Small business help scores in Watauga
By Frank Ruggiero

Let the scoring begin.

Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) has opened a branch in Boone in hopes of helping businesses succeed.

Members of SCORE, a volunteer, nonprofit organization, consider themselves “counselors to America’s small business” and help small business through one-on-one counseling services, as well as entrepreneurial training workshops and business seminars.

Its volunteer base is comprised of retired executives, entrepreneurs and active business people hoping to share their knowledge and experience with those who need it.

Bill Sharp of Fleetwood is one such volunteer, retired from the automobile dealer business after owning five dealerships. Four counselors have volunteered so far  for the Boone branch, three from Ashe County and one from Avery County.

“I’m not smarter than the average person,” Sharp said. “I just look back on my career and see folks with lots of experience who helped me through, and I’d like to do the same.”

According to branch manager and volunteer John Hansen, a retired commercial banker, Sharp was one of the first High Country residents to respond to an advertisement SCORE placed in local newspapers, and is undergoing his orientation this week, co-counseling with Hansen.

Once counselors have passed orientation, they’ll co-counsel new volunteers and the network will continue to grow.

“Each counselor will take one day in a series,” Hansen explained. “If we have five counselors, every day will be a day for one counselor to take duty from 10 (a.m.) to 3 (p.m.).”

The office, which just opened Tuesday, May 10, is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will accept calls for those seeking appointments. Hansen registered two appointments this Tuesday, and expects two additional clients by the end of the week. Furthermore, Hansen is expecting calls from two others he met at the High Country Business Network meeting last month.

SCORE aids two types of clients. The first are those who wish to start a new business but don’t quite know how to go about doing so.

The counseling can go both ways, with some clients willing to embrace the challenge of starting a new business and others realizing their plan might not be as feasible as they originally thought.

The second type of client is one who has already started a business, which, for one reason or another, is not performing as expected, Hansen explained.

“It takes a little analysis of what they’ve been doing to see if they’ve gone off track and point out some things they may not have been seeing,” Hansen said. “It could be a problem in financial, accounting, operational or marketing. In hindsight, it’s always easy to go back to the plan and say, ‘Here’s what’s off track.’”

SCORE serves those two types of clientele and “anything in between,” Hansen said. “Our whole vision is to help somebody succeed, and that’s based on the experience all of us have had.”

There are also follow-up sessions so counselors can see firsthand if their assistance proved effective. Follow-ups are conducted at the business owner’s convenience and, as Hansen explained, “with each one of these cases, there’s usually homework to be assigned, and that necessitates a follow-up.”

“There’s nothing wrong with Bill or any other volunteer scheduling follow-up sessions any day, for that matter, so there is that flexibility, too,” he added.

Counseling services are offered free, as SCORE, which is an adjunct of the Small Business Administration (SBA), is federally funded.

 Counseling is also kept strictly confidential, and counselors are committed to a strict code of conduct ensuring no conflict of interest.

For instance, if a counselor was assisting an aspiring restaurateur, the counselor would not simultaneously assist another restaurateur.

The Boone branch will offer free counseling services, though workshops and seminars will be conducted through the Asheville chapter. However, Hansen noted SCORE may take advantage of some of the entrepreneurial courses Appalachian State University offers, such as the Entrepreneur Development Partnership workshops offered through ASU, Watauga County and the Appalachian Regional Development Institute.

Seminars offered through SCORE include “Great Beginnings,” sponsored by Wachovia Bank; “Your Business Plan,” sponsored by Bank of Asheville; “Accounting for Non-Accountants,” sponsored by Asheville Savings Bank; “Retailing — How to Do It Right,” sponsored by BB&T Bank; and “Time Management,” sponsored by Capital Bank.

Hansen said the time management seminar is particularly popular among clients.

“Interestingly, we’ve had people come from Boone to the seminars in Asheville, even before we had the Boone SCORE,” he said. “This is something we’d recommend to a lot of our clients.”

Seminars cost $30 at the door, but $25 with advance registration. SCORE also offers seminar packages, such as $75 for four basic seminars, and $100 for any six seminars over a one-year period.

Cost of admission is directed back to the local SCORE chapter for publicity and seminar space, Hansen said.

Though Boone’s SCORE office is only a branch, Hansen expects it to eventually grow into a full-blown chapter. To do so, though, it will need local volunteer counselors, who Hansen described as “people who have either been entrepreneurs or were in business with good business experience. They don’t necessarily have to be retired.”

SCORE was invited to open shop in Boone by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce, Hansen explained.

For more information, call 265-4185 or visit www.score.org on the Web.

• Frank Ruggiero may be contacted

at ruggiero@wataugademocrat.com.