SCORE

What is SCORE? SCORE is:

• is the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a volunteer program of the U.S. Small Business Adminstration (SBA).
  
• is a non-profit association providing free business counseling.
  
• is brains, ideas, skills, and experience.
  
• is 13,000 retired and active executives in 400 chapters.
  
• is volunteers ready to share their skills.
  
• is counseling on small business problems.
  
• has a background of 25 years of successful counceling.
  
• counseling services are free.

SCORE is comprised of men and women business executives who voluntarily commit their time to share their management and technical expertise with present and prospective owners/managers of small businesses. The collective experience of these volunteers spans the full range of American enterprise. Begun in 1964, the goal of SCORE is to help American small business to prosper.

SCORE volunteers are members of locally organized, self-administrated chapters in more than 400 locations throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They work in their home communities or nearby to provide management counseling and training to small businesses or to those who thinking about going into business. Every effort is made to match a client's need with a counselor experienced in that line of business. Service is provided without charge to the client.

Assistance Offered: Through in-depth counseling and training, owners and managers receive help in identifying basic management problems, determining their cause, and becoming better managers. An analysis is made of each business and its problems, and a plan is offered to correct the trouble and help the owner through the critical period. All help is confidential and person-to-person. A business does not have to have a SBA loan or even be in operation. Pre-business consultation is an important part of the service offered.

To volunteer, contact your SBA office. To find out more, contact any Small Business Administration office or look for SCORE in your local telephone directory.