Buy Veteran: How to support former military members and their businesses

The Buy Veteran campaign We speak with a former service member about starting a second career after leaving active duty.

An online directory is making it easy for Canadians who want to support veteran-owned businesses in November, and beyond.

The Buy Veteran campaign started in 2016 and now has more than 700 businesses owned by current and veteran members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

“That spans the spectrum of authors to photographers… you name it. A lot of great woodworkers on there. Just go to buyveteran.ca -- it’s people all over Canada, it’s a great way to support local veterans,” says veteran turned business owner Scott Harrigan.

Harrigan served 25 years in the Royal Canadian Navy and now owns the Canadian franchise GloRope, based in Eel River Crossing, N.B., which makes glow in the dark safety products.

He says getting out of the military and starting a business can be scary.

“I found myself at 43 with 25 years in the military and a couple of hip surgeries led to my medical release,” he says. “I knew I had an entire second career. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and I knew this was something that I wanted to pursue.”

After leaving the Navy, Harrigan took part in a weeklong boot camp as part of the Prince's Operation Entrepreneur program at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

“They basically just give you a toolbox of how to start your own business and for some people, they go there and they realize maybe that’s not what they want to do,” he says. “For myself, and others, it only solidified the fact that I wanted to begin an entrepreneurial journey.”

Harrigan was part of the program’s class in 2012 and is still involved now. He says it has given him invaluable support over the years.

“Every entrepreneur has moments of doubt and there’s just a support system there that you can tap into, the people that were in your class, the Buy Veteran people, and the staff that taught you during that time, to really help you and give you all the tools to get going and starting your business.”

Harrigan says many of the ideas for GloRope products stem from his time in service. He spent a total for 1,450 days at sea, many of which were nighttime operations

“I found the GloRope and I ended up buying the company off him and now we’re developing even further products that can help not only military people but other people,” he says. “Basically, we’re just trying to find how much glow in the dark pigment we can put into a safety product and turning it into an industrial glow in the dark product.”

One of the products Harrigan’s company makes is a glowing Life Ring.

“We did nighttime men overboards in the Navy all the time and we never found the rings again almost every time. We wouldn’t even look for them,” he says. “We just had this certified by Transport Canada, it’s the first ever glow in the dark Life Ring in the world that has been certified by a certifying body.”

GloRope also makes a thermal plastic glow in the dark product that can be used on roads.

“I know Halifax has a huge crosswalk problem and they’re always looking for new ideas. This has been tested in Australia and has been extremely successful so we partnered with them to bring that to Canada, so now we can possibly make crosswalks or dark stretches of road glow in the dark as well.”

GloRope products can be purchased online.