SCORE will catalyze one million new businesses, many of which will be in Atlanta. It's a daunting goal to create jobs

SCORE will create one million new businesses

By: Jerry Chautin, SCORE business columnist

SCOREing small-business success

Ken Yancey will cause the creation of one million new businesses within the next seven years if he gets his way. He is the chief executive officer of SCORE, a nonprofit resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Yancey came to Atlanta on Nov. 19 with a whiz bang strategic plan that he unveiled to SCORE Atlanta’s 100 volunteer mentors. The presentation was given at Georgia Tech’s Research Institute.

The plan is bold. It is audacious; and it is a new way for the 11,200 SCORE members nationwide to interact with their communities, their spheres of influence, and their clients. The goal is to catalyze new business formation that in turn will bolster our nation’s workforce. That’s because pundits agree that small business creation begets the most jobs. SCORE will be on the forefront of birthing, nurturing and maximizing the businesses’ achievements.

“Let me tell you what you can expect,” Yancey said to the volunteer mentors that came to hear his presentation. SCORE has to double its number of volunteers, he told the attendees. That means the Atlanta chapter will be looking for 100 more volunteers for its 17 branches throughout Georgia. The openings will be suitable for talented men and women with corporate or small-business experience. They must be willing to learn how to offer free mentoring, coaching and advice to start-up and fledgling businesses.

Alternatively, they will provide leadership roles, chapter support services or present business workshops. Some volunteers will be retired while others will be currently employed or in business. But the common denominator is that they are passionate about their clients launching new businesses, creating jobs and their clients succeeding beyond their exceptions. Some volunteers call it “giving back to the community.” Others find that helping their clients win is as exhilarating as closing big deals.

In one instance, Union City-based veterinarian Hannah Guishard transitioned from employment to becoming her own boss. “I was working at an animal hospital for someone who was not a veterinarian,” Guishard says. “It didn’t make any sense not to be doing this for myself.”

So Guishard contacted SCORE and met with Ray Silva, a volunteer SCORE mentor and seasoned businessperson. He coached her through the process of opening her own clinic. Since starting Union City Veterinary Center and Emergency Clinic in 2000, the practice outpaced their most optimistic projections. “I was on Cloud nine. I felt so good about myself and what I had done,” Guishard says.

SCORE’s CEO Yancey says that SCORE’s clients are five to six times more likely to start their businesses than by going it alone. More importantly you are much more likely to succeed if you use SCORE’s mentoring program throughout your career. It is like bouncing ideas off an advisory board for free and having help available throughout your business career.

The new strategic plan calls for an intake procedure to evaluate each client’s needs and customize a plan. That may mean attending a series of free and inexpensive workshops and being assigned counselors with the appropriate skills. Sometimes it entails face-to-face business counseling, phone coaching or case-specific, online advice from volunteers nationwide.

Over one hundred experts and SCORE volunteers worked on developing the strategic plan. It involved input from existing SCORE clients, research garnered from prominent consulting firms and extracting the best practices from the 370 SCORE chapters.

SCORE Atlanta’s chair, Jeff Mesquita says, “As Ken (Yancey) pointed out, in two years from now one might not recognize our organization." Mesquita added that the “change” will help SCORE and its clients achieve goals beyond their expectations. “I will be calling on each (SCORE volunteer) in the near future to do something to get us to the next level of success.” He explained that SCORE measures its success by the number of business clients it helps and their satisfaction.

For example, Alana Kelly visited the downtown Atlanta SCORE office when she decided to open a flower shop and met with counselor Bill Atkinson. “Bill rattled off a list of questions that I couldn’t answer,” she says. “Then he just smiled and said that it looks like you’ve got some homework to do.”

Atkinson guided Kelly through the critical research needed to launch, Gitche Yah Yah Florist in 2006. “I couldn’t help but feel proud when these ‘tough’ counselors gave my business plan good reviews,” Kelly says. “Without them, I’m not sure I would’ve followed through on this business,” she says.

“Whenever any (flower shop) customers talk about starting their own business, the first thing out of my mouth is, ‘Go to SCORE’.”

With job-creation and insecurity looming large on the minds of Atlanta’s unemployed, its underemployed and those that would rather be their own bosses, SCORE’s initiative to create one million new businesses will be part of the solution.

OTHER INFORMATION:

Since 1964, SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” has helped more than 8 million aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling and business workshops. It is a nonprofit resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. More than 11,200 volunteer business counselors in 370 chapters serve their communities through entrepreneur education dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small businesses. The Atlanta chapter has 100 volunteers in conveniently located branch offices. For interviews with SCORE business counselors or SCORE small-business clients, contact SCORE’s chairman, Jeff Mesquita: e-mail, scoremarketing@joimail.com, cell: (770) 713-1702.

Note to media: Photos of the SCORE counselors quoted and interviews are available upon request. You may use this article in part or in its entirety and distribute copies. Please credit SCORE Atlanta scoreatlanta.org

The columnist’s bio is online at: tenonline.org/sref/jc1bio.html and you can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JerryChautin

SCORE Atlanta | Publish Date: 12.03.09 | Back to home |