Tips from SCORE 2nd Edition

By Marc Goldberg

 Business Advice

SCORE Cape Cod provides business mentoring from experienced advisors and free workshops at convenient locations. From startups to existing businesses looking to grow, the expertise SCORE provides helps entrepreneurs like you succeed.  SCORE Certified Mentors are retired business executives who have the knowledge and experience to mentor other business owners. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marc Goldberg
• Release date: Dec 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393843856

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Click-on Links to Sections

INTERVIEWS WITH BUSINESS OWNER AND SCORE MENTORS

FUNDING

CUSTOMER SERVICE

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

GROWING A BUSINESS

HUMAN RESOURCES

MANAGEMENT SKILLS

MARKETING

NONPROFITS

OPERATIONS

PLANNING

CONTENTS

INTERVIEWS WITH BUSINESS OWNERS AND SCORE MENTORS  pgs     2 – 23

FUNDING          pgs   24 - 32

CUSTOMER SERVICE       pgs   33 – 69

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT       pgs   70 - 87

GROWING A BUSINESS       pgs   88 - 96

HUMAN RESOURCES       pgs   97 - 121

MANAGEMENT SKILLS       pgs 122 - 214

MARKETING         pgs 215 - 330

NONPROFITS        pgs 331 - 362

OPERATIONS        pgs 363 - 456

PLANNING         pgs 457 - 532

INTERVIEWS WITH BUSINESS OWNER AND SCORE MENTORS

Tips from SCORE #245 – Interview with SCORE Mentor, David Epstein

David Epstein, a certified SCORE mentor, spent most of his career as an executive in a family owned retail and international wholesale business. As a result, he is very familiar with retail business and the special challenges that are often encountered in closely held family concerns, including succession planning and the sale of a business. After exiting those businesses, David spent time with a small investment banking firm, including working as an advisor in a major bankruptcy. He is mostly retired now and lives full time on the Cape.

Q:  David, how long have you been a SCORE mentor?

A:  For at least ten years now.

Q:  What attracted you to become a SCORE mentor?

A:  Two things, really. I missed being involved in business, especially the retail side of things, which I enjoyed so much. So, I wanted to find something that could keep me involved in business. And, of course, I wanted to do it in a way that enabled me to give something back, and help others.

Q: What specific areas of experience and expertise do you most draw upon in your mentoring efforts?

A: Well, there are really several. First, of course, is my long experience in retail, and especially in marketing and promotional efforts. There is no shortage of retail businesses on the Cape. I find myself often working with clients to help them develop effective promotional strategies – how do you get the customer to come into the store and, most importantly, make the sale.  Second, I know what it is like to operate and finance a small business, having done it myself for many years. That personal experience is so very important to a small business client. I know what it’s like; I have walked in their shoes; and I have signed personally for borrowings by my small business. Third, I have lived through the challenges that many small businesses confront in terms of relationships among co-owners, succession planning, and sales of businesses.  Finally, I have a great deal of experience in licensing, and many times have encouraged clients to use licensing as a way to achieve growth – license their products or ideas to others who can handle the manufacturing end of things. 

Q: Take me through a typical mentoring experience from the client’s point of view.

A:  When a client comes to SCORE, they expect that whomever they meet with will be an expert in whatever area they have a question about. We do our best to match clients with mentors who have relevant experience in the client’s area of activity. So, I tend to see clients who are looking for help in retail businesses, or in dealing with ownership conflicts and in buy-sell arrangements.  We have a group of people, with more specialized skills, that we call Resource Partners that we can call in to situations where they can be helpful. In that way we are better able to meet client expectations and needs. 

When I first meet with a client, I ask them to tell their story. I try to ask open-ended questions, not ones with simple yes or no answers. I try to get them to think more deeply about their business idea, the position that the client finds him or herself in, what their goals might be and the steps that they will need to consider in order to achieve those goals. We then try to work together to identify specific action steps that can be taken to make progress toward those goals.

