Military Loyalty Rewards Program

Military Cost Cutters was conceptualized in the streets of Iraq and implemented back here in the states 8 months ago. As a military veteran and entrepreneur I knew that there was a problem and it needed to be fixed. As with most entrepreneurs traction and validation are key measures to see if your “million dollar idea” is actually needed. What Military Cost Cutters is doing is connecting military friendly businesses with veterans and military members. We created a loyalty rewards program that works across the web and mobile platform connecting several key functions such as analytics and online/ offline marketing for the participating businesses. We also provide participating businesses the ability to push special promos to customers that have checked out essentially reducing their customer acquisition costs and improving their lifetime customer value.

Identity theft among veterans are twice as likely as with the rest of the population, to put that in perspective, that means that less than .05% of the nation is twice as likely. Some of this can be contributed to our military discharge papers have pertinent information on there and at one time was the recognized source for verification of military status. When leaving the military you give up your physical ID but don’t receive any other verification card which we set to solve with our mobile ID that works with our mobile app. A veteran receives the mobile ID for verification to show participating businesses. With our mobile app you can search discounts via city/ state/ zip code or if you are on the go you can also check via GPS location.

The process to become a member is simple, you go to militarycostcutters.com and create a profile (which takes about 30 seconds) then you download our free mobile app. Next, you sign in to the app with your email and password you set and then search discounts. Once you find a location you then show them your mobile ID, or if you have a physical one you can show them that for verification. Lastly you scan a qr code at the register of the participating business that is built into our mobile app. The process is complete at that point and you can enjoy not only your savings but the special deals that will be pushed your way in the future.

I found that there is no clear cut way to launch a business but some helpful resources were the IEDA, SBDC, IASourceLink, and finding mentors within the business community. You must clearly validate that it is needed and not waste time trying to perfect a solution that is wasting your time and money. Your Minimum Viable Product is key when entering the market and doing it fast. This will let you know what they want and how they like it. We have hit over 4,000 mobile downloads and over 100 participating businesses in our area within the 8 months and much of that was hitting the streets and talking to not only our members but our business owners so we have viable feedback. I would highly encourage finding an entrepreneur group in your area as well as the other resources listed above when starting your process. I always enjoy speaking with other entrepreneurs and assisting where possible, especially veteran entrepreneurs.

Aaron Serrano, Military Cost Cutters