Joshua Rye credits the skills and experience he gained during his 26-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps with helping him make the jump to successful veteran business owner.
“I experienced some crazy things during my military service,” said Rye. “Through challenging and stressful times, I learned how to deal with overcoming stressful obstacles. The Marines helped me learn how to overcome obstacles by any means necessary and I carry that with me in how I run my business.”
Today Rye is the owner and operator of Go Mini’s in North Carolina. The company provides local moving services and temporary portable storage container solutions to its customers. Founded in 2002, Go Mini’s has locations in 39 states in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2012, it converted into a franchise model and now has 79 franchise locations within the United States.
“It’s not sexy, it’s not exciting, its storage, but people need it,” said Rye, whose Go Mini’s franchise covers all of eastern North Carolina.
Before Go Mini’s came Rye’s 26-year military career. Rye, who graduated from high school six months early, joined the Marine Corps in January of 1996 when he was 17 years of age.
“By the time my [high school] class was graduating, I had already graduated boot camp,” he said.
Rye spent time at Camp David and served in military aviation, where he learned the values that would impact his life as an entrepreneur. As he neared the end of his military service, Rye said he came to a conclusion about what his future would hold.
“I don’t think I can go work for somebody, I don’t think I can punch in,” he said. “And, I don’t see me working for somebody younger than me.”
Rye also said he was living on a “fixed income” – his paycheck – while in the Corps.
“I’m not complaining about that, but if you’ve got the skills and you’ve got the tools and you’ve got the experience, why don’t we go where that can best be utilized to create a better quality of life where you don’t have to worry about income as much?”
That got Rye to begin thinking about storage.
“Storage is, you don’t have to be there,” he explained.
Rye began researching the costs associated with setting up a brick-and-mortar storage business but found himself priced out of that.
“It’s a lot to get into,” he explained.
An online search led him to Go Mini's.
“They gave me the lowdown on what the program was and how it worked and from there I just started working on getting the capital together to be able to move on that opportunity,” he said. “It’s a lucrative business. It’s why I got into it.”
Rye said Go Mini mirrors many of the lessons that he learned while in the Marine Corps. His role as a mentor for young people in the military helps him to mentor his employees, his role in military aviation ran very similarly to businesses in the civilian world and the hierarchy of the military has taught him how to navigate in professional scenarios in his business.
“You have the purpose and tool base to embark on that journey,” he said. “Yes, it's scary, but it's empowering.”
Rye said he’s proud to be a vetpreneur.
“It’s a great feeling,” he said.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.