Q: Describe for me one of your mentoring experiences, outlining the specific issues that the client faced and the process you followed in mentoring that client.

A: I had a client who had a solid retail business and she wanted to sell. She had an employee who was interested in buying. Through my discussions with the two of them, it became clear that the owner didn’t want to sell right away, because she wanted to keep working for a few years. Additionally, the employee did not have the funds to make the purchase immediately. We were able to develop a transaction in which they agreed to a sale and set a price, the employee made a down payment, and the owner agreed to stay for two years running the business, with a purchase price adjustment if the business declined in that period. This worked very well – the client got exactly what she wanted, and the business changed hands in two years, and continues to operate quite successfully under the new owner today.

This came about because we listened carefully to what the client said she wanted to achieve, asked questions to explore more deeply both what was wanted and what was possible, and helped them to design a transaction that worked well for both parties.

Q: Describe for me the most challenging mentoring experience that you have faced.  What made it challenging, how did you deal with those challenges, and what was the outcome?

A: The most difficult situations for me are where a client has a business idea that I just don’t think will work. I know I am not always right, and things that I didn’t think would work have done well. But there are situations where I just know that the idea won’t work. What I have learned to do in these situations is to listen very carefully, and then ask questions which I hope will get the client to think very hard about what they are thinking of doing. For example, I had one client with a retail idea that I thought was going to be in a bad location and very tough to make work. I asked questions, trying to get the client to realize the volume of sales that would be required to break even, and encouraging that client to personally check the foot traffic at the location. The client came to realize that the business just wouldn’t work in the proposed location and did not proceed. This kind of thing doesn’t happen often, but it’s important for us, as mentors, to treat people with respect, and make sure that they think through their plans carefully and avoid what could be mistakes.

Contributed by Jim Dannhauser, Certified Mentor.

Tips from SCORE #282 - Two Frequently Asked Questions of SCORE Mentors

Question: What should I do to mitigate risks in managing my small business?

Answer: Barbara Weltman suggests a three phase plan:

1. Choice of business formation relative to risk: You start a business to make money, but things don’t always work out as planned. If, for example, you can’t pay the remainder of your lease, you may be personally liable for what’s owed. One way to protect your personal assets—your home, your personal car, your personal bank account—is to use a business entity that provides personal liability protection.

A sole proprietorship or general partnership does not provide personal liability protection, but a limited liability company (LLC) or corporation does. The cost of setting up an LLC or incorporating and complying with other administrative tasks associated with having the entity is small compared with the potential personal liability exposure for not having the entity.

2. Acquire the most appropriate insurance: There are many statistics showing that it’s not a matter of if, but rather when, you’ll experience an occurrence that could have been covered by insurance. Carrying adequate insurance coverage can go a long way in protecting you from property losses as well as liability claims. Consider the following types of policies for optimum protection:

Business owners policy (BOP) - This policy for small businesses provides protection for your property (except for excluded events and amounts over the policy limit) as well as liability protection for claims by third parties (e.g., a customer slips and falls on your premises). The policy may also cover employee theft and other occurrences.

Professional liability coverage - This policy protects professionals from client claims of mistakes (malpractice), negligence, or unfinished work.

Business interruption policy - This policy provides funds to cover your fixed costs (and possibly loss of profits) following an event that shuts you down (e.g., a hurricane). 

Workers’ compensation insurance - This protects the business for claims when employees have a job-related injury or illness. 

Employer practices liability insurance (EPLI)- This covers you for claims by employees and former employees for such actions as discrimination and wrongful termination.

3. Contracts and agreements: Put it in writing whatever you consider important to your business. This can be requiring employees to sign nondisclosure agreements protecting your trade secrets (client lists, pricing, etc.). In some cases, you can’t even sue unless you have a written contract:  Sale of goods over $500,  Leases over $1,000  Agreements creating a security interest (e.g., a right to collateral)

Question:  What are the best questions to ask during a job interview?

