Bunker Build Up is a free 10-week program for aspiring veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs in the skilled trades industry with generous support from The Home Depot Foundation. If you learned trade skills in the military or afterward in an apprenticeship or training program, this is a chance to turn those skills into a business. You’re already an expert in your trade, but Bunker Build Up helps you develop the skills, networks, and connections you need to navigate the business side of things.

Our goal is to equip you to chase your American Dream. That dream might be big, like launching your own construction firm, or simply working for yourself as a private contractor. If you have a skilled trade and a business idea within the construction industry, Bunker Build Up is where you need to be.

Nearly 4 million businesses employing over ten million people (a quarter of which are self-employed) try to fill that need, with 150,000 new businesses joining the industry each year. However, the industry has a long-standing worker shortage, and businesses that can innovate, and deliver on time and on budget, are the ones surviving.   

Shockingly, only 6.5% of military veterans choose the skill trades, despite far more already possessing military training in a trade skill. That number has slowly but steadily trended upward. Veterans feel at home with the teamwork, safety protocols, and standard operating procedures inherent to the trades, making them particularly well-suited to run a business in construction, or work for themselves as a self-employed independent contractor.