Barbara Lippard is a member of the Board of Directors of SCORE. SCORE is an amazing small business resource. They are a nationwide, non-profit organization with 13,000 counselors and approximately 400 chapters in the United States. They offer free mentoring and low cost educational workshops to aspiring and existing small business owners. Before SCORE, Barbara was an Investment Manager at Time, Inc’s Venture Capital Group, investing in high tech companies with Board of Director responsibilities for several portfolio companies. She was also a Vice President, Director of Corporate Development at Time, Inc’s Selling Areas-Marketing Inc. (SAMI) division. During her successful career she has provided a wide range of consulting services to small and medium sized businesses from strategic planning to assistance with funding and financial management.
Here are my 5 questions with Barbara and my summary of her answers:
1) In your experience as a SCORE advisor, what can you suggest an entrepreneur do better to prepare themselves to maximize their experience with SCORE? In other words, are there common, simple steps that you consistently see people skip (that they shouldn’t have) when you meet with fledgling entrepreneurs?
There are two types of entrepreneurs that come to us, those that are just starting out and those that have current opportunities or problems that they need help with. For those just starting out I suggest that they attend our introductory free workshop on start-up basics (these are offered in different locations nationally, check your local SCORE website for more details). This workshop will walk you through the pros and cons of owing your own business. It is part of a five part series SCORE launched called SmartSTART. After the first session a potential entrepreneur will at least have the chance to develop some basic questions that will assist them in making a relationship with SCORE more beneficial.
For entrepreneurs that already have at least developed a concept, or are already in operation and have come to a situation that requires assistance, come to your SCORE meeting prepared. Bring any piece of information you think could be relevant to the discussion. We are here to help. We are not a judging panel, so there is no reason to be intimidated. If your documentation is rough notes on the back of an envelope, that’s fine, at least that gives us a starting point to help the entrepreneur moving in the direction they would like to be. Without good information a lot of time is wasted, which could have been spent on allowing us to help the respective business.
2) Are there any misconceptions about SCORE, or preconceived notions about SCORE, that you find people have when they contact you for assistance?
There are some, I’ll give a few examples:
- We don’t write business plans for clients. People have come in with an idea expecting us to draft their business plan for them. Putting together a business plan defines your business. We help with the process but we don’t create business plans.
- We do not provide, and cannot help for profit companies with getting business grants. There are outfits there that make claims there is free government money to start a business. This is simply not true.
- We do not provide funds for startup or in business entities. We will help identify banks that may be lending to small businesses, make available information on SBA loans and community development centers and suggest how to access angel investors and venture capital groups.
SCORE is a volunteer research organization existing to help all entrepreneurs solve their problems. We consult on a variety of business matters but the actual doing is left to the entrepreneur.
3) Based on the adage success leaves clues, what are some common traits you have seen in most successful businesses you have helped begin and/or grow?
The most common universal activity I have seen that leads to success is gaining knowledge and experience in a particular industry before entering it. Furthermore, people lacking in management skills need to develop these skills. Entrepreneurs that take the time to learn general business and managerial knowledge, plus the specific knowledge needed to succeed in the industry significantly reduce their chance of failing. You would think this would go without saying, but you continually see people risk a lot without any real skill, experience, or knowledge of the industry they hope to succeed in.
Three common traits are hard work, patience, and perseverance.
Finally, success is assisted by developing the right team, including a great lawyer, accountant, SCORE counselor, a friendly banker, and a trustworthy insurance contact.
4) Are there any other free or low cost resources that you can suggest to budding entrepreneurs that they might useful?
Yes, here are just a few:
- The U.S. Small Business Administration is a government entity that provides varying levels of assistance to small businesses to help them succeed.
- Small Business Development Centers assists small businesses with solving a variety of issues including marketing, organization, financial, engineering, technical and production problems.
- Women’s Business Centers is a national network of educational centers to help women start and build small businesses.
- The Woman’s Initiative provides effective social support, counseling services and education to empower women to change challenging life situations into opportunities.
- The HUB is a social enterprise that hopes to inspire and support creative enterprising initiatives that help make society a better place.
5) One of SCORE’s goals is to help start one million successful new businesses in 2017. What initiatives has SCORE taken in an attempt to meet this goal? Are there any new opportunities at SCORE regarding this goal that entrepreneurs can take advantage of?
Yes. We are excited to launch our new website in March which includes a site redesign including a new logo. The new redesign will also influence all of our regional websites. We are reaching out to more corporate sponsors in the hopes of more corporate involvement. We have realigned our mission statement, as well as our slogan, which is now, “SCORE, FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS”. We are engaging in “shoe-leather” marketing by making sure our members are getting out in the community and letting people and businesses know we are here and ready to help. One of the most exciting opportunities is that we are improving our communication system and improving upon the way our current database disseminates information. We are also making efforts to expand on the current number of counselors that are currently available. SCORE has an exciting future ahead.