Answer: There is no one great question that will get the magic answer you need to decide if someone is right for your team or not. First, decide what you want in a new employee. Write a detailed job description with qualities needed for success in the position. Second, decide what information you want from the candidate to ultimately decide if there is a fit. If you are the interviewee, think about these questions that might be asked, but mostly prepare to deliver the information you want the interviewer to have when the session is over, regardless of the questions posed. 

Think about how you would answer these questions:

Tell me about yourself without repeating what is found in the resume.

What did you like most about your last position?  Or least about your last position?

Why do you want to work here?

Describe a failure you most cherish.

Are you smart or do you just work hard?

To get targeted information you might uses these probes:

For grit: Tell us about a time in your career or life you wanted something so badly that you were unstoppable in pursuing it?  What obstacles did you overcome to get to the goal?

For teamwork: When working in a team, what is hardest for you? What makes you most satisfied when working in a team?

For ownership: Tell us about a time you experienced what you perceived as an injustice?

For curiosity: What was the last thing you really geeked-out about?

For polish: What do they do when you interrupt them or try to interject something while they are answering a question?  What is their reaction?

To explore more about them and what makes them tick, you might consider these questions:

If you could go back 5 years, what advice would you give your younger self?

What do you do to develop yourself outside of the work environment?

Is it better to be extraordinary and late or be good and on-time.?  Why did you pick that one?

What is it that you are most curious about in life?

What is the most courageous thing you have done in your life?

The most important element in planning and executing a job interview is to

Plan in advance what information you want to receive or want to deliver.

Make it a conversation, not an interrogation.

If, as an interviewee you are not getting the information you want, be prepared to ask questions of your own.

Tips from SCORE - Interview with Marc Goldberg, SCORE Mentor

As part of a new approach which will appear in this space from time to time, we are presenting a discussion with one of SCORE’s mentors which will touch on the mentoring experience and specific real world examples of issues faced by small businesses on the Cape and Islands We will also present discussions with businesses that have used the SCORE mentoring services. 

The first discussion is with Marc Goldberg, a SCORE mentor and the Chair of the Cape Cod and Islands Chapter of SCORE. Marc was active in business for over 40 years, and owned with his wife, Mim, their own small trade show marketing business for 30 years. He became a SCORE mentor five years ago, beginning one year before he sold his business. 

Q: Marc, what drew you to become a SCORE mentor?

A: I was looking for a way to stay active as I neared the time to sell our business and retire. I learned of SCORE from a friend, and saw it as a means of both staying active, using knowledge and experience gained over the years of owning and running my own business, while at the same time giving something back to help others.

Q: What areas of your experience do you most draw on in your mentoring efforts?

A: Two. The first is marketing – how to identify and focus on a specific target market and attract attention in that market so that the targets receive the message that you have delivered. The second is general management – understanding how to manage people and organizations and how to plan the management of a business so that it can grow, or just sustain itself.

Q: What are the typical kinds of clients that come to SCORE for assistance?

A: The majority of businesses on the Cape are service businesses, so they are the majority of the businesses that we mentor; and most of them are small. In many situations, people will come to us who have an idea for a business and need help talking through how to go from concept to reality. Often, we see people who are in business and are struggling to find the right way to take the next step in the growth of that business.

Q: What is the typical mentoring experience for a SCORE client?

A:  Our process is very informal. A client will come into our office and usually meet with two mentors. The client will tell their story – who they are, what they do, what their experience is, what their idea is and what issues they are facing. We listen in order to come to an understanding of the situation, analyze it, and then and decide together with the client what the next steps should be. For example, a recent client came to us who was trying to figure out if the business could afford to hire a new team leader. We called upon a mentor who is a CPA and developed a plan that enabled the business owner to reallocate some resources and free up sufficient cash flow to hire that new employee. We have continued to work with that business over time to discuss other operating issues that need attention as they arise.  And we will continue to do so for so long as that client wishes to meet with us. At SCORE, we listen to our clients, then suggest action steps for the client to pursue and have follow up sessions to discuss the results of those action steps. There is no time limit as to how long a client can receive mentoring.

