As a small-business owner, you can find yourself wrapped up in day-to-day details and overcoming daily challenges. But what about issues like financing options, long-range planning, marketing strategy and developing new services?
Those efforts might fall to the background, because you don’t have the time to handle them yourself, the funds to hire someone else to handle them, or even the connections to find someone qualified to help you. But there’s no reason to go it alone. Expert, free advice is available throughout the country from SCORE and SBDC.
Learning the SCORE
SCORE is a nonprofit association in which more than 11,200 retired and working business professionals volunteer to help entrepreneurs. It began in 1964 as the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Today it just goes by the acronym, and it operates 370 offices in cooperation with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
SCORE counselors come from a broad array of backgrounds and real-world experience. Some have been executives or managers at major corporations, while others have owned small businesses. Specialties include finance, accounting and sales. All are trained to help small-business people. SCORE volunteers donated more than 1.4 million hours to serve 444,723 new clients in the past year.
So, how does this work? Let’s say you’ve had success in residential pipe cleaning and you’d like to diversify into CCTV inspection or pipe bursting – but you’re not sure you can make the financial leap to get the equipment and staff you need.
Through SCORE, you can arrange a face-to-face session with a counselor for advice on things like cash flow management and financial projections. You can also submit questions via the website (www.score.org) and get answers from an expert within 48 hours. The service is free, and all information discussed is strictly confidential.
Join a group
Besides counseling, SCORE offices host workshops and seminars for new and existing small businesses. Fees are generally $20 to $75. The programs, scheduled throughout the year, cover diverse topics. For example, the Western Massachusetts SCORE office recently held a workshop on business planning and cash flow. Meanwhile, workshops in Portland, Ore., covered time management, website marketing and finding new customers.
SCORE also has an online community (www.scorecommunity.org). Here, you can join discussions, post business opportunities, search for vendors, read how-to articles or list your information in a business directory.
The SCORE website includes more than 2,000 pages of content, including business articles, templates, workbooks and other self-help tools. To find a SCORE office, call 800/634-0245, visit the website, or email the names of your city and state to contact.score@sba.gov.
To school with SBDC
Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) are hosted by colleges, universities and state economic development agencies. The 1,000 centers in all 50 states provide free business consulting and low-cost training. SBDC offices serve a million business owners every year.
Your local SBDC is a good place to turn if you’d like help writing a business plan, locating sources of capital or getting details on state and local business regulations. For example, if you plan to offer a new service or buy another company, you can schedule a free face-to-face meeting with an SBDC staff member. He or she can suggest strategies you can use, put you in touch with experts who have faced the same challenges, or recommend courses or workshops.
SBDC focuses on education. Seminars and workshops are offered through local offices. Prices for half- and full-day seminars generally run from $40 to $100. A recent review of local calendars showed a construction cost seminar in San Antonio, Texas; a QuickBooks workshop in Duluth, Minn., and a marketing and networking workshop in Lewisburg, Pa. The sessions are held on campuses, at government offices and in other easy-access locations.
The SBDC education focus carries through to its national website (www.asbdc-us.org) where you can read Small Business Digest articles by business experts, view webinars, and find links to dozens of business-related websites.
America’s Small Business Development Center Network is the starting point for developing working relationships with all local offices. Visit the SBDC website and enter your Zip code to locate an SBDC near you.
Getting started
Of course you can’t expect to present a SCORE volunteer or SBDC staff member with a laundry list of business chores and expect them to tackle them all at once. Select one long-range issue – such as a company marketing strategy – and present it to a representative.
They will guide you through the process. Once you solve your problem, you’ll feel such a sense of accomplishment and relief that you’ll have them bookmarked as your go-to team for answers to more long-range planning issues.
