Now Recruiting: Vetrepreneurs

A surge of new programs is helping veterans transition into civilian entrepreneurship—and especially franchising.

- Jason Daley

AIR FORCE MAJOR ANGELA CODY-ROUGET was once responsible for America’s nuclear arsenal. She was a missile launch officer, stationed inside an underground control center. The job required a mastery of endless systems and protocols, and she felt she’d gotten a lesson in “organized chaos.” So when it was time for her to transition into civilian life about a decade ago, she decided to play to her strengths: She’d build a business around being organized.

“When I got out of the military,” she says, “I just walked away.” She had her eye on private industry and figured the government would be of no help. In 2006, she launched a company called Major Mom. It began as a fleet of professional organizers across Colorado and Arizona, who go into homes and “liberate” them from their mess. As her company grew, she wanted guidance on how to expand it into a national franchise—and that’s when she discovered that her initial assumption was wrong. The government, in fact, was trying to help its veterans set up businesses. And so were many other organizations.

In the past decade, a wide-ranging network of services has developed to assist people exactly like Cody-Rouget—educating, funding, and mentoring vets turned entrepreneurs to help them succeed in businesses, and franchising in particular. The federal Small Business Administration (SBA) has a robust program; its two-day Boots to Business basics course is offered on military bases and has been attended by 20,000 troops transitioning out since 2013. Overall, there are now more than 14,000 organizations, universities, private philanthropies, and nonprofits helping veteran entrepreneurs in the United States.