Q: Describe for me one of your mentoring experiences.

A: I had a client who was working full-time as a meeting planner and wanted to open up her own business as an event planner. We worked with her to develop a plan that enabled her to move, over time, from being a full-time employee to working part time and using free time to develop her business. We met with her monthly over a two-year period. She is now fully engaged in her own quite successful event planning business, with several employees and associates. We meet with her quarterly, which is our usual process for clients that have succeeded in developing their business and no longer require more frequent assistance, with an Advisory Team that includes mentors with accounting, operational and marketing experience, to discuss issues that the client wishes to discuss, things like adding staff, pricing, and the like.

Q: What was one of your most challenging mentoring experiences?

A:  I had one client who came in for the first appointment and cried for the first 45 minutes. We decided that she should gather herself and come back for another appointment. At the second appointment, the same thing happened. I had her come back for a third session, and brought in another mentor who is a life coach, and we worked together to figure out how to reach the client and ended up with a very positive mentoring experience over three months.

Q: How does SCORE deal with specialized business needs?

A: We have individuals that we refer to as Resource Partners, who are fully certified mentors, but who only participate in mentoring in certain areas, like insurance, business brokering, accounting, digital marketing and social media marketing. As an example, we had a client who recognized that she needed to develop her website, but had no idea how to approach that. We brought in one of our Resource Partners who spent an hour and a half with her and talked about the themes that might best make sense and the content that should be considered, and she was able as a result to develop her web site quite effectively as a result.

Q: Is there anything else that you would like for people to know about SCORE?

A:  All of our services are free, and completely confidential. We are totally volunteer run, including our office staff. Our mission is to help small businesses on the Cape and Islands to succeed and prosper, and to contribute to employment opportunities here.

Q: How do people find SCORE?

A: Business people are recommended to us by local Chambers of Commerce or by their banks, or through business associates. Clients sometimes come to us after seeing an article in the Cape Cod Times that relates to an issue that they are facing in their business. People can call our office in Hyannis or reach us on our website. People can also go to our national website and to look for help. If they do that, they enter their zip code and are referred to the chapter in their geographic area. They would enter information about their field of activity which is sent along to the local chapter, and the chapter then tries to match that client with mentors that have appropriate and relevant experience.

Contributed by James Dannhauser, Certified Mentor. 

SCORE TIP #391 - Interview with Owners of Good Friends Café

Would you share the history of the Good friends Café?

The Good Friends Café was founded by two local women 15 years ago. I began working at the Café one day a week to get time out of the house. It was a seasonal business only open 4-5 months, 6am to noon. I bought the café 10 years ago and it seems like yesterday.

When did you get the urge to be a business owner?

I have had the entrepreneurial bug since I was 10 years old when I created a flyer that I distributed to neighbors offering ironing and mother’s helpers services. I ironed shirts for 25 cents a piece. I would do odd jobs until I was old enough (14) to get a real job at Captain Frosty’s on Route 6A.

What are some of the challenges you face in the Cape’s seasonal economy?

The challenge I have found is remaining consistent – food, quality of service and experience.  When I bought the Café it was like starting anew since nobody was used to us being a year round business.  We had to demonstrate patience in building the business. Probably the hardest time was remaining consistent when the money wasn’t coming in. We knew we had to stick to the value of consistency if our brand would catch on. Most of the staff are year round so staffing has not been as big an issue as it is for other Cape businesses. Most of our staff losses have been due to relocation off the Cape.

How do you market the Café?

For us, word of mouth is the number one marketing tool that works. Recommendations from satisfied customers is huge when considering how we market. We use Facebook to market since I can make our messages more personal. The sites like Yelp and other referral platforms are also positive tools in building awareness. It is amazing how many people visit those sites for recommendations. Because of those factors, I do less and less traditional marketing.

