Columbia SCORE helps open Jefferson City chapter

Small-business owners are required to wear a lot of hats. They must be experts not only in the primary practice of the businesses they own but also in sales, marketing, administration, human resources and research. Many small-business owners, particularly those in their first few years of operation, are hampered by limited budgets and need considerable skills in procuring financing and in finding creative solutions to the problems that arise. Sometimes the challenges facing them become overwhelming.

Imagine a group of professionals, successful executives with skills in all aspects of business management, willing to counsel these businesspeople using the wisdom of hindsight and years of industry experience. Further, imagine that that service at no cost and in the new businesses’ communities.

Columbia has such a resource, known as SCORE, Senior Core of Retired Executives. The group of business professionals is part of a national organization funded by the Small Business Administration.

After that receiving numerous requests from Jefferson City businesses, the Columbia chapter’s chairperson, Pete Schnitz, contacted the Jefferson City chamber with a proposal for a new chapter in the capital. Kathy Scheulen, vice president for small-business development with the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce, picked up the idea and drove the initiative forward. The Columbia group, known as the Mid-Missouri SCORE chapter, will continue to support the Jefferson City chapter, training volunteers and sharing resources.

Jefferson City SCORE held its first training session Wednesday, March 21, at the Chamber of Commerce, facilitated by members of the Columbia group. Having established guidelines and procedures for the program—including analysis of needs, such as meeting space and a centralized call system—at previous meetings, the training session emphasized the logistics and scope of counseling sessions.

“Business owners will tend to call and ask how to put together a business plan, or develop a cash-flow statement,” said Robert Cook, chapter co-chair. “In those cases we don’t do the work for them; we assist them in the process of creating this information on their own. Other times a business-owner will call and say they need somebody to analyze the business and tell them what they’re doing wrong. Again, we don’t tell them what to do, but we help them ask the right kinds of questions to get to the bottom of the issues – and then help them see the advantages and disadvantages of any given approach.”

While the development of a business plan or a cash-flow statement might require a single counselor, other requests are met by a team of volunteers, such as a financial expert, a human resources expert and a marketing expert working together. The duration of counseling may range from one or two sessions to a long-term relationship.
SCORE’s timing is ideal. The Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce already had made small-business development a primary focus of its plans for 2007 and has been the driving force behind the Progress Jefferson City movement, which proposes small business development as one of seven key objectives necessary to promote vitality in the local business community. The objectives of the SCORE program dovetail neatly with these objectives.
The chamber currently is helping to recruit SCORE volunteers and clients and will provide a dedicated office and workspace for SCORE counseling sessions and a resource center stocked with books, periodicals and other information on starting, running and promoting a business.

The program is not just for new businesses; any small business can participate. And although the word “retired” is imbedded in SCORE’s name, many volunteers still work in their areas of specialization, including Cook, who works for Bowman Commercial Realty.