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Expert Advice Is Served -- for Free

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Special to The Times

Sushi chef Jimmy Wu could carve a cucumber into a paper-thin scroll, but he knew his knife skills weren’t enough to achieve his dream of owning a sushi restaurant.

So he took the advice of a customer and contacted a former head of the California Restaurant Assn. The retired restaurant executive spent months teaching Wu the ins and outs of restaurant ownership and helping him scout locations.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. Aug. 13, 2006 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday August 13, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
Small business advice: An article in Wednesday’s Business section about retired executives offering advice to small businesses misspelled the last name of volunteer counselor Sam Engelman as Engerman.

When Wu fell in love with a chic Brentwood site, his advisor, a member of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, steered him away. He pointed out the lack of parking and the need for expensive remodeling.

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Wu took his advice and picked a high-profile but cheaper site in Studio City with plenty of parking.

The advice was free. The benefits, Wu said, were priceless.

“You are desperate to go from employee to boss, so you don’t see clearly whether, as a business owner, your decisions make sense or not,” he said.

His advisor was Sam Engerman. He is one of 70 SCORE counselors in the Los Angeles County chapter, and one of 10,500 nationwide, who volunteer their time and expertise to help clients start or run successful businesses.

Jelly Belly Candy Co., Vera Bradley Designs Inc. and Vermont Teddy Bear Co. are some of the well-known national companies that in their early stages also took advantage of the free counseling available from the nonprofit group.

Wu’s Ahi Sushi is not yet a household name, but his Ventura Boulevard restaurant is profitable, he said. He employs a staff of 25, and he expects revenue to grow about 20% this year to $1.2 million. Opened in March 2003, the restaurant has earned top ratings for its food and service in the Zagat Survey of restaurants.

For Wu and thousands of other entrepreneurs and business owners, the Service Corps of Retired Executives is a valuable, if sometimes overlooked, resource.

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In addition to free one-on-one business counseling, it offers low-cost workshops, a growing array of online business tools and resources and online access to 1,300 counselors.

The website, www.score.org, which has won several awards since its inception in 1997, was relaunched last month after a redesign that added and reorganized content in response to client input.

The group plans this year to begin podcasting some of its popular workshops on business plans, venture capital, sales strategies and other topics. In the future, counselors probably will be available through instant-messaging, webcasts and Internet videoconferences.

The expanding online presence is meant to meet the changing needs of today’s business owners, said Ken Yancey, chief executive of the national organization.

Today, most of the guidance provided to businesses is similar to the advice early SCORE counselors dispensed, he said. “But the tools we use to communicate and sell and to facilitate business have changed dramatically.”

The group’s website was visited by 1.3 million people last year, up from 405,000 five years ago, he noted.

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The organization also is working to add more partners to help it expand its reach. Home Depot Inc., for example, has added the group’s online business counseling service, Ask SCORE, to its website.

Yancey also wants to boost the group’s physical presence by adding new chapters. Two were opened in California last year, one in the Inland Empire and one in Santa Cruz, he said.

The organization, which recruits 2,500 to 3,000 new volunteers each year, also is working to expand its presence in underserved ethnic business communities, Yancey said.

“We are reaching out to develop better multilingual capabilities and working to recruit more ethnic minorities as counselors,” he said.

About 25% of all the counselors SCORE recruits are still in the workforce, Yancey said. That’s a change from the traditional model in which volunteers were long retired and sometimes not up to speed on technology and other cutting-edge business issues.

Providing business management counseling to America’s small-business owners was part of the mandate of the 1953 Small Business Act, signed into law by President Eisenhower, which created the U.S. Small Business Administration.

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After a decade of informal efforts around the country, the SBA officially launched the Service Corps of Retired Executives in 1964. The Los Angeles chapter was formed a year later.

The group is funded by an annual $5-million grant from Congress that is administered by the SBA. It raises another $5 million or so each year from private sources with the help of its 389 chapters.

“It’s really a national treasure,” Yancey said.

Here is a look at some of the resources the corps offers:

* Counseling

Free and confidential counseling by experts in a variety of business subjects is the core of SCORE’s mission. Larger chapters, such as Orange County and San Diego County, meet with clients in their own offices as well as at dozens of local chambers of commerce. Some will send counselors to a client’s site.

The L.A. chapter, which schedules about 3,500 consultations each year, is experimenting with Saturday appointments to meet demand, co-Chairman Richard Hadel said.

Clients are welcome to use SCORE services repeatedly. Even after his sushi business was established, Wu tapped SCORE and a different consultant to help him learn how to manage his cash flow.

* Online tools

Content at SCORE’s main website is organized around four themes: how to start, finance, manage and grow a business. Online counselors are available; most responses are received in less than 48 hours.

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Six online workshops are available on topics such as creating a business plan, promoting a business and effective pricing.

Quizzes and a gallery of free financial and legal forms to download also are available.

* Seminars

Workshops cost about $35. Topics have evolved to mirror the changing business environment. “The world has shrunk and our offers are starting to reflect that,” Hadel said.

His group also holds free business seminars twice a year at the L.A. Athletic Club. The founder of Trader Joe’s was a recent speaker. In November, a quirky pairing of two family businesses, Pacific Dining Car restaurant and Pink’s Hot Dogs, will be featured. The founder of Pottery Barn is scheduled to speak later, Hadel said.

The organization is a useful resource for start-ups as well as existing businesses, Wu said.

“SCORE is a good deal,” the business owner said. “It’s very helpful for people who are willing to learn, who want to have a successful business but don’t want to fly blind.”

Cyndia Zwahlen can be reached at cyndia.zwahlen@latimes.com.

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SCORE chapters

The Service Corp of Retired Executives has six chapters in Southern California offering free small-business counseling and low-cost workshops:

Antelope Valley (www.score.av.org)

1212 E. Ave. S

Palmdale, CA 93550

(661) 947-7679

Inland Empire (www.iescore503.org)

1700 E. Florida Ave.

Hemet, CA 92544

(951) 652-4390

Los Angeles County (www.scorela.org)

330 N. Brand Blvd., Suite 190

Glendale, CA 91203

(818) 552-3206

Orange County (www.score114.org)

200 W. Santa Ana Blvd., 7th Floor

Santa Ana, CA 92701

(714) 550-7369

San Diego County (www.score-sandiego.org)

550 W. C St., Suite 550

San Diego, CA 92101

(6l9) 557-7272

Ventura County (www.scoreventura.org)

400 E. Esplanade Drive, Suite 300

Oxnard, CA 93036

(805) 204-6022

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Source: Service Corps of Retired Executives (www.score.org)

Los Angeles Times

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