Starting a business after service: what's actually available

If you’ve left the military, or you’re about to, and you want to work for yourself rather than hunt for a job, there is a real set of programmes built for you. The trouble is that most of what’s written about them online is out of date, sometimes two changes behind. The veteran business certification moved from the VA to the SBA, and then the database used to verify it moved again. The old Patriot Express loan programme is gone. “Vocational Rehabilitation” has a new name. If you follow a three-year-old article, you will apply in the wrong place.

Here is what actually exists right now, who runs it, and what each piece genuinely does. None of it hands you a cheque for being a veteran. What it does hand you is free expert help, a contracting advantage worth real money if you want to sell to the government, a fee waiver on one specific type of SBA loan, and a VA track that supports self-employment if you have a service-connected disability.

Start with the free help: VBOCs

The SBA funds a network of Veterans Business Outreach Centers, or VBOCs. They exist specifically for service members, veterans, National Guard and Reserve members, military spouses and family members who want to start or grow a small business. They run pre-business-plan workshops, help you develop and maintain a business plan, and provide mentorship, including on-site visits and monthly reviews of your financial statements. They also train on things like franchising, internet marketing and accounting.

The network has been growing. In June 2024 the SBA announced over $1 million to expand the network from 28 to 31 locations, adding VBOCs in Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Florida and Puerto Rico. In September 2026 it announced nearly $4.9 million in five-year grants to establish new VBOCs in Alaska, Florida and Louisiana plus satellite offices. The services are free.

If you’ve never written a business plan and have no accountant, this is where you go first, before you touch a loan application or a certification form. Our guide to writing a business plan a lender will actually read pairs well with a VBOC counsellor who will review your drafts for nothing.

Boots to Business: the course, and who can take which version

Boots to Business is the SBA’s entrepreneurship course delivered inside the military’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP). The core offering is a two-day “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” classroom course, free at participating installations, open to transitioning service members, including National Guard and Reserve, and their spouses. It’s delivered mainly by SBA district office staff and VBOCs, with Small Business Development Centers, SCORE and Women’s Business Centers supporting installations in the continental US, and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University covering select overseas installations.

The important detail most people miss: you don’t have to be on a base, or even recently separated, to get the training. There are several versions.

Reboot is the same curriculum as the on-base course, just run in the community, so a veteran who left the service twenty years ago can still take it. Revenue Readiness is a follow-on online course run through a partnership with Mississippi State University, and it’s only open to people who completed B2B, Reboot or the Military Spouse Pathway course first. Details and class listings are on the Boots to Business portal.

For help that isn’t veteran-specific but is still free and local, see free, in-person help to start a business.

The veteran certification: it’s the SBA now, and the deadlines have passed

This is the part most articles get wrong, so read it carefully. For years, veteran-owned small business certification was handled by the VA. The FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act transferred that function to the SBA as of January 1, 2023, and the SBA began accepting applications on January 9, 2023. You now apply through MySBA Certifications, as directed on the SBA’s veteran contracting page. The VA confirms the programme is run by the SBA.

What the certification actually buys you is access to contracting. Certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) can compete for sole-source and set-aside contracts government-wide. Certified Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs) get additional sole-source and set-aside opportunities at the VA specifically, under its Vets First programme. The SBA’s veterans page is blunt about one thing: there is no self-certification for VA sole-source or set-aside opportunities.

Self-certification is essentially finished elsewhere too, and the windows are not reopening:

To qualify, your business must be small under the size standard for a NAICS code in its SAM profile and at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more veterans. For SDVOSB status, those veterans must be rated service-disabled by the VA. Certification lasts three years.

There’s one further move that even recent articles miss. According to the VA’s OSDBU page, the SBA no longer supports the old VetCert database for verifying certification status. The official system of record for contracting officers checking whether a firm is certified is now the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS), per CAAC Letter 24-02 dated December 13, 2023. So: apply through MySBA Certifications, but expect buyers to verify you in DSBS. If someone tells you to apply at the VA’s Center for Verification and Evaluation, they are two moves behind.

If government contracting is new to you, start with selling to the federal government: the first steps before worrying about the certification at all. The certification has no value until you’re registered and able to bid.

