WASHINGTON, April 21, 2015 — Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet, the leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), today announced that the agency’s Boots to Business program has now trained 25,000 transitioning service members. For two years, Boots to Business—the entrepreneurship track of the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP)—has provided entrepreneurship and business planning training to members of America’s armed forces who are transitioning to civilian life, giving them the tools to start their own successful companies.

“My first day on the job was just over a year ago, and my first meeting was with veteran entrepreneurs because I wanted to honor them and emphasize the value they bring to small businesses across the nation. We know veterans have the courage and the determination to become great entrepreneurs, and the United States is investing in them,” said SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet. “Boots to Business helps our service members and their spouses explore careers in entrepreneurship by showing them how to apply their military skills to start and grow their business. Our veterans deserve every chance at success, and our economic future requires that we help them acquire the skills necessary to start the next generation of great American businesses.”

Boots to Business is now available on more than 165 military installations worldwide. The training program provides military service members and their spouses the opportunity to explore business ownership and self-employment, helps them evaluate the feasibility of their business concepts and connects the aspiring business owners to SBA’s network of resource partners.

Initiated as a pilot in 2012 and expanded nationally in 2013, Boots to Business utilizes SBA resource partners including the Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC) Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), Women’s Business Centers (WBC), SCORE, and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University to deliver entrepreneurship education and training to transitioning service members and their dependents who are exploring or pursuing small business ownership and self-employment.

Boots to Business is available at no charge on military installations worldwide to Service members and military spouses transitioning or retiring from service.

To learn more about Boots to Business, visit our webpage at www.sba.gov/bootstobusiness.

/PRNewswire-USNewswire/

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