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SCORE Counseling:
High Quality Advice at NO Cost

SCORE Overview

There are more than 22 million small businesses in America, representing 99 percent of all employers. And half the private workforce is employed in and by small business. Small business is a powerhouse both locally and nationally! SCORE is here as part of the community to offer small businesses advice that in turn helps those businesses to succeed.

SEEK OUT SCORE COUNSELING

SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” can be one advisor that entrepreneurs turn to for real-world advice that is based on the experience of managing and leading companies – both large and small. More than 11,200 SCORE volunteers nationwide donate their time and talent to mentor small business. Boston’s SCORE office, which has a branch at the Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce, has 55 volunteers with skills in marketing, finance, consulting and many other forms of business, all willing to help you succeed in a new or old venture.

SCORE business counselors volunteer their time as confidential and impartial advisors that you can turn to for business mentoring. A SCORE business counselor can help you think through business challenges and opportunities. SCORE advisors can assemble a counseling team with experts from different disciplines to help you get advice on topics from finance and marketing to operations. And the time you spend with a SCORE counselor is free!

SCORE can sit down with you, the business owner, to talk about the advice you receive from several of your trusted sources to help you make sense of how the advice applies to your unique business circumstances. SCORE counselors listen to you and serve as a sounding board to give you, the business owner, a support system that helps you lead your business.

WHO ARE SCORE VOLUNTEERS

SCORE’s volunteers are retired and working business managers and owners who have enjoyed business success and want to help you succeed with the benefit of their skills, knowledge and success experience. Every SCORE counselor wants to help small businesses succeed and SCORE counseling provides an opportunity for the entrepreneur and advisor to connect.

All SCORE volunteers are guided by a Code of Ethics to protect your privacy. We keep your counseling sessions strictly confidential – our only allegiance is to helping small businesses succeed.

You can meet with SCORE just once or on an ongoing basis. If you have a simple business question or just want an explanation of how a cash flow statement works, we can provide you with the answers. However, you can really get the best value from SCORE if you set up a series of meetings to talk about a business problem of opportunity. Whether business counseling is one meeting or several sessions, SCORE provides this mentoring at no cost to you.

SERVICES OFFERED BY SCORE

For those of you who may not know SCORE well, SCORE is a nationwide network of more than 11,200 volunteers who provide free and confidential small business advice. SCORE has 389 offices across the country, plus many branch offices including the one in Norwood at the Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, SCORE’s web site, www.score.org, has a wealth of information and hotlinks to help entrepreneurs. SCORE also offers online business counseling through the Web site. Click on Ask SCORE and enter key words about a business topic or problem. Our online skills database will retrieve mini-resumes of our counselors. You pick the counselors that you think is a good match and email your question. It’s as simple as that!

A LITTLE ABOUT SCORE’S HISTORY

SCORE has a rich history of helping entrepreneurs both face-to-face and through the internet.

Since 1964, SCORE has been serving the small business community with face-to-face mentoring. We have counseled more than 7.2 million business owners. Since 1997 we have also been providing online counseling. In 2006 our online counselors conducted more that 93,000 online counseling sessions with entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Many people ask how can SCORE mentors America’s entrepreneurs free-of-charge. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration – the SBA. The U.S. Congress, through SBA, provides SCORE with a grant to help operate SCORE chapters, so SCORE can advise entrepreneurs. SCORE and the SBA have partnered since 1964. SCORE also raises funds in the community to help cover the expense of running a local office.

SCORE WEB SITE

First, the SCORE Web site, www.score.org, has dozens of small business articles. You can also visit the site ti sign up for one of our email newsletters.

Second, the U.S. Small Business Administration Web site, www.sba.gov, has many “how to” resources and articles. Plus, the SBA site features a great deal of information about the SBA’s guaranteed loan programs. This information is valuable if you are seeking an SBA-backed loan. Banks make the loans, which follow guidelines for approval from the SBA.

Small businesses that want to seek SBA guaranteed loans should visit www.sba.gov and click on Financing Your Business.

HOW TO REALLY START YOUR OWN BUSINESS WORKBOOK

Finally, SCORE offers a start-up business workbook called How to Really Start Your Own Business. This workbook is a great tool for new businesses, because it takes you through the process of thinking through business ideas and developing a business plan.

There are many small businesses that are operating without a written business plan. This workbook can also help busy small business owners get their thoughts on paper, so there really is a plan in place for the business. Whether or not you are doing business with a bank, a plan helps guide you the maize that operating a small business become!

And for both new and existing small businesses, a business plan is essential if you seek business loans. Meet with a SCORE counselor and get a free copy of this workbook to help you plan for success.

IN CLOSING

Count on SCORE as a resource for your business. Entrepreneurs, like you, have vision and commitment to a business idea. Can you succeed on your own? Yes. Can you avoid mistakes and make better plans with the benefit of advisors? Yes. Call upon trusted advisors – be it your attorney, a trusted colleague – and SCORE to help you think through businesses strategies.

At SCORE we are here to help you. Small business success is vitally important to the strength of our community and our economy.