Last week, members of the House Small Business Committee voted unanimously in favor of several revisions to the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) budget proposal, with the result of putting several existing programs in peril.
One of these programs is the Boots to Business program, which targets military veterans-turned-entrepreneurs. I will tell you up front that I love the concept of the Boots to Business program. It uses a multi-phased approach to introduce transitioning service members to the fundamentals of small business ownership, as well as the SBA tools and resources available to them. This is a fantastic idea, as many military members transitioning out of the service are faced with a big question: what do I do now? And with the opportunities out there for veteran-owned small businesses (especially in the federal sector), it’s worth going for a piece of the pie.
Following a pilot program in 2012, the SBA tested the Boots to Business initiative by working with the United States Marine Corps. The SBA delivered a streamlined version of the Boots to Business program by delivering entrepreneurship training to approximately 20,000 transitioning Marines in four pilot locations. This training consisted of three phases: 1) a video which provided a short introduction on entrepreneurship; 2) a 90-minute training course on entrepreneurship; and 3) an eight-week online/distance learning course that led to the creation of a business plan.
Unfortunately for the Boots to Business program, the Congressional panel has recommended that it get the axe. This is part of a $50 million trim from the SBA’s $710 million budget proposal, and it’s based on the lack of results.
This just goes to show that even a great idea can fail in execution. But why, exactly, is the SBA Boots to Business program – a wonderful idea – a no go?
My suspicion is it’s because being a small business owner isn’t something you learn in a class. Yes, you can learn some things, but the most valuable lessons are gleaned from practical experience – identifying your skills and a niche market, finding people you trust to do business with, landing a good mentor who can help you along, and figuring out how to market yourself and your business.
Also, as a small business owner myself, I can tell you that if in the beginning of my journey, someone had pointed me to a similar program, I wouldn’t have gotten much value out of it because I wouldn’t have known how to use it. You need to come into these types of programs with an idea of what you want to learn and a concrete idea of the questions you need answered, and I suspect that most of these transitioning service members simply don’t have an idea yet.
The Boots to Business program is like a hammer in a fledgling workman’s toolkit. It has value, sure, but it has less value if the workman doesn’t know how to use it to fix his roof, or build the bird feeder, or repair the stairs…
But who knows? If it didn’t work, and the SBA knows why, it might be able to build upon it to create a program with more practical value. After all, failed programs are often test programs for ones that work. I have faith that the Boots to Business program will be one of these.
Did you find this article informative? If so, sign up for my weekly blog at: https://legalmeetspractical.com. Also, check out the SBA’s webpage on the Boots to Business program at: http://www.sba.gov/bootstobusiness.
