While veterans make up only 6 percent of the population, they make up 13.5 percent of small business owners, and those businesses pay about $210 billion in wages each year, Cherylynn Sagester told the group of about 20 students in the Boots to Business workshop.

“No wonder the government and [Small Business Administration] and everybody wants to help us,” she said, noting that military service instills skill sets that align with small business ownership, such as mission-focus, resourcefulness, resilience and respect for rules.

Indeed, the federal SBA and its partners, such as Old Dominion University’s Veterans Business Outreach Center, which provided Sagester to teach May 9’s session of the workshop, are responsible for staging Boots to Business, an entrepreneurship program that is part of the Department of Defense’s new Transition Goals, Plans and Success program.

On hand for the start of the workshop at Quantico’s Voluntary Education Center was SBA Deputy Administrator Marie Johns, who said encouraging veterans’ tendency toward entrepreneurship is an investment in the country’s economy, where two out of three new private-sector jobs are created by small businesses.

“You’re now connected to the SBA and all the things we have to offer,” she told the workshop participants, noting that the administration has nearly 1,000 Small Business Development Centers and 16 partners in the Veterans Business Outreach Program. “There’s a vast network of support we have primed and ready for you when you make that decision to start a small business.”

The two-day, intensive workshop grew from a 90-minute seminar last year, when Quantico was a test-ground for the Boots to Business pilot. As part of the Transition GPS program that is replacing the Transition Assistance Program for service members whose active duty is coming to an end, the entrepreneurship taught in Boots to Business represents one of four paths to transition into civilian life.

Transition GPS is rolling out across the DOD in accordance with the Veterans Opportunity to Work Act of 2011.

Boots to Business begins with a 12-minute introductory video and continues to the two-day workshop, which is followed by an eight-week online course taught by Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families. By the end of that course, every student is to have a business plan.

The program is open to any service members transitioning out of active duty and their families. Most participants in the workshop May 9 were Marines, but the Navy, Air Force and Army were also represented, and a couple of spouses participated.

“This is a popular topic, even outside the [Transition Readiness Seminars], said Parisa Fetherson, manager of the Personal and Professional Development program at Quantico, noting that the base offers quarterly small business workshops that are open to all service members, regardless of whether they’re leaving the service. “We always get positive feedback, and they always want more.”