You seem to have the trades people in the early morning and then the local people and visitors later in the morning. Is it planned and do you target these specific audiences? No, it’s not planned that way.  It just happens due to the customer's personal schedules. The trades customers stop for coffee and/or breakfast on their way to their job sites or appointments.  Then it seems the families come in since it takes them a little longer to get going in the morning.  And then the visitors to the Cape who sleep a little longer.

Do you find work/life balance to be a constant challenge?

Absolutely. It is absurd. Especially as a mother. It is always prioritizing what needs to get done in the moment or what is most important in the moment. That is really why I kept the Café as breakfast only so I can have flexibility in the afternoon hours.

If you had to define the culture of the Good Friends Café but how would you define it?

Family. From the customers to the staff the value that defines our brand is family. That is really the whole point here at Good Friends – community and family. That is the way we look and act towards one another. That is why people come back. They come back for the food, but also for the environment we have created. It is one of camaraderie where kids and families are welcome.

When you look to the future what do you see for Good Friends?

We are planning a bit more physical upgrades to the Café.  We have a few more ideas but they will wait until the kids get older.  We are thinking of adding catering to our breakfast offering.

Is collaborating with your neighboring businesses part of your growth strategy?

All of us in the West Dennis/School St area collaborate. For example, Kevin at Klassy Kanine sent his customer Shawn over for a cup of coffee. Joey from Paradise Pizza has his menus in our waiting area and we have ours on his counter. We don’t directly compete for business but help one another.

When you think about the business and its past growth what do you think the primary ingredient was in your business growth strategy?

In all honesty I feel like I didn’t just focus on the bottom line. It allowed me to make Good Friends a very human experience for the customers and the staff coming into the restaurant. It’s important to keep your eye on the bottom line, but that’s not my driving force. That’s not my focus. When customers have a great experience and we manage the back end of the business well, the bottom line takes care of itself.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

What helped me grow my business were a few principles: Not overextending myself. Keeping financial exposure manageable, keeping stress levels within reason and managing my time.  Consistency in food, service and the experience. Sticking to what we know. These are the principles that have created growth, attracted new customers and brought existing customers back. As a woman in business, I have found that I almost have to prove myself more to be taken seriously. In the restaurant, if customers don’t know me they don’t think I own the Café. They ask if my husband is in the kitchen. When my husband and I go to food shows, exhibitors talk to him first. He will walk away and they realize they have to talk to me. I love being the role model

of a woman entrepreneur for my daughter and my sons.

Tip #398 from SCORE – Interview with SCORE Mentor, Mim Goldberg

In the past two years, we have presented a series of conversations with various members of SCORE. This was done in an effort to provide readers with a better understanding of the scope of SCORE’s activities on the Cape and Islands, and how locals involved in – or considering an involvement in – local for-profit and non-profit enterprises may benefit from those activities.  These conversations also provide a sampling of the backgrounds, experiences and motivations of the people who volunteer their time to SCORE to provide these services to their Cape and Islands neighbors. 

Today’s conversation is with Mim Goldberg. Mim has been a SCORE mentor for approximately three years. As to her experience, after many years as an educator, Mim joined with her husband, Marc, to start a business providing services to trade show exhibitors, developing programs to deliver training to staff as to how to communicate effectively in a unique environment and how to measure performance. After 28 successful years, the business was sold five years ago. Mim is now a full-time resident of Cape Cod, with a number of volunteer activities and a commitment to being a lifelong learner.

Q: Mim, why did you become a SCORE mentor?

A:  After we sold our business, I wanted to find areas that would provide mental stimulus as well as ways that I could give back to the community, looking to utilize my experience to help others.  I had learned first-hand all of the challenges and rewards of building and running a small business, as well as shifting careers. I feel I can bring that experience and expertise to bear in helping others. SCORE provides me with a great opportunity to do just that. Marc had become involved with SCORE before I did, and I saw through him that the chance to put my learning and my skills to use could be a great fit for me given my objectives.

Q: How do you approach your mentoring efforts?