Loan fee relief: real, but narrower than people think

Veterans do get SBA loan fee relief, but it applies to one specific product, not to SBA lending generally. For fiscal year 2026 (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026), the SBA’s fee notice is explicit: for all SBA Express loans made to businesses owned and controlled by a veteran or the spouse of a veteran, the upfront guaranty fee is $0. That’s statutory, under section 7(a)(31)(G) of the Small Business Act, a provision created by the Veterans Entrepreneurship Act of 2015. Your lender has to document your eligibility in the loan file. The full terms are in the FY2026 fee notice.

The misunderstanding to avoid: this is not a waiver on all 7(a) loans. On a standard 7(a) loan in FY2026, the usual fees apply, for example a 2% upfront fee on the guaranteed portion for loans of $150,000 or less with a maturity over 12 months, and a lender’s annual service fee of 0.55% of the outstanding guaranteed balance. Being a veteran doesn’t erase those; it zeroes the upfront fee on SBA Express specifically.

And a programme to stop looking for: Patriot Express, the old veteran loan initiative, ended as a pilot. Any site offering to help you apply for it is recycling dead content. For how SBA lending actually works and who gets approved, see what an SBA 7(a) loan is, and who actually gets one, and if you need a small amount with thin credit, SBA microloans are often the more realistic route.

The VA side: VR&E’s Self-Employment track

If you have a service-connected disability, there’s a separate path through the VA that most business articles skip entirely. The programme is now called Veteran Readiness and Employment, or VR&E, also known as Chapter 31. Older articles call it “Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment”; same programme, renamed.

VR&E has five tracks: Reemployment, Rapid Access to Employment, Self-Employment, Employment Through Long-Term Services, and Independent Living. The Self-Employment track is for veterans and service members with a service-connected disability and an employment barrier who want to run their own business. The VA lists what it provides: coordination services and help developing a proposed business plan, analysis of your business concept, training in small-business operations, marketing and finances, and guidance on resources to put the plan into action.

Be realistic about how it works. This is not an automatic grant. After the business plan is developed, the VA reviews it and evaluates whether self-employment, and your specific proposed business, are viable. Everything runs through a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor after you apply.

Eligibility, per the VA’s eligibility page:

Meeting these criteria lets you apply; a counsellor then determines entitlement. You apply with VA Form 28-1900, and the how-to-apply page walks through the process. The 12-year rule is the detail older guides mangle: if you were discharged on or after January 1, 2013, there is no clock running on you at all.

If you’re also claiming benefits while you get the business going, read starting a business while you’re on benefits before your first month of self-employment income lands.

Frequently asked questions

Do I still apply to the VA to get certified as a veteran-owned business?

No. Certification moved to the SBA on January 1, 2023, and you apply through MySBA Certifications. The VA’s own pages confirm the SBA runs the programme. Note too that contracting officers now verify certification status in the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS), not the old VetCert database.

Can I just self-certify as service-disabled veteran-owned?

The windows for that have closed. The one-time grace period for self-certified SDVOSBs ended January 1, 2024, and NDAA 2024 required certification through SBA VetCert before December 22, 2024 for subcontracting and goaling purposes. If you want the contracting benefits, you need the actual certification.

Do veterans get SBA loan fees waived?

Only on SBA Express loans. For FY2026, the upfront guaranty fee on an SBA Express loan to a business owned and controlled by a veteran or a veteran’s spouse is $0. Standard fees apply to other 7(a) loans, and the old Patriot Express programme no longer exists.

Will VR&E pay for my business?

The VA’s Self-Employment track provides business plan development help, concept analysis, training in operations, marketing and finances, and guidance on resources. It is not an automatic funding award: the VA reviews your plan and decides whether the business is viable, and access runs through a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor after you apply with VA Form 28-1900.

I left the military years ago. Is Boots to Business still open to me?

Yes, through Boots to Business Reboot, which delivers the same curriculum off-installation to veterans of all eras, National Guard and Reserve members and military spouses. Completing it also unlocks the free online Revenue Readiness follow-on course.