 socks to 13 different nonprofits on our Facebook page. […]

If every company and every organization looked deep within how they can support their community, I am sure all of our little efforts will accelerate the nonprofits digging out faster than three to four years in order for them to serve the greater need. In the history of mankind, those too poor were sent to debtor’s prison and society wrote them off. Luckily for us, in 1833, the United States abolished federal imprisonment for unpaid debts, [b]ut we all have a debt to this country that made us the freest society in the world. We need to take care of this debt by taking care of our nonprofits who take care of those of us in need. It is the true cycle of life.

Don’t wait until our next holiday season—[g]ive back now.

Original article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/no-non-profit-should-be-l_b_1196474.html

Put up or Shut up

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“It’s time for us to pull together and stop the bickering and finger-pointing and just help people in need,” says Marc Joseph, President and CEO of DollarDays, a subsidiary of America’s Suppliers, Inc. (AASL.PK), a premier Internet-based product wholesaler to small businesses and local distributors.

As part of the company’s ongoing corporate philanthropy program, this month, DollarDays will donate more than 1,000 blankets to homeless shelters around the country. Through the company’s Facebook page, customers can enter their local shelter into a sweepstakes. Winners will be selected January 4, 2012.

“The economy is in shambles, and our neighbors and fellow human beings need help. The people that help them need assistance, and it’s time we stop griping and just do something,” says Joseph. “DollarDays works closely with small-business owners who are so economically burdened, but they also are the most philanthropic people, and we appeal to them and their customers to help out as well.”

According to Michigan State University, three-million Americans, a fourth of which are children, go without shelter every night, and, during the winter months, the 3,235 homeless shelters and social service outlets in the United States are filled to capacity and working at a breaking point.

Every month throughout 2011, DollarDays has donated up to $5,000 in product to small businesses and nonprofit organizations, and they plan to continue it throughout 2012.

“There’s so much noise about how to solve economic woes, but at a grassroots level, we just need to help with product, food and financial donations.”

In addition to small businesses, DollarDays services the nonprofit sector, which has been the fastest-growing segment of its business. Through DollarDays, nonprofit organizations have access to necessary supplies by the case that help them stretch their donated dollars.

Joseph reports that nonprofits are buying everything from office supplies and health and beauty products to fundraising items. Other top-selling supplies include batteries, inexpensive clothing, recognition awards and plaques, holiday greeting cards, and small electronics. In fact, Occupy Wall Street ordered Army blankets.

In November, Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary, located in St. Pauls, North Carolina, won the DollarDays $2,500 grand prize for use toward product. Founded in 2005, Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary provides a safe place for blind cats deemed un-adoptable by regular shelters due to blindness or illness.

“Thank you so much to DollarDays for their wonderful contest, giving us the opportunity to win $2,500 of merchandise,” says Alana Miller, Director of Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary. “This wonderful gift allowed us to buy cleaning and office supplies that will last us many months. Freeing up those funds allowed us to provide the cats with new climbers that were not in our current budget. We are so grateful to [DollarDays] for their kindness!”

Joseph adds, “Everyone has something that touches them, whether it’s animals, children, homelessness or medical issues. We just need to act on our natural impulse to help, and in this hectic world with a scary economy, it’s hard to do. But, like DollarDays, even a little every month helps, and it’s so rewarding for everyone.”

About DollarDays
Founded in 2001, DollarDays is the leading supplier of wholesale goods for nonprofits, businesses and betterment organizations. By sourcing affordable products, backed by exceptional service and meaningful community engagement, we strive to inspire and empower our customers to accomplish their missions to improve the lives of people around the world. Recognized as the City of Phoenix Mayor’s Office “2018 Product Exporter of the Year” and Internet Retailer Magazine’s “B2B E-commerce Marketer of the Year” for 2016 and 2017, DollarDays is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit www.dollardays.com.

DollarDays Chooses Treepodia’s E?commerce Video Tool

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Treepodia, the leading provider of automated video solutions for online retailers, announced today that DollarDays, a leading online wholesaler that helps small businesses compete against chains in their area, has seen a major increase in conversions using Treepodia’s e-commerce video platform. DollarDays has also greatly improved the SEO of its product pages using Treepodia’s Dynamic Video Sitemap.

DollarDays, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, offers more than 165,000 bulk products—including decorative items, clothing and personal care products—that can be ordered in small quantities at competitive prices. Given the wide range of products, DollarDays needed to make it easier for its customers to find and choose products from the DollarDays website. Video offered one of the best methods for showcasing DollarDays’ products, but managing video content was time-consuming and labor-intensive.

