Free Help from Uncle Sam to Start or Expand Your Business. Fred Hess

      An old-fashioned butcher shop where you can buy ready-cut and portioned meats, but also obtain cut-to-order steaks and roasts, is the unusual business of a pair of young women from Ohio. The father of one has a meat market in another area and he taught his daughter the business. With the help of a knowledgeable SCORE counselor they were able to draft a credible business plan and obtain an SBA-guaranteed loan of $150,000. The money advanced to the two entrepreneurs was used to purchase display cases, a walk-in freezer, smokehouse, and double oven. With continued help from SCORE counselors, lots of enthusiasm and hard work, the two women recreated a business that had been a vanishing breed -- and customers have been coming from near and far because they learned that the shop’s products were truly a cut above.

SCORE Helps Prevent Loss of Lifetime Savings

      This is a non-success story and it could apply to any business anywhere. This one comes from San Diego where a man who had been pensioned from a large company had a bundle of cash to invest. He liked the liquor business because of its quick turnover, constant business, and easy-to-handle merchandise. A business broker offered him two stores on the market for $300,000. Fortunately, even though he had his mind pretty well made up to buy them, he followed a friend’s advice and contacted the local SCORE office.

      A counselor with many years of liquor store experience did his own investigation of the stores -- checking inventory, merchandise, traffic flow, competition, service handling, pricing -- and then recommended against the acquisition. It was $100,000 overpriced. The locations were weak. The competition from big chains and discount stores was overwhelming. Despite his enthusiasm, the would-be entrepreneur finally realized the SCORE counselor’s wisdom and withdrew his offer -- possibly saving his lifetime assets before, like alcohol, they could evaporate.

SCORE Doubles Jewelry Designer’s Business

      A jewelry designer in Seattle happened to see a story on SCORE in her local newspaper. It stimulated her to seek free counseling and explore her desire to go into a retail business. First off, the counselor guided her in executing a viable business plan, and then advised her on seeking and securing a good location.

      A seven-step plan was developed under which she doubled her business after the first year. The counselor still helps out after four years, including proposing a “Men’s Night” promotion before Christmas, which turned out to be the year’s most productive sales event.

Rags to Riches for Fashion Designer

      In Massachusetts, a young African-American mother, divorced, with two children, and struggling along on sheer guts and hard work, heard about SCORE and requested an appointment. The assigned counselor evaluated her talent and enthusiasm accurately.

      Her unique use of knit fabrics and design combined with her capability and vitality led to creating a media event around her. A publicity campaign was planned that attracted a number of local notables and generated considerable press coverage.

      A well-executed projection and business plan enabled her to get an SBA-guaranteed loan that allowed for the addition of several sewing machines and more workers. Currently, she heads her own design studio, producing fashions under her own label, and has gone national with her line. She was selected as “Woman of the Year” in New England.

Long-Term Relationships with SCORE

      Supermarkets are admittedly one of the toughest businesses next to running a restaurant. This Indiana family supermarket has had the longest counseling arrangement of any business in the U.S. -- and all with the local SCORE counselors. For sixteen years one or several members of the Service Corps of Retired Executives have advised them.

      Ownership is now in its second generation. Ironically, the family-owned business was encouraged to take over the vacant premises of a former Kroger supermarket that had a well-established location.

      SCORE counseled budgeting, financial planning, quality assurance, promotion, and the kind of public relations that chain stores could not provide. They helped the family to get into computerization as well as guide them into each step of planned expansions.

Day Care Center - Just Kid Stuff to SCORE

      Reading in the papers that day care centers are one of the most needed and hottest enterprises, a man-and-wife team of corporate executives saw an opportunity to go into business for themselves. They decided to start an upscale, after-school, youth-sitting service for latchkey kids in their Connecticut community.

      The local SCORE counselors helped them set up a proper business plan and, to conserve limited capital, suggested a direct mail campaign to specific, higher income neighborhoods. Another counselor suggested publicity for the unique venture that was quite successful.

      They opened “Kidstop” with seven young customers. Within the year the business had expanded to 64. “The SCORE counselors were a dramatic help to us,” said the owners. “We’re going to continue using and benefiting from their expertise.”

Ornamental Plant Business Blooms Overseas

      A large grower of ornamental plants in Florida was trying to sell his plants overseas where a potentially uncrowded and lucrative market awaited him. However, he found that it took more plants to fill a traditional container than he could produce, and more expertise and money than he could manage. So he explored the idea with other growers throughout the state. The result was a cooperative association of growers.

      They hired a coordinator-promoter familiar with marketing in Holland and Western Europe. During their first year, the cooperative group sold $2,000,000 worth of plants.

      The best was yet to come, however. A SCORE counselor helped reorganize the co-op and initiate a newsletter and promotion material to use at European trade fairs. In 1986, export volume increased six times to $12,000,000. It's currently $18,000,000 and growing.

Inventor Gets Help from the Department of Energy

      A Detroit, Michigan, inventor developed a system that senses knocking in an automobile engine and controls the spark timing in individual cylinders. The idea was submitted to the Office of Energy-Related Inventions run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly National Bureau of Standards).

      The invention got a favorable review and the government assisted him in bringing it to market. The inventor licensed his system to Ford Motor Company in exchange for royalties.