A:  I understand what it means to own a small business and all of the elements that small business ownership and management entails. The owner has to wear every hat and attend to everything that matters in order to succeed. As the owner, you are everything. I have lived that life and I can help others to understand the challenges and rewards that that life can bring.  And as a woman who has built a successful business, I am especially attuned to the challenges that female entrepreneurs face, and can share my insights in that regard as well. My aim is to help people whom I mentor to more clearly see the picture of where they are and where they want to be, and then to work with them to identify the concrete steps to take to achieve their goals. Additionally, I stay involved with them as they implement those steps and move toward achieving success.

Q: What is your hardest mentoring experience?

A:  For me, the most difficult thing is to suggest to someone that they should do more research and background work on their idea before moving forward. Having an idea is not enough. One must understand your particular value proposition – what are you offering, understand the customer’s need and if there is a need, and how you will deliver that value. But it is very fulfilling to me to work with people who understand that and commit themselves to moving forward in steps to develop and launch a well thought-out business with the highest chance for success.  I have been fortunate to have been involved with many of those situations through SCORE.

Q: You mentioned that you have a range of volunteer activities in addition to your mentoring efforts with SCORE.  Could you share some of those?

A:  I am, of course, eager to help women in general and women entrepreneurs in particular. I am a volunteer with WECAN (Women’s Empowerment Through Cape Area Networking). I participate as a mentor in the WECAN PathMaker program, a nine-month mentoring program that matches mentors with females looking to make positive changes in their lives. I have had five different PathMaker mentees and find that experience, with its concentrated focus over a defined period, to be incredibly rewarding for the pathmaker, and the mentor as well. I also attend monthly meetings of the Cape Cod Women’s Association, an organization that brings women together to broaden their social and professional relationships. As SCORE is a sponsor of that Association, it is the perfect focus to find women who may be interested in using SCORE’s services or who wish to become mentors or subject matter experts.

I helped to organize a non-profit known as Bay to Sound Neighbors, which seeks to provide services to help seniors to age in place, and am now a volunteer with that organization. 

Q: Besides these volunteer activities, how do you pursue your other commitment to be a lifelong learner?

A: Well, I learn a great deal through all of these volunteer efforts and the interactions that they give me with others. I also take several courses each year at the Academy for Lifelong Learning at the Cape Cod Community College, as well as being a voracious reader.

Contributed by Jim Dannhauser, Certified Mentor.

Tips from SCORE #399 – Optimist Cafe Owner Interview

Interview with Kristina Dittmer, owner of the Optimist Café in Yarmouthport, MA.

Would you please tell us about the Optimist Café?  We are a ‘from scratch’ restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch, specializing in private events located on Route 6A in Yarmouthport.  We host bridal showers, baby showers, wedding breakfasts, and rehearsal dinners in our unique 1849 sea captain’s home. We also offer catering for meetings and events.

How long have you owned and operated the Optimist?  My husband and I have owned the café since 2013, so we’re going into our eighth season.

What did you do before the Optimist Café?  For almost 25 years I was in commercial banking and insurance and my husband was in commercial risk management.

When did you get the urge to be in business for yourself?  I got the entrepreneurial itch when I wanted to leave the corporate world.  So that was about 2012.  Our oldest was graduating high school so we decided to move to the Cape full-time and look for a business.  Our objective was to find a business where we could invest in a community as well as enjoy it. 

What challenges have you experienced operating a business here on the Cape?  Well clearly the seasonality poses a challenge for somebody in the hospitality industry.  That’s probably number one and number two is finding and keeping good employees. Solid employees who are interested in making a kitchen job or server job their life for two, three or five years

Are most of your employees local or do you hire summer foreign students?  We’re pretty small on a year-round basis. We have about six regular employees and then in the summertime say fifteen or so. The J-1 program doesn’t work for us unless there’s a student looking for a second job employer.  So we’ve always hired year-round Cape Cod residents.

