Marines First to Adopt ‘Boots to Business’

Tina Kapral says military veterans make good business owners, because of skills and qualities they develop while serving. She is the director of education programs for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University. (Courtesy of Syracuse University)

The Marine Corps is famously the first to fight out of the four military branches, and now it is the first to offer an innovative training option for those service members who are about to return to civilian life.

A pilot program, “Boots to Business: From Service to Startup,” is launching on four bases: Quantico in Virginia, Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms and Camp Pendleton in California, and Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. The entire Corps will offer the program in 2013.

Executive director and founder of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University (IVMF) Mike Haynie, U.S. Small Business Administration administrator Karen Mills, and U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. R.F. Hedelund, announced the creation of Boots to Business on July 12, the same day the Quantico program started.

“This is the first time entrepreneurship has been offered as part of military transition,” said Tina M. Kapral, director of education program at IVMF, to The Epoch Times. Higher education and vocational training were the only choices in the past. Now there will be a third track, according to Kapral.

Kapral said that military service is one of the strongest predictors of business ownership. Among veterans, 41.5 percent become self-employed, compared to 24.5 percent of non-veterans becoming self-employed, according to a 1985 survey by the Mid-Atlantic Research Company.

“We have this ‘take the hill’ mentality … We don’t make comfort-based decisions.” Brian Iglesias, Marine veteran and entrepreneur

She thinks that the reason for the difference in the numbers is because of “the skills acquired in service: leadership, bootstrapping, risk management, making the best decisions in the heat of the moment.”

Those attributes are the reasons business startup training is a perfect fit for veterans. “Who better? They deserve to live the American dream,” said Kapral.

Brian Iglesias served 13 years on active duty in the Marine Corps. “When it was time for me to transition to civilian life and pursue my dreams and goals, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do once I got out,” he said in a video on the Boots to Business website.

Iglesias and another Marine veteran co-founded Veterans Expeditionary Media, which produces independent multimedia entertainment. Iglesias made “CHOSIN: A Documentary Film.” It is about a battle in which 15,000 U.S. troops are “surrounded and trapped by 120,000 Chinese soldiers in the frozen mountains of North Korea,” according to his company website. In the documentary, the Americans win the uneven battle and save 98,000 civilian refugees. “CHOSIN” won the award for Best Documentary at the 2010 GI Film Festival.

Iglesias encourages other veterans to follow their dreams and start a business. “There’s a lot of transferable skills that you can take from the Marine Corps and apply to owning your own business. We have this ‘take the hill’ mentality where we’re goal-oriented—We don’t make comfort-based decisions,’’ he said in the Boots to Business video.

He said that the key to his success was getting the skills and training from IVMF.

The program has three components: All transitioning Marines see a video that introduces the lifestyle of an entrepreneur. Those who want to learn more take two 90-minute courses on base. Kapral said that the third step is an eight-week mini-MBA, yet “It’s important to know that you don’t have to have a college degree to take any of these courses. It’s just a passion and a commitment.”

Dr. John Torrens of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University teaches the mini-MBA online.

“They have access to info 24/7,” said Kapral. The course includes discussion, homework, a textbook, and live chat covering finance, marketing, and opportunity recognition. During and after the courses, students are asked to evaluate the experience.

“We pride ourselves on our follow-up,” said Kapral.

More than 250,000 military personnel return to civilian life every year, according to the Small Business Administration. The pilot program should reach 20,000 transitioning Marines in the coming year, according to Quantico Sentry Online. Military spouses are also eligible for the training.

In the future, the program will expand to the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

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