“With so many products to cover and an ever-expanding product line, an automated solution was clearly the only option in terms of both sheer logistics and cost,” said Marc Joseph, President of DollarDays. In addition, DollarDays needed to make sure that each video was properly indexed so that searches for relevant keywords on Google and other search engines would include DollarDays’ products further up in results—a benefit that the Dynamic Video Sitemap provides.

DollarDays chose Treepodia to create about 50,000 product videos for its site. Treepodia’s e-commerce video platform enables online merchants to cover their entire product catalog with dynamic and effective video content in just 24 hours and includes monitored video hosting, high-quality streaming and a multi-environment video player. DollarDays also chose Treepodia’s Dynamic Video Sitemap, which ensures that all video content is indexed, including video titles, descriptions, duration, location and more, in order to drive more new traffic to their site.

Soon after it began using Treepodia to create and manage its product videos, DollarDays saw its conversion rate rise significantly. Additionally, all of its product videos were indexed by Google in a single day, and product-specific long-tail search terms such as “bright pencil pouch” were yielding far higher results on Google than before—in many cases, showing up first among search results.

“We’ve been incredibly pleased with the results we’ve received from the Treepodia solutions,” said Joseph. “So much so, in fact, that within a month, we’d already decided to expand the Treepodia solutions across our entire product offering. Not only was the ROI quick and concrete, but the implementation was surprisingly simple.”

Original article here:
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2011/12/06/dollardays-chooses-treepodias-e-commerce-video-tool/

I Don’t Want to Be Homeless

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What has America gotten itself into? Just about every state and every city is cutting back funding to services needed by those who need it most.

The Chicago Reporter published the headline this week, “Temperatures dropping. Will the state restore funding for homeless shelters?” It goes on to report that the 2012 budget was cut 52% for homeless-prevention services. This cut is on top of the fact that more people were turned away from homeless shelters in Chicago last year than were taken in.

The Citizens Voice in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., also reported this week, “Funding cuts continue to hamper women’s shelter,” citing a 20% cut in funding from federal, state, county and city sources. Channel 12 News in Ardmore, Okla., reported […], “Overcrowded shelters are forced to leave some out in the cold.” This tragedy is happening from big cities to small-town America. [O]n top of all this bad news, USA Today reports that military veterans are much more likely to be homeless than other Americans.

What is causing this disaster? Obviously, the down economy and the housing crisis forced numerous families out of their homes and into the streets. During the summer, they can live out of their cars, but as winter settles in, sleeping outside or in your car is not an option anymore. [Currently], 15.1% of people nationwide are living in poverty.

As more people become poor, more people become increasingly at risk for homelessness. Add to this the shrinking availability of real affordable housing, and you have a classic case of Economics 101, where there is an increase in demand for shelters and a decrease in supply because of all the funding cutbacks.

Our homeless population is not only made up of those caught in these troubling economic times caused by losing their jobs and their homes, [but also] victims of domestic violence, people suffering from physical illness or mental illness, people addicted to drugs and alcohol, kids caught up in the transition from youth into adulthood, and people who have exhausted their personal relationships the same way other people exhaust their financial resources.

The kind and caring people involved in these shelters are not heartless. When they run out of beds, they let people and their children sleep on the floor, [s]o donations of pillows and blankets are always needed.

What can the average person do to help in this situation? Obviously, you can donate money or much-needed supplies to your local shelter. My company, DollarDays, is giving away a total of $5,000 in supplies to 13 different homeless shelters in a sweepstakes on our Facebook page.

Make sure you enter your local shelter into this. You can also volunteer in your local shelter to help with the food serving or keeping it clean or becoming a friendly face to comfort those in need. If you see homeless people in need, offer them a coat or food. Direct acts of kindness are what this country is built on, and for those who can spare a coat, it is the right thing to do.

This economic calamity we have backed ourselves into is not going away tomorrow. Neither is the crisis that has forced so many people to give up their lives and rely on others for help. Winter is coming, and we just can’t let Americans who pledge allegiance to the same flag as we do suffer without having the basic need of shelter.

Don’t let this suffering continue in your town. Since our government can’t afford to help our fellow man, you do it. Volunteer and give something back—give some cash and give some clothing to your local shelter. We, as Americans, who have kindness and caring built into the fabric of our society, can make a difference.

