(This article by Lisa Smith Molinari originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of Military Officer, a magazine available to all MOAA Premium and Life members. Learn more about the magazine here; learn more about joining MOAA here.)

There’s a dusty folder hanging in our file cabinet containing the remnants of my former career as a litigation attorney, before I married a Navy member, had three kids, and moved to states and countries that didn’t recognize my license. Those yellowing documents, held with rusty staples, will never supplement an application for my employment again.

Like many military spouses challenged to maintain and develop careers through PCS moves and deployments, I needed a flexible career that would survive our mobile lifestyle, allow me to work remotely, and enable me to focus on family life during deployments and separations.

Ten years ago, I became a freelance writer, and two years ago, I co-founded a military scholarship nonprofit. I don’t make a litigator’s salary, but being my own boss has helped me strike a work-life balance that works for me. My home-based career was created by the seat of my pants, but today there are many resources for military spouses.

[MORE RESOURCES: The Rosie Network]

• The Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs (AMSE) helps create “PCS-proof” portable businesses, providing extensive online curricula, worksheets, master classes, and individual regional chapters at several locations such as Travis AFB, Calif.; Luke AFB, Ariz.; Fort Hood, Texas; and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
  
  
• Unsure about your idea? Submit your business plan to the National Military Spouse Network for review.
  
  
• MOAA.org, has dozens of useful articles and other resources for budding entrepreneurs. Visit the spouse resources page as well as the Transition and Career Center.
  
  
• Free or low-cost training programs abound, including Entrepreneur Boot Camp (EBC) and Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE), both through Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families. Bunker Labs nonprofit offers virtual business courses and a startup incubator to military spouses.
  
  
• The Small Business Administration’s Boots to Business (B2B) entrepreneurial training program is open to military spouses, and the Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce certifies military spouse-owned businesses.
  
  
• SCORE, a national network of entrepreneurship experts, collaborates with Blue Star Families to provide mentors to military spouse business owners.
  
  
• Spouse-ly is an online marketplace where military-connected families sell goods and services from crafts and foods, to photography and legal services. My law career might live yet!

According to surveys, 48% of the 12 million spouses of current servicemembers and veterans are self-employed, business owners, or aspire to be. And of those military spouses who’ve attained the goal of business ownership, half report earning six-figure incomes.

With those numbers and the abundance of entrepreneurship resources in your favor, your dreams of being your own boss can soon become your reality.

Lisa Smith Molinari is a Navy spouse, columnist, and author of The Meat and Potatoes of Life: My True Lit Com.