Integrating into civilian life is the final difficult mission in the careers of all military personnel. After my time in the service, I found that transition to be even harder for service-disabled veterans. I was eager to find profitable and fulfilling work, but found myself unable to perform jobs in popular fields—so I had to get creative. Depending on your level of disability, working in construction, home or auto maintenance, or facility support services might not be a viable option. Thankfully, there are still a wide variety of business opportunities for disabled veterans that don’t involve physical labor or allow you to work around difficult mental health symptoms. The most significant: entrepreneurship.

Veterans across the country—and across all types of disability—are becoming entrepreneurs at an incredible rate and launching new startups in a wide variety of fields, from retail to real estate and social networking. Whether you want to be an entrepreneur in New York or a small business owner in Texas, if your military service was cut short by a disability and you’re looking for new opportunities to challenge yourself with a fulfilling career, you should consider joining the ranks of your fellow veterans by starting your own small business, too.

Here’s the Best Business Opportunities for Disabled Veterans

Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners, the following industries currently have a large number of veteran business owners. While none of these categories were specifically measured to have more veterans with disabilities represented, these select business opportunities are suited for entrepreneurs of all ability levels.

Personal Finance and Legal Services

This category includes accounting, notarization, tax preparation, and paralegal services—among a whole host of others. Finance and legal businesses involve repetitive work in a stable office setting, which might be a welcome change for those who want a break from the stress and high-adrenaline world of combat-readiness or need a prepared office environment. If you’re willing to go the extra mile to earn a certification and become licensed in one of these areas, you could easily start a small business and start earning revenue rather quickly compared to other opportunities.

Transportation and Warehousing

Whether you’re running your own independent trucking company, putting together a series of warehouses, or establishing a transportation logistics business, you’ll find good company as a veteran and entrepreneur in the transportation field. This industry involves organizing a whole fleet of complex moving parts—which is the perfect segue for vets who managed multi-dimensional teams and missions during their military service. If you love the complexity of coordinating operations for multi-step projects, this is the business opportunity for you.

Retail Franchising

Retail is such a broad category of business that it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll find something that interests you. While some retail franchises are better suited than others to specific abilities, the possibilities are almost limitless. You could open a restaurant or coffee franchise, an auto supply shop, a clothing mart, or a health food store, all within the umbrella of franchising. Being a franchisee dovetails perfectly with military service in that you’re simply following “orders” in order to reach meaningful business goals. The franchisor hands you a comprehensive package of products, services, and marketing materials, and your job is to carry out the mission just like the hundreds (or thousands) who have gone before you.

Real Estate Investment

Real estate investing is a fantastic field for disabled veterans who are mission-minded and who enjoy taking calculated risks. Investing in real estate is exciting, can potentially be very profitable, and involves a new kind of work every day—which appeals to disabled veterans who might not enjoy the monotony of office work. As the owner of your own real estate investment business, you would spend your days actively seeking new deals, working with buyers and sellers, overseeing the rehabs of investment properties, and monitoring the market for new trends.

Why a Real Estate Investing Franchise is Perfect for Disabled Veterans

These categories are a great starting place if you are a disabled veteran who wants to be your own boss—and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of other businesses and franchises available to choose from, across a wide variety of industries. But if you’re looking for a solid recommendation on which business idea is the best overall, I recommend going with a real estate investing franchise. When you own a professional real estate investing franchise, like an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchise, you’re positioned to build your business faster than someone starting one from scratch.

I started my real estate investing career as an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchisee, the company behind the nationally-known and trusted “We Buy Ugly Houses®” marketing campaign, and I remember being amazed at how quickly I was able to hit the ground running as a beginner in real estate investing. The HomeVestors® franchise opportunity provides valuable training, mentorship, and marketing tools that are built into the franchise model. Best of all, this is a relatively inexpensive franchise to start and veterans receive an additional 10% discount.

Running an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchise is a business opportunity that disabled veterans will definitely want to consider. Contact HomeVestors® to learn more about how you can start your own professional real estate business today.

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.