On Saturday, the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen will take the field in Philadelphia for the Army-Navy Football Game, a tradition that goes back 129 years. Students from the U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy, and fans from all over the U.S. turn out in droves each year to root for their teams and celebrate the military community.

We’ll be there too, sharing our tools for veterans and military families, including our new resource hub for veteran-led businesses. These efforts are close to home for me, both as a service member and as the son of a small business owner. I watched my dad build his business and know it’s never a straightforward process. But I also know that the mindset service members develop in the military gives us the ability to overcome any challenge. It’s that determination that makes veterans such successful business owners.

Sword & Plough, Denver, Colorado 

Sisters Betsy Núñez and Emily Núñez Cavness grew up at West Point in a military family, and for five years, Emily served as an active-duty officer in the U.S. Army. While Emily was serving, the pair founded Sword & Plough, which uses surplus military materials to create tote bags, handbags, backpacks and other accessories.

When Emily was deployed in Afghanistan and the rest of the team worked remotely throughout the U.S., they used G Suite and Google Hangouts to stay connected and build their company. And to give back to the veteran community, Sword & Plough donates 10 percent of their profits to veteran-focused organizations.

Old School Boxing, San Diego, California 

Ernest Johnson was in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a member of the USMC boxing team. After leaving the military, he found success as a professional boxer, until an eye injury forced him to retire early. Within a few years, he’d gone to college and landed an office job, but he longed to build a career around his passion for boxing. 

He left his job and began coaching, which led him to open his own business, Old School Boxing. He uses his Business Profile on Google to share photos and information about the gym’s location, hours, and services. And to show customers in his community that the gym is owned by a veteran, Ernest added the “Veteran-Led” attribute to his profile. 

Over the years, Ernest has trained many professional boxers, but it’s training local youth in his community that brings him the most satisfaction. He takes pride in teaching them the importance of discipline and hard work—lessons he brought back from his time in service.

GoRuck, Jacksonville Beach, Florida

Jason McCarthy is a decorated combat veteran who served in the Special Forces. While visiting his wife, Emily, a Foreign Service Officer working in Côte d’Ivoire, Jason assembled a “go-bag” with medical supplies and radios to keep in her truck, in case of emergency. Emily’s colleagues began requesting bags of their own, and soon GoRuck was born. 

With no business experience, Jason turned to YouTube to learn how to design backpacks from online tutorials. He also uses Google Ads to speak directly with customers, and today, Google Ads generates 15 percent of the company’s sales revenue. In addition to selling packs, GoRuck hosts hundreds of events each year focused on building teamwork and camaraderie, and testing physical fitness, based on Special Forces training.

Sword & Plough, Old School Boxing, and GoRuck are just three of the 10 businesses joining us at the game this weekend to talk about their accomplishments and cheer on their teams. (Maybe they’ll even grab cheesesteaks!) Saturday’s game will cap off our visit to Philly--earlier this week, we partnered with local tech space WorkMerk to host a workshop for veterans on using digital tools to start or grow a business. If you’re looking to grow your own skills, check out Grow with Google to learn more about our free tools and resources for veterans and military families.

Running a small business can be great second career after serving in the military. As a U.S. Army veteran, I would know. In addition to my role at Google helping small businesses get found online, I also co-own an occupational therapy practice with my wife in Kirkland, Washington.

We were one of the first small businesses to add the “Veteran-Led” attribute to our business profile on Google My Business after it was introduced last August. It’s a simple way to share a piece of the personal history behind our business with fellow veterans and people in my community. Since then, thousands of veteran-led businesses across the U.S. have added the attribute to their business profiles, including Old School Boxing and Fitness Center in San Diego, California, and Honest Soul Yoga in Alexandria, Virginia.

At Propel Electric Bikes in Brooklyn, New York, owner and U.S. Army veteran Chris Nolte uses the attribute to help his veteran-led business stand out on Google Search and Maps. And with Google Ads, Chris is able to put his bikes in front of potential customers in New York and across the country. With support from digital tools like these, he’s successfully grown his business, even opening a second location in California.

