Tim Zimmerman
SCORE Little Rock, the local chapter of a national nonprofit, has been providing free business advice and counseling to area entrepreneurs and small businesses for decades.
SCORE stands for Service Corps of Retired Executives.
The Little Rock chapter was one of the first of more than 300 chapters. The national organization has been around since the 1960s and has more than 11,000 volunteers.
The chapter has 12 volunteers right now, according to Chairman Tim Zimmerman. They have backgrounds in academia, restaurants, manufacturing and more, and their profiles are searchable online to those who are seeking industry-specific assistance.
SCORE is also a “resource partner” funded by the Small Business Administration, which gives its chapters $9 million a year to share, he said. The Little Rock chapter’s portion of that is $5,000.
It helps clients all over the state who want to start a business or grow their business, with the exception of those in northwest Arkansas, because the state’s only other SCORE chapter is in Rogers.
During SCORE mentoring sessions, clients are encouraged to compose business plans. The SCORE volunteers help them do that and help them determine if the business they want to start is feasible.
Questions that guide this process include: Is there a market for the product or service they want to sell? And what is the market? Who are the customers? Where are they located? What does a good customer look like for the client?
Zimmerman said SCORE Little Rock can also tell its clients what state and/or national regulations will apply to their business, the difference between being an LLC and a corporation, how to obtain a business license, whether to charge sales tax and more.
The volunteers can help clients analyze the demographics of their potential customer base and find customers, too.
He said the chapter’s volunteers start by asking the clients questions they might not have asked themselves.
In many cases, clients decide not to go into business because the timing isn’t right for them, but that’s OK by SCORE. The chapter is happy to save them money, time and the hassle, Zimmerman said.
He also said clients may not be ready to start a business, financially or mentally, when they first contact SCORE, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be ready to do so in the future.
While the chapter serves clients at all stages of starting or running a business, many of its clients are just thinking about starting a business. A few clients may also call the chapter if they are already in business and having money troubles.
SCORE can help go over their financial statements, for example, to figure out what’s gone wrong and help clients take corrective actions.
“Just think of us as good business consultants who give willingly with absolutely no expectation of anything in return. We have a very, very strong code of ethics,” Zimmerman said. “We cannot benefit in any way from the clients that we serve. … That’s prohibited with SCOREs.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
