Starting a business, or developing one, can be a daunting task and wise counsel is invaluable. Now that advice is available via the Internet and from a trustworthy source, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, which was founded in 1964.
If you have ever bought a Vermont Teddy Bear, or chewed on a Jelly Belly jelly bean, you’ve interacted with two of the millions of small businesses that SCORE has helped.
What’s more, the help SCORE gives is free, though in this case it’s free advice that’s actually worth something.
Where clients once needed a car or mass transit to reach a SCORE counselor, now help is as close as a computer screen and keyboard, said W. Kenneth Yancey Jr., a veteran of SCORE who became chief executive officer in 2000.
At the base of this is a software package called netFORUM, a product of McLean-based Avectra, which is a provider of on-demand Web-based membership management software solutions. The software allows SCORE clients and volunteers to connect online, trading information and setting up appointments. Instead of just 389 chapters in and around many cities, the organization is now accessible just about anywhere, certainly an advantage as gas prices continue to rise.
“I would love to tell you that we foresaw this,” Mr. Yancey said of the coincidence of online counseling, Web access and $4-a-gallon fill-ups, “but the truth of the matter is what we really wanted to do was to offer our services in a manner that our clients wanted to consume them.” Although a number of entrepreneurs would like to meet with SCORE in person, he said, “because of time, distance, cost or comfort” these people, some 39 percent of those whom SCORE serves, “would prefer to have a relationship with SCORE online.” The appeal of online contact isn’t limited to rural areas, Mr. Yancey said: while SCORE has 13 offices in the D.C. area, for example, a business owner in Ashburn, Va., faces what could be a 30-minute drive to Herndon if they want to visit the nearest office.
For volunteers — 32 percent of which are actively employed — the technology helps them participate. Mr. Yancey said: “We’re finding that our volunteers of all ages and disciplines, retired or not, become comfortable with the technology very, very quickly.”
The interactive process allows users to find a wealth of information on the SCORE Web site, www.score.org, and to set up counseling sessions online. By registering and scheduling electronically, the Avectra-based system lets SCORE capture a lot of information easily, making reporting to those whose grants fund the operation easier. In turn, reporting from chapters to the headquarters is faster.
“We believe that we’ve made the process more intuitive, given them more and better information that allows them to select a counselor more easily and ensure they’re the best one to answer questions around a certain topic and industry,” Mr. Yancey said. “Our volunteers help to create 19,700 new businesses in 2007,” Mr. Yancey said. “We helped to create approximately 25,000 new jobs,” he added, saying the use of online technology played a role.
Now, SCORE hopes to use social networking sites such as LinkedIn as well as blogs to push its services out to people: “We’re going to continue to monitor the client base and their interest and respond appropriately,” Mr. Yancey said.
• Read Mark Kellner’s Tech blog at https://video1.washington times.com/technology.
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