Now, in honor of National Veterans Small Business Week, Grow with Google is introducing a resource hub where veterans like Chris can find products, tools, and programs to start or grow their businesses. Here’s a preview of what you’ll find there.

Almost one in four transitioning service members have an interest in starting their own business. So to make it simpler for veterans to grow their business and marketing skills, the Primer app offers quick, easy-to-understand lessons that they can access from anywhere. The lessons offer helpful tips on topics like creating a business plan, increasing sales, managing finances, and more. Primer also offers custom mini-courses tailored to veterans and military spouses that you can find by searching “veteranled” or “milspousebiz” in the app.

This National Veterans Small Business Week, we’re also inviting veteran business owners to a livestream workshop focused on growing a small business. Viewers will learn how Google My Business can help an entrepreneur establish a local online presence, build a loyal customer base, show off products or services and drive online and physical traffic to their business. We’ll also be joined by the California Veterans Business Outreach Center, a program from the Small Business Administration, to hear more about their offerings for veteran-owned businesses. Tune in on YouTube for Tuesday’s livestream workshop.

When I was making my own transition to civilian life in 2013, I looked to fellow veterans for career guidance. As a Googler and a business owner myself, I’m proud to help fellow veteran-led businesses find new online resources to grow.

Technology has made it easier than ever before for small businesses to find new customers abroad. That’s been the experience for Ryan McFarland in South Dakota, who started Strider Bikes in 2007 after inventing a pedal-free bicycle for his young son. He’s since sold more than 2.5 million bikes to customers in 78 countries, and international sales account for over half of the company’s business. Through products and tools like Google Ads, YouTubeand Market Finder, small businesses like Strider Bikes are finding new markets and building relationships with customers around the world.

Still, we know that a majority of small businesses currently do not export their products, and many that do export continue to find it a difficult process. That’s where technology can come in -- helping small businesses access international markets that present great opportunity.

To better understand the opportunities and gaps for small businesses, we commissioned a study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Brunswick Research on small business exports. We wanted to dig deeper into the role small businesses play in U.S. export success, the challenges they face in exporting and the ways new technologies and policy approaches can support them. Their new report, “Growing Small Business Exports: How Technology Strengthens American Trade,” comes out today. 

Researchers surveyed more than 3,800 small businesses across the country to estimate the current and potential impact of small business exports on the U.S. economy. A few highlights: Small business exports support more than six million jobs across all 50 states, and add over $540 billion annually to the American economy. Still, there’s a huge opportunity for more small businesses to sell overseas. If policymakers and the business community can help small companies overcome some of the challenges of exporting—like language barriers, customs issues and payment challenges—we could create nearly 900,000 additional jobs in the U.S. 

Modernizing and updating trade policy is key to unlocking exports for small businesses. But better use of technology also plays a critical role. The survey found that the majority of non-exporting small businesses—more than 70 percent—aren’t familiar with digital tools that could help them reach global customers. Tools like translation services, digital marketing and advertising and online payment platforms can help small businesses reach beyond their local markets. 

Based on these findings, the report offers a few recommendations, including:

• Develop a collaborative initiative between the federal government, state governments, the private sector and others to train and assist U.S. small businesses in using technology for exporting. This approach would modernize export promotion tools while driving coordination between the numerous federal and state export agencies that have a stake in helping small businesses engage in trade. 
• Encourage innovators and technology providers to build new digital tools—and broaden awareness of existing tools—that address barriers facing small business exporters. Today, only 20 percent of small businesses use digital tools to export. By increasing awareness of these resources, we can set small businesses up for success.
  
• Building on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), policymakers should prioritize additional market-opening trade agreements that benefit small business exporters, including through high-standard rules in areas such as digital trade and the removal of non-tariff barriers that disproportionately affect small businesses.
  

At Google, small businesses have always been a top priority of ours. (In fact, the first company to sign up for our ads platform was a small business -- a mail-order lobster business from Maine!) By doing our part to lower barriers to exporting, we can help small businesses grow overseas and bring jobs and economic opportunities back to their communities. It’s crucial that policymakers across federal, state and local governments work with large and small businesses to meet this opportunity.