Baking a Difference
Bakery teaches business skills to veterans
My name is Michael Ball, and I am originally from St Ignatius, Montana. I joined the Marine Corps on my 18th birthday in 1989, and I have been traveling the world ever since. After completing four years in the Marines, I lived in Korea teaching English for a while, served in Army Guard and Reserve units in Hawaii, and finally ended up back on active duty in the Air Force in 2000.
What can I say? I had a short attention span when I was younger.
For the last 10 years that I was in the Air Force, I transported wounded and ill service men and women from Afghanistan and Iraq to American hospitals in Germany, and back to the States. I retired in November of 2013, after 24 years in multiple branches and all over the world.
Looking back I have to say that the time I spent transporting wounded in and from combat zones was the most amazing job I have ever had. It was on the one hand a terrible experience in that, every single day for many years, I saw young men and women with all manner of battlefield injuries. At the same time though, it was the most fulfilling job, because I felt like I was a vital part of helping these men and women get home to their families.
After I retired in 2013 I found myself at a loss as to what I was going to do next. It’s hard to imagine going back to working at a desk after flying wounded out of combat zones for years, and I couldn't imagine what kind of work I could do that would give me that same level of fulfillment.
To be honest I was about to give up on trying to find a new career and take my retirement to some inexpensive coastal country. I planned to drop out of the job search and go live on a beach somewhere, which, don't get me wrong, is still a great plan, but my family needed me a little closer to home.
Still not having any ideas what I wanted to do, I went back to school to work on an MBA because it would give me some time to figure it out, and hopefully set me up for success in whatever career I decided to pursue.
Through working with a local veterans service organization, I met some of the staff from Dog Tag Inc., an innovative five-month training program that fosters the growth of driven, entrepreneurial-minded wounded veterans and spouses.
Practical business skills are learned working at Dog Tag Bakery, where the sale of baked goods help fund the fellowship. By the end of the program, graduating fellows have earned a Certificate in Business Administration from Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies.
I didn't know then, and honestly still don't know today if I want to open my own small business, but I was pretty sure I didn't want to go sit in a cubicle farm putting numbers into spreadsheets.
I was curious to see what other opportunities were out there and how I would even go about going into business for myself. I joined Dog Tag to learn more about small business and entrepreneurship, and to see if being exposed to more ideas would help me find the direction that I wanted to take my career.
So far the fellowship, which is supported by the Bob Woodruff Foundation, has been a very positive opportunity. The professors from Georgetown have been phenomenal in the classes on management, marketing, communication, and accounting. Some of the classes cover concepts that I have already studied in my MBA program, but having them in conjunction with the hands-on operation of the bakery makes them a lot more real and immediately applicable.
For me though, what has been most valuable are the networking opportunities and personal conversations with small business owners and entrepreneurs that come in to share their personal experiences and valuable real-world lessons in business with the fellows.
As of this writing, I still can't say that I know what I want to do for my next career. I have been looking a lot more into jobs that would allow me to continue to work with veterans. I have looked into recruiting veterans, working for a veteran focused community business partnership or business incubator, or possibly finding something full time with a veterans service organization.
I do feel that if I decide to work for myself or open my own business though, that I have a much clearer picture of what is involved. I feel like this fellowship has given me the tools to make a solid business plan, and find the capital I would need.
Most importantly, what this fellowship has given me is a group of mentors with an incredibly wide and diverse range of business knowledge and experience, and I think that is going to prove to be the most valuable asset I can have.
The Dog Tag Fellowship Program was one of 28 innovative programs to receive a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation earlier this year. The grant is being used to fund stipends, expenses, and tuition for up to 20 fellows. Upon completion of the 5-month training program, transitioning veterans and their families will be business ready, competitive and employable.
