Knowing the SCORE Helps Firms : Business: Volunteer program organizes retired executives to share their expertise with small companies.
The business world may swarm with sharp-eyed Scrooges, but the occasional Fezziwig does alight.
In the case of Susan Cole, a Redondo Beach bookstore owner, the generous businessman who helped her out was not unlike the magnanimous mentor in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Indeed, were it not for Arnold Schott, a member of the national Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), Cole said she probably would not be selling books today.
“The business world is shark-infested, but this group is very compassionate and incredibly helpful,” said Cole, who owns Author Author, a bookstore on Beryl Street. “As far as I’m concerned, they are larger than life because they were big successes in their own right, and now they are sharing their vast experience and knowledge for free.”
Cole is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs who have turned to SCORE for help in setting up or mending their businesses. A program run by the Small Business Administration, SCORE uses former executives like Schott as volunteer counselors.
Schott, 76, is one of more than 13,000 SCORE counselors providing free advice to small-business owners nationwide. Schott, who counsels clients at the Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica chambers of commerce, started Pacific Electricord in his garage 53 years ago and built the Gardena company into a business that had $40 million in sales before he sold it in 1972.
“Many of the retailers lack the knowledge that we have,” Schott said. “For them, it’s not really a matter of investment. It’s a matter of survival.”
Joseph Sachs, the Small Business Administration’s assistant district director for business development, said 90% of new small business start-ups fail within three years. And during a recession, he said, the need for programs such as SCORE becomes much greater.
“Obviously, there has been a lot of interest lately in getting help, but people are looking for money and jobs and we really don’t have what they’re looking for,” he said. “But the biggest problem we find is that even though a lot of these (entrepreneurs) are technical experts in something, they don’t know anything about business. And that’s where SCORE can be a big help.”
For eight years, Sam Stawisky has worked as a SCORE counselor with the chambers of commerce in Inglewood and Glendale. Stawisky, 77, said that SCORE volunteers primarily help entrepreneurs find the right retail locations, aid them with research and guide them to sources of fundings, but their main strength may be in providing cautionary advice.
“They’re all eager, and most of them think that they are born proprietors,” Stawisky said. “But the best thing we probably give people is this advice: Don’t go into business.
“We see all types of people. One person came in and said he wanted to open up a restaurant. I said, ‘What kind of experience do you have?’ He told me, ‘My mother-in-law is a very good cook.’ ”
Stawisky, who ran the Douglas Outfitting Co. in Southeast Los Angeles for more than 30 years, spends two days each week handling those kinds of situations and teaching struggling entrepreneurs the tricks of the trade. He is one of 214 SCORE counselors working in the Los Angeles area, usually out of local chamber of commerce offices and service center outlets such as the Kiwanis Club.
Sachs said members of SCORE, which is based in Glendale, meet with about 33,000 clients a year in Los Angeles. The Small Business Administration supplies office and meeting space for SCORE, as well as management assistance and funding for the association’s activities.
Although the program has been in existence since 1964, SCORE is not well-known in the small-business community. According to a recent survey, only about 20% of the nation’s small-business owners are aware that the program exists, a tiny figure considering the financial problems that small firms face in the current economy.
“We just don’t have the necessary funds to promote the program,” Sachs said. “Even though, in times like these, a program like SCORE can be a huge help.”
With Author Author now approaching its second year in Redondo Beach, bookstore proprietor Cole seems to have beaten the odds against business failure. But she said that even those companies that must fight uphill battles to survive would do well to get free advice from business veterans such as Schott and Stawisky.
“I was really incredibly pleased with the program,” she said. “I was all alone in the business world, and I didn’t have any experience. They helped me find a location and they encouraged me to find a specialty, which in my case turned out to be children’s books. And every time I failed to take (Schott’s) advice, I paid for it.
“But the most important thing is that they make you learn to think specifically about your business and deal with things you would never have thought of. The statistics for failure are there. It’s like what Confucius said: To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art.”
How to Get SCORE Counseling Help for small businesses is available through the chambers of commerce in a number of South Bay cities. Here are the numbers to call for an appointment and the hours in which SCORE counseling is available .
Gardena: Chamber of Commerce, 1204 W. Gardena Blvd., Suites E and F. Counseling Thursdays 9:30 to 11 a.m. (213) 532-9905.
Hawthorne: Chamber of Commerce, 12427 Hawthorne Blvd. Counseling Wednesdays 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (213) 676-1163
Inglewood: Chamber of Commerce, 330
E. Queen St. Counseling Wednesdays 9 a.m. to noon. (213) 677-1121
Los Angeles: Chamber of Commerce, 404 S. Bixel St. Counseling Monday-Friday 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (213) 629-0633
Manhattan Beach: Chamber of Commerce, 425 15th St. Counseling Thursdays 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (213) 545-5313
San Pedro: Chamber of Commerce, 390 W. 7th St. Counseling Mondays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (213) 832-7272
Torrance: Chamber of Commerce, 3400 Torrance Blvd. Counseling Tuesdays 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (213) 540-5858.
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