Original article here:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/fight-against-homelessness_b_1077169.html

The Best Therapist You Ever Met

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October is “Adopt-a-Pet-Shelter Month,” and, as far as I am concerned, we should be celebrating this every month of the year. According to the Humane Society, animal shelters care for up to eight million dogs and cats every year and euthanize around four million animals. Today, there are more than 135 million dogs and cats in our homes. Back in the 1970s, when there were just 67 million pets, over 12 million dogs and cats were euthanized a year, so, in a sense, our society has come a long way in caring for our animals.

All of our local shelters do their best in trying to get these defenseless animals a home. As was reported in the Bandera Bulletin this week, “Saturday turned out to be another great day for adoptions in Old Town Helotes, where nine dogs and puppies found new homes.” Publications like Philadelphia’s PhillyBurbs.com continually promote local animals available for adoption. They even suggest that if you can’t adopt one yourself, be a good citizen and “support local shelters by putting together care packages, which could include baked goods for the volunteers, blankets and toys for the pets, and pet food items for the shelters’ supplies.”

[D]on’t forget the Red Star Animal Emergency Relief effort that was reported on recently in The Huffington Post. This part of the American Humane Association helps animals in disaster events like the Minot, N.D., flood this summer and the Joplin, Mo., tornado last spring.

There are plenty of Americans who don’t have pets and don’t understand how important a companion these pets can become. Pets are also teachers helping humans of all ages learn about loyalty, responsibility, empathy, sharing and unconditional love. Kindness to animals can rub off and teach us to be kinder to our fellow man and woman. If you are elderly, a pet can offer you hope, because being responsible for another life can add new meaning to your life.

Every American should give thought during this special month for pets on how they can help their local shelter. My company, DollarDays, is giving away $5,000 in supplies to shelters on our Facebook page. If you have a favorite shelter, make sure you nominate them to win. If you don’t have a favorite shelter, support them all by donating to one of the national organizations helping animals.

During these tough economic times, it is quite difficult to help the humans who need us, let alone the animals that need us, [s]o if you can’t support this cause financially, volunteer at your local shelter. These animals need a friend as much as you do, even though pets offer us much more in return than we give them. They can help us learn more about love and friendship than we can teach them. Just a few hours with a pet can improve our emotional health. These animals may be the best therapist you have ever met.

Original article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/the-best-therapist-you-ev_b_999272.html

Build It & They Will Learn

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Last week the White House released their American Jobs Act proposal. Two ideas that caught my eye [were] preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs and modernizing at least 35,000 public schools by supporting new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms, and renovations at schools across the country in [both] rural and urban areas. No matter what your political outlook is on life, these are two parts of the act that all Americans must agree our society needs to keep our country moving forward in this highly competitive world.

I heard on NPR this morning that there is now a one-in-three chance this country is heading back into recession. None of us can afford that. Whether you are working at a small business, a large business, a nonprofit organization or for the government, we all need jobs to pay the rent. The Wall Street Journal recently said, “[T]he global economic recovery has stalled.” As […] noted by ABC News today, President Obama says his initiative will help put to work the “more than one million unemployed construction workers ready to get dirty right now.” What sensible American can argue with that? We need to stack the deck on immediate job creation to improve our odds of staying out of another recession.

I was pleased to see yesterday in The New York Times that the White House honored its pledge to speed up government payments to small-business contractors, reducing the payment time from 30 days to 15 days. This small gesture in itself helps create jobs because it frees up cash. These are the little things government can do to keep this economy moving.

Saving teacher[s’] jobs and updating our schools, though, is not a little item on the agenda that can be fixed by an executive order. As The Huffington Post is reporting today, Tacoma, Wash., teachers are on strike, despite a judge’s order to return to work. These teachers have the guts to put it all on the line to stand up for what is right for our kids. I am sure teachers all over the country would join them if they thought they would not lose their job the next day.

[W]hy, as a socially conscious society, are we forcing these dedicated teachers to abandon what they love in the classroom to protest what we all know is the right thing for our kids? This brave group in Tacoma represents our country’s conscience. How can we let our school buildings fall apart, and how can we not guarantee our children a first-class education? Our representatives in Washington can help fix this embarrassing situation we are forcing on our kids by talking instead of arguing. In business, you negotiate and work things out to move your business forward. With all of these businesspeople and lawyers as part of our government, why can’t they see this?

I wish we all had the courage of the Tacoma teachers. Every company, every community should be pushing our representatives in Washington to do the right thing. Fund teachers, fund school building, and this, in the short run, will help our economy get back on track.

