SMC —Santa Monica College's Small Business Development Center is launching a program to train veterans to become entrepreneurs.
Funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the program, entitled Vetrepreneur Bootcamp: Forces to Franchises, is intended to help guide military veterans on how to start a business.
"Each year, there are over 250,000 service members transitioning out of our military," business center Director Gita Runkle said. "These veterans possess the unique skills, experience, leadership and drive that make them ideally suited to start businesses and create jobs in their communities."
Forces to Franchises will have veterans utilize their leadership skills and integrate them to the franchise business structure.
The program will run for eight weeks and five sessions and it will be structured as a series of workshops. The workshops will educate veterans on the steps to building and funding a business.
In addition, the workshops will teach veterans on how to apply for a SBA loan and how to franchise.
Forces to Franchises' goal is to have participants finish their business plans and include them in a loan package. Another goal of the program is to increase the number of applications in the business community.
The program will run from Feb. 7 to April 4, 2014 and the deadline to apply is Dec. 31, 2013. Forces to Franchises is limited to 30 participants.
For more information, call (310)424-3566 or visit smcsbdc.org.
