Boots to Business Overview Video

To be a business owner, you have to have that passion, that drive, that skill to kind of continue forward. Veterans have that and, you know, tenfold they're learning in the military for their leadership direction. The government is training them on a specific skill or trade. Once they have that passion, they can do pretty much anything.

When I was in the military, actually had always been a plan of ours to move back to my hometown and start our own business. I think part of the reason why so many veterans coming out of the military are excited about starting their own business is we just have such diverse background. I mean, we face situations that most civilians will never know, and we can utilize that. Whether it's the pressure we're put under, some of the tasks that we're called to do, it really just gears us up, and it actually makes owning our own business relatively easy.

We have an edge probably on everybody. We've learned leadership, dedication. We have discipline, and there's mission accomplishment in everything we do. Upon my retirement out of the National Guard, I was looking for something I could do to put my soldiers to work. Guys that were coming home from deployments who didn't have jobs, and also something to help me with my retirement. I started Veterans sealcoating LLC and Veterans Snow Plowing. We grew exponentially. People got the word about what we did, the products we use, the finesse behind it, and it worked out real well.

I'm Cheryl Malone. I'm a retired lieutenant colonel from the Air Force, and I am also the CEO of Life Transition. For me, the skills from being a squadron commander, being in the Air Force translate in that we think strategically, then we focus on what our mission is and we execute it, and we go for the best. We want to win.

Having the military experience in your resume tells people a lot. And it's not just your customers. It's not just advisors or friends or prospective employers, but it's banks, it's suppliers, it's the people you're going to do business with. You're a project manager. When you're starting as an entrepreneur, you're wearing many different hats, and that was an experience I had many times in the military.

My name is Wade Franklin, the owner of the UPS store, Clarendon, located in Arlington, Virginia. What I like best about having my own business is controlling my own destiny. I think everybody in the military has, at some level, an understanding of a mission and what it takes to complete the mission.

My name is Colin Archipelag.

And I'm Karen Archipelay.

And we founded Archie's Acres, which is a Small scale hydro organic farm here in San Diego county where we grow fresh produce, primarily basil and other herbs, and we supply a number of retailers. Karen and I bought this property while still on active duty. It was a great place to live while I was stationed at Camp Pendleton. I can't think of anything that's more of the American story than, you know, serving your country and coming back and creating a small business.

I think veterans are suited to be entrepreneurs because of how we're trained in the military. You get stripped of everything from basic training and then they build you up to have this incredible amount of pride and responsibility. So I feel that inner strength that you pull out as a veteran helps you to really get your business going.

Nothing in my army career prepared me to install or design solar systems. But while in uniform we were given a different task every day possibly. And it was for me to understand what the mission was, figure out how to do it with the resources available and get it done. And with that mindset, you can start your own business. It's just a matter of figuring out what needs to be done and then just putting in the work to do it.

My four years in the Army, I knew the whole time that at some point I wanted to get out to start my own business. And so me and my wife kind of talked about plans and how we're going to feasibly do this. But it wasn't really until taps, the Transition assistance program, where they told me about a program called Boots to Business.

The Boots to Business program provides a crash course in entrepreneurial training through their two day program as well as their eight week online training course.

Really what we do with Boots to Business is draw on that military experience in a way that makes it relevant to business ownership.

We help them understand how their what they've learned in the military, how that translates to starting a business. The program is really designed and fine tuned for the veterans in order for them to understand not only the resources that are available for them, but to be able to create this viable plan for whatever their conceptual idea is.

Once a veteran has gone through the two day Boots to Business course, they have a number of resources available to them such as the Women's Business Center, Small Business Development Centers, Veteran Business Outreach Centers and score, which are available nationwide.

The Small Business Development center and SCORE helped me comprise a list of items I needed to start my business in with. So what kind of certifications I needed, what kind of permits I needed, insurance, you know, staffing.

It's such a great program and I think it really gives aspiring entrepreneurs the knowledge and the confidence to really continue down that path and be more successful at it.

In the beginning, when I first started thinking about opening a business, I didn't have any of the tools or who, what, where, when, how I needed that two day course.

It's really about creating, seeding, cultivating and nurturing a community of veteran business owners across the United States. They can really become resources to each other, sell to each other, learn from each other and grow their businesses through that community.

If you're interested in starting your own business, I really suggest that you go through the Boots to Business program because that's where again, you're going to get all those tools.

Just a huge, huge opportunity that's available to you for free. So do the work, put in the tasks and you'll be surprised what you learn.

Our business has been successful because we've had the resources and the help along the way through things like Boots to Business and Small Business Administration that have really encouraged and come alongside and made us who we are today.