Original article here:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/build-it-and-they-will-le_b_966863.html

DollarDays Cuts Through the Site Search Thicket with “Natural Language” Technology

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The e-commerce site operated by wholesaler and closeout company DollarDays presents a daunting site search challenge. DollarDays sells some 140,000 products spread across 5,000 departments, and the smaller business owners who typically purchase there […] often had to navigate through a thicket of unwanted item[s] before finally finding the desired product[s].

But the e-commerce company says that has changed with the deployment of what it calls “natural language” site search. Software and algorithms provided by EasyAsk enable DollarDays to automatically classify products into categories that better reflect site searches performed by shoppers and return to them results that more closely match what they want to buy.

For instance, before DollarDays began using the technology about a year ago, a shopper typing “blue polo shirt” into the site search box at DollarDays.com might be presented with a long list of results that included not only apparel, but Polo cologne or other unrelated blue items, says Marc Joseph, President and CEO of DollarDays. The EasyAsk technology better understands the prime characteristics of the search—in this case, that the shopper is seeking a blue shirt—and returns a more exact set of results; the software classifies products according to such attributes as price, brand, design and patterns. A search conducted today using that same phrase returned five results, all of them for shirts, and only one of which was not obviously blue.

“We’re a one-stop shop for small businesses who buy from us, and we have to get our customers quickly to what they want,” Joseph says. “The natural language search allows our customers to find the exact product in a single click, increasing our customer conversion rates.”

Since installing the software, Joseph says DollarDays has experienced a dramatic increase in the use of the e-commerce site’s search box by shoppers, who are using longer search terms to find products more quickly. He declined to provide details. The software also works to take product attributes such as price and recent arrivals to create new product categories that help DollarDays run better promotions; for instance, the software helps to place items into such categories as “closeouts,” “49¢ or less,” “hot sellers” and “new products.”

For an e-commerce operator such as DollarDays that installs and manages the site search technology on its own, EasyAsk typically charges a one-time licensing fee of $35,000, says John Morrell, the technology provider’s Vice President of Marketing. If EasyAsk manages the technology, fees start at about $600 per month, he says.

Original article here:
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2011/09/09/dollardays-cuts-through-site-search-thicket/

DollarDays Rings up E-commerce Dollars Using EasyAsk Natural Language Search & Merchandising

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EasyAsk, the leader in e-commerce search and merchandising software, and DollarDays, the premier online wholesaler and closeout company, today announced one of the largest and most diverse uses of e-commerce search in e-retail. DollarDays is using the natural language conversion power of EasyAsk eCommerce Edition to get customers from the home page to the right products in a single click, helping increase purchase rates and revenue.

DollarDays distributes over 140,000 products on its e-commerce site, with over 5,000 categories and subcategories—a product catalog that would rival even the largest e-retailers. In addition, as a small-business wholesaler, the catalog is continuously shifting as seasons change, new products become available and excess product needs to be closed out.

A product catalog of this size, diversity and fluidity created a number of difficult challenges in implementing e-commerce search and merchandising. The product diversity meant that the same search term could have different meaning for different products and the navigation attributes would be widely varied across the different categories. The constant change created a merchandising nightmare in trying to manage promotions and offers. It was clear that keyword-based e-commerce search offerings could not meet these challenges.

DollarDays chose EasyAsk eCommerce Edition because the natural language technology provided a more powerful yet easier-to-use search and merchandising for their e-commerce site. With EasyAsk, DollarDays now has: 

  • A search box that is more accurate, allowing visitors to type phrases describing exactly what they want and getting those in one click;
  • A rich, dynamic set of navigation attributes that adjust based on the categories and products, making navigation faster; [and]
  • Superior, easier merchandising, including the automatic assignment of products to special categories and rapid addition of promotional banners, ads and links.

“The most successful e-commerce sites get the customer to the right products the fastest, speeding the buying process,” said Marc Joseph, President and CEO of DollarDays. “EasyAsk[‘s] natural language search allows our customers to find the exact product in a single click, increasing our customer conversion rates. EasyAsk also makes our merchandising more agile, which is essential in our business, where product offerings are continuously changing.”

As a result of using EasyAsk, DollarDays has seen significant improvement in the performance of their e-commerce site, including:

  • The improvement of successful search rate to 99.8% and the virtual elimination of zero-results searches;
  • A dramatic increase in the use of the search box and the length of search terms to lead visitors to products faster;
  • Greater efficiency in merchandising by replacing a time-consuming multistep process to create promotions with a combination of automated and single-step creation of merchandising programs.

