How SCORE Can Help You Build Your Business
SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, is a nonprofit supported by the SBA that offers counseling advice to business owners.
It’s powered by a network of 10,000 volunteers, mostly successful business owners and executives, who still love the sport of business and want a chance to help younger versions of themselves.
Because of the SBA funding and volunteer labor, a lot of this mentoring comes at no cost, whether in person at a local office, via email, or by video. They also offer workshops in person and on the web.
While many entrepreneurs may form ad hoc advisory boards or lean on the advice of savvy investors who may be partnered with them, many more don’t really have a network to turn to in the early days.
SCORE can match that entrepreneur with someone of relevant experience or sometimes in the exact industry.
Indeed, as you browse through the numerous success stories on their website, you get a sense of how diverse the mentorship can be… sometimes something as short as a few months, other times as long as a few years.
For example, Mutt’s Sauce was a Tennessee-based condiment company that had developed a local following. But when the recipe passed to his granddaughter after he passed away, with no other infrastructure or help, she turned to SCORE.
She got connected with someone who not only mentored her in how to start a food manufacturing business, but who also connected her with the right contacts to get her launched properly.
Sometimes it isn’t a new entrepreneur that needs mentorship, but one who has had a business for awhile and has run into a problem Karoun Yoga was just such a business, and after an initial explosion in growth, she found herself “drowning in expenses.”
Her SCORE mentor walked her through Quickbooks so she knew her numbers better and she learned how to create financial reports that she not only understood but could use to improve her company. She also attended workshops on Google AdWords put on by her local SCORE chapter.
Even immigrants can benefit from SCORE, as Diego Tantardini discovered. He had two SCORE mentors meet with him regularly to go through numbers and helped him work on small-scale business plans, figuring out product/market fit.
What SCORE ultimately provides is trusted, dispassionate mentorship from those who’ve been there. If you’ve been wondering about mentorship as you build your company, it might be worth giving them a look.
At Apex we can also provide you with connections to professional business coaches, networking groups, and other professionals to get you the help you need.