Can you tell us how you market the Café?  The Café has been around since 2006.  We acquired it in 2013 but marketing has changed significantly even in the seven years that we’ve owned the business. Originally, my marketing strategy included a lot of print advertising and then mostly word-of-mouth and not really any social media. I would say today, that’s completely opposite so hardly any print advertising, but some. Our marketing consists mostly of social media, community involvement, and sponsoring special events.

How successful do you think you are in converting attendees at special events to becoming Café customers?  That’s an excellent question. If you can find the answer to that please let me know. I think it’s extremely difficult. We find that our special event patrons can be repeat special event patrons, but we find it very difficult to take those special event patrons and convert them into regular customers. I think part of the challenge is that the attendees at the special events that we do, like rehearsal dinners, baby showers and bridal showers are coming to the Cape as a destination. For those events, I would say two-thirds of the attendees or even more don’t even live on the Cape although they might come to visit in the summer.  From that vantage point it gives them an introduction to us.

When you look at the crystal ball how do you see the future for the hospitality business here on the Cape?  I think it’s going to grow. First, there is the growing millennial population, which I do see a lot of on the Cape. Not sure of that group’s exact growth on the Cape, but I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of young people I meet that have returned to the Cape to raise their families. From what I’ve read, the hospitality industry is expected to have double digit growth over the next 10 years. That, combined with the Cape being a vacation destination, I expect this industry to keep growing on the Cape.

When you consider the brand Optimist Café what values do you think it represents that have created the success you had?  Well the obvious one is that I go to work every day with an attitude of optimism which we do preach and talk about. My general manager Jessie and I have spent a lot of time crafting our mission statement, values and tenets. We share examples of each with the employees all the time. In fact it’s a kind of a joke when I start to talk about our values, my staff has learned to complete the sentence because I’ve said it so many times. It’s really just about how much we care, how we take time to pay attention to the details, and our focus on consistent quality and presentation which is important to making sure that our business is sustainable.

Is there any one piece of advice you’d like to share about the restaurant business on the Cape?  For the first two or three years you have to prepare by being significantly financially secure. In your planning, I would quadruple whatever estimate you have for the what if‘s, e.g. contingencies.  And before you launch consider your exit strategy. 

Does that include a succession plan?  It could be. That’s one exit strategy. It could also include somebody buying the business from you. It could also include making your money, closing it down and going for an encore performance. 

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Tips from SCORE #241 – Interview with Megan Murphy, SCORE Mentor

This discussion is with Megan Murphy, who has been a SCORE mentor for about 2-1/2 years.  Interestingly, Megan was also a SCORE client, using SCORE for mentoring assistance in her business about fifteen years ago.  Megan was a partner in Bella, is the creator of The Kindness Rocks Project and is a certified Life Coach.  Our discussion touched on her experiences both as a SCORE client and as a SCORE mentor. 

Q: Megan, what stage was your business at when you went to SCORE for mentoring assistance?

A: When I went to SCORE for mentoring assistance almost fifteen years ago, I was looking for help with strategic growth planning for my business, as well as advice regarding my partnership arrangements.

Q: Was there a specific reason that you went to SCORE?

A: I was generally looking for assistance and I did not have the funding to seek business coaching services from others at the time.

Q: Describe for me if you can, your initial meeting at SCORE.

A: Well, it was so long ago now.  But I can say one thing – it must have been pleasant as I was a client for years!

Q: How did the mentoring process unfold from that first meeting?

A: I continued seeking their assistance and support over a few years even into dissolving my partnership and selling my portion of the business.  Mentorship from SCORE was very important to my company.  The SCORE mentors were a great sounding board and helped bring perspective and guidance to my business and partnership arrangements.

Q: So you have since become a SCORE mentor.  About how long ago did you do that?

A: I became a SCORE mentor approximately 2-1/2 years ago. 

Q: What drew you to become a SCORE mentor?

A:  I wanted to give back to an organization that had been so helpful to me in my business.

Q: What are your specific areas of experience that you have most utilized when mentoring?