DollarDays uses EasyAsk[‘s] natural language and algorithms fed by operational product data to automatically classify products into unconventional categories such as “closeouts,” “49¢ and less,” “hot sellers” and “new products” (seen across the top of the DollarDays website). Using EasyAsk in this way saves many “man-days” of merchandiser time and completely removes technical staff from the merchandising processes.

“DollarDays is a shining example of how EasyAsk’s natural language search and merchandising can bring an e-commerce site to life and instantly increase customer conversion. Higher conversion equals more sales, leading to higher profits,” said Craig Bassin, CEO of EasyAsk. “In a marketplace where you need every competitive edge possible, DollarDays found a powerful yet easy advantage by using EasyAsk that is paying off at the bottom line.”

EasyAsk eCommerce Edition is the industry leading e-commerce search and merchandising solution that allows visitors to find products faster and receive compelling promotions and offers. EasyAsk understands the content and intent of the search question—“red long-sleeved dresses under $150”—to deliver the right results on the first page. EasyAsk eCommerce Edition customers see the industry’s highest conversion rates, deliver a superior customer experience and see dramatic increases in average order sizes.

About DollarDays
Founded in 2001, DollarDays is the leading supplier of wholesale goods for nonprofits, businesses and betterment organizations. By sourcing affordable products, backed by exceptional service and meaningful community engagement, we strive to inspire and empower our customers to accomplish their missions to improve the lives of people around the world. Recognized as the City of Phoenix Mayor’s Office “2018 Product Exporter of the Year” and Internet Retailer Magazine’s “B2B E-commerce Marketer of the Year” for 2016 and 2017, DollarDays is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit www.dollardays.com.

May No Soldier Go Unloved

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This is the slogan used by the nonprofit, volunteer-led organization Soldiers Angels, [which assists] families of veterans and veterans deployed, wounded and moving back into society. These volunteers are mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of soldiers, as well as regular Americans who know the sacrifices our military makes to keep all of us safe.

For most Americans, we really are not affected by the sacrifices our military makes for their country and, [just] as important, the sacrifices their families make. Sure, when we see them in uniform at the airport, we feel proud, but then the moment passes as we move on with our lives.

Military.com reported earlier this month that 12.4% of Iraq and Afghanistan vets are unemployed, 3% higher than the national average. CBS MoneyWatch.com reported that vets’ unemployment in Michigan is at 29.4%, in Indiana at 23.6% and in Minnesota at 22.9%.

Why is this not headlining news? I am pretty sure that America cares and should feel somewhat guilty that we are not supporting these heroes like we did in past generations.

In Congress, we are beginning to see some isolated compassion. Radio Iowa reported last week that Congressman Bruce Braley is calling for a new tax break for businesses that hire unemployed veterans. The Bremerton Washington Patriot also reported this month that Senator Patty Murray’s bill, the “Hiring Heroes Act,” is trying to smooth the transition process for veterans. [T]he Murphysboro American in Illinois [also recently] reported the honoring of two associates at the Illinois Department of Employment Security who excelled in providing job counseling, testing and placement assistance to unemployed veterans.

[T]hen we read [in] an article in The Huffington Post last week where California is cutting veterans’ courts from their budget. These specialized courts help veterans, so this can’t be good. Why, as a society, are we sending our veterans such mixed messages? As Soldiers Angels believes, “May no soldier go unloved.”

Both my father and father-in-law are WWII vets. Interestingly, both visited the VA hospital this month, and both commented to me how sincerely compassionate everyone at the hospital was—from the receptionist to the nurses to the doctors. I realize that when you are in your 80s, any compassion received from a stranger is amplified, but these proud, old vets truly appreciated how considerately and respectfully they were treated.

So why can’t we show this same thoughtfulness to the vets of this newest generation? Our businesses must show this generation our compassion and appreciation by employing them. Our government must help them transition back to civilians. We, as a nation, must embrace these vets like we embraced my father’s generation.

At DollarDays, we’ve worked with the great Soldiers Angels organization to develop a wishlist of products vets and their families can use. I encourage you to help out this volunteer organization. […]

As a nation, we celebrate Labor Day. As a nation, we celebrate Veterans Day. As a nation, we need to celebrate our veterans having productive jobs back in society. Only a strong moral commitment from both business and government can achieve this. All of us need to work towards this end, [a]nd our veterans need to know: we salute you!

Original article here:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/veterans-unemployment_b_941822.html