MachoSpouse.com, an online resource and informational hub for male military spouses. Macho Spouse is a positive, pro-active project designed to help guys deal with current military life issues  through the use of video, online networking and communication.

How my wife and I met. A little about our life and how I started my own business!

My name is Josh Vittetoe. I am 27 years old and have been married to my wonderful wife Jennifer Vittetoe (24) for almost 7 years. We have two boys, Jack (6 months) and Tannar (5 years). We are currently stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, Nevada.

My wife has been in the Air Force for 3 years and is a Senior Airman. She is deploying in a coulpe weeks for the first time.

Guys, I personally attended this event last year in Phoenix and it was the best conference I've ever attended.  

The Assumption:

At the basic level, I think it is safe to say that human beings fundamentally get tremendous satisfaction out of creating something that is uniquely their own. I personally think this spirit is at the core of all human beings. I see this everyday in my own children when they develop their arts and crafts and proudly show my wife and I the bounty of the effort they put in. As we grow older, graduate from high school, college (or both) and enter the work force, we become part of an organization. While jobs vary widely (as does job satisfaction!), an objective person walking into any organization can see that waning passion is not an uncommon theme. I often wonder if that lack of passion is the cumulative result of getting farther away from your own interests and passions over time.

At Macho Spouse, we know the challenges civilian male military spouses face when it comes to finding gainful employment and dealing with career loss. We encourage civilian male military spouses to consider entrepreneurship as a possible way of making this lifestyle work.

You have captured your small business idea, now what do you do?

If you are like me, once the idea is seeded in your mind, you begin to brainstorm the best way forward.

But what is the best way forward?

Depending on your own personal experiences, getting your mind caged to help your idea might be one of the most challenging things you do.

A CEO is that one person who embodies the entirety of the business they represent.

They internalize everything about the business and then direct their energy and effort into making good decisions that (hopefully) fall in line with strategies designed to grow the business into profitability.

As a military spouse, I am constantly searching for resources and helpful information about employment and entrepreneurship to pass on to other military spouses.

Earlier this year I attended my Transition Assistance Program (TAP) class ahead of my planned 1 August 2014 retirement.  After completing the week of training with 25 other military members (both officers and enlisted), I was left with some thoughts about the program and life after the military.

Military spouses make amazing employees, and entrepreneurs.

If you have skills in things like professional development, or how to start a business, consider mentoring a military spouse!

In Part 1 of Nurturing the Money Tree we chatted about creating income by working for someone else. But if you are like me, maybe working for someone else isn't for you, and many military spouses actually choose to own their own businesses.  I know I did.

An active-duty entrepreneur is a military service member or spouse who deliberately plans and carries out the steps required to conceptualize, develop, and (perhaps) launch a small business while still on active duty.

Rodney Gullatte is a military spouse, as well as an entrepreneur.

chris@MachoSpouse.com

Chris Pape, a 1995 graduate from the University of Cincinnati, is a multiple, national award-winning video producer with over 15 years of experience developing educational video productions for public school systems, large corporations, small businesses and state governments.  He is also a civilian male military spouse and has been for over 10 years; in those 10 years Chris has been through three military moves, two deployments, countless TDY's, six job changes, one career change that quickly brought him back to his original career, and a few months of un-employment in between.

Macho Spouse and Chris Pape are mentioned in Alice Swan's article, Tuning in to the Military Spouse Network, in which Alice covers lessons she learned at the 2013 Military.com Spouse Summit (April 11-12, 2013). Here is what Alice wrote:

Build a service out of your unique experience and skill: A great example is Chris Pape, male military spouse and founder of Macho Spouse (https://malemilspouse.com/). Chris was kind enough to talk with me about how he started Macho Spouse.  Living in Columbia, SC, while his spouse is working on an ROTC assignment, Chris said he began to feel pretty isolated. He thought he was the only guy spouse out there looking for information and help. About two years ago, Chris began researching male military spouses on the web but found only two articles about guys manning the home fronts. One of the stories was written by Amy Bushatz who you may remember from my Spouse Summit blog: https://www.dcmilitaryfamlife.com/profiles/blogs/you-are-not-alone.

Chris emailed Amy, who helped introduce him to Wayne Perry, founder of Manning the Home front (https://www.dcmilitaryfamlife.com/profiles/blogs/the-outlook-for-mil...) – it was the Military Spouse network in action.  A video producer for 15 years, Chris had been working in Arkansas for the Department of Education, creating instructional videos before the PCS to Columbia. “I didn't see any information sites out there for guys to help share lessons learned or how to find jobs,” Chris told me, “so I decided to use the skills I'd developed making the educational videos to create learning videos for male military spouses.” Chris's fledgling video series has grown into a full service site for male military spouses to connect, get information on employment, money tips or gain insights through the Male Spouse 101 tutorial.

Facing another PCS soon with his Air Force spouse to San Antonio, Chris is excited about the opportunities the move presents. “I'm building a business I can take with me,” he explained. And while Macho Spouse is his future, Chris feels it can also lead to other opportunities in the present. Chris is confident that the work he's done creating Macho Spouse will lead to video and film production work in Texas.

For those of you in or near Colorado Springs, Colorado, Military Spouse Connections is looking for a military spouse entrepreneur for their upcoming event.

From Military Spouse Connections:

Attention military spouses in the Colorado Springs area. We love entrepreneurs and are looking for a military spouse entrepreneur to come speak at our event in Colorado Springs on 23 May. If you are a military spouse who has a start-up business that would like to share their business with us and others contact us! You will be able to speak as well as have a table at the event.

If interested send an email to snelson@militaryspouseconnection.org.

Till Next Time…Let's Stay Inspired

DVIDS

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. - Spouses of service members are often faced with unique challenges like raising children while their partner is deployed and frequent relocation each time the next permanent change of station come around. Focus is placed on the service member's career, leaving the spouse's employment aspirations to be placed on the back burner. Programs like Hiring Our Heroes not only work toward finding meaningful employment for veterans, but for spouses as well.

The Military Spouse Business Association (MSBA) is a terrific resource for military spouse entrepreneurs. We list them as a “Spouse Oranization That Rocks!” because we believe in their mission, and have personally used their services with great success. If you have a business of your own, or are considering starting one, we recommend watching this video and then registering with the MSBA. (Run Time: 4:22)

Interview With: Rikki Winters, MSBA Operations Director

We have had the opportunity to hang out with the Founder/Director of My Military Life, Wendy Poling, at three different events this year (Inc 500, NMSN , and USAA's Blogger Conference) and she is pretty damn cool. Wendy has been very generous with her time, knowledge, and experience as we try to build Macho Spouse into something special.