A: I mentor using my experience in business as a retail store owner, along with my experiences in manufacturing, marketing and business development.  I also draw upon my life coaching degree to expand upon the broader perspective around the why go into business in the first place.

Q: Describe the typical mentoring experience from the client’s perspective.

A: From the client’s perspective, mentorship with SCORE is invaluable.  SCORE mentors provide a sounding board for all of the questions that come up while in business.  As a small business owner, you can often feel isolated.  SCORE mentors can help to address the need that such a feeling creates, and help you to improve your business and your approach to your business.

Q: What do you see as a common challenge for the clients that you are mentoring?

A: One of the continuous questions that I get when mentoring clients is how can I finance my business?  Many clients who come for mentoring do not understand how financing a start-up works.  There are loans and lines of credit with your local bank, but the client usually must have some type of collateral to secure that loan.  There are options for funding under certain circumstances, but it is important for clients to know that if you are planning to start a business, you will most likely incur some debt.

Q: What is the most challenging part of the mentoring process for you?

A: One of the biggest challenges I have faced in mentoring is follow through, by the client.  It is difficult sometimes to provide resources and information to a client while remaining detached.  In a mentoring relationship, the client has to follow up on the information provided in order to make progress.  I have had a few experiences where the client returns for mentoring and has not moved forward on agreed upon action steps, and as a result no progress is made.  Following through on objectives is so important for a client to have a successful mentoring experience.  That can sometimes be difficult for a small business owner, given the pressures of time.  But the SCORE mentors are there to help, and to encourage and guide the business owner to a successful outcome.  I know that was the case for me as a client, and I have seen it be the case for many others.

Contributed by Jim Dannhauser, Certified SCORE Mentor.

Tips from SCORE #256 – Interview with Mark Lowenstein, SCORE Mentor

Mark is currently the co-Chair of the Cape Cod SCORE Chapter after serving as its Chair. Mark began his career as an attorney with a major technology company, and then moved to the business side of that company. He has also been the principal/founder of two small software high tech companies, been a consultant to inventors in evaluating product ideas and markets, and a Professor of Business at a New England college. Mark, now retired, lives on Cape Cod.

Q: Mark, how long have you been a SCORE mentor?

A:  I have been active as a SCORE mentor for about ten years now. 

Q: What drew you to become a SCORE mentor?

A:  I first encountered SCORE during my time as a Professor of Business at a small college in Vermont.  The SCORE chapter for that region approached the school with a desire to set up a mentoring program aimed at small businesses, and based at the college.  Given my background and position, the college asked me to organize the arrangements, which gave me first-hand exposure to SCORE’s activities.  When I retired and moved full-time to the Cape, I knew that I wanted to stay active and use my skills and experience that I had developed over my career in ways that could be stimulating and interesting to me, and helpful to others at the same time.  I met with someone who was involved with the SCORE chapter here on the Cape.  That meeting, along with my prior exposure to SCORE while at the college in Vermont, led me to the decision to join the Cape Cod SCORE chapter as a mentor.

Q:  What are your specific areas of your experience that you utilize in your mentoring efforts?

A: Several.  I tend to draw upon my legal background, my long experience with large and small businesses in the technology arena, both hardware and software, and my general business experience in my mentoring efforts. I have also been very involved in our Chapter’s mentoring efforts with the many non-profit entities that exist here on the Cape.  While they have different constituencies and missions than for-profit enterprises, many of the same good business principles and practices apply to non-profits as well.

Q: What is your typical approach to a mentoring situation?

A: I do a fair bit of face-to-face mentoring.  I also mentor through various other means that SCORE offers to prospective clients – including e-mail, video chat and Skype.  For me, it always starts with asking questions.  Sometimes clients have a very specific question which I of course answer as best I can.  But most times I try to engage clients in a discussion about their business and their business idea.  At our SCORE chapter, mentors frequently make use of a business planning tool called the Business Model Canvas.  I first became familiar with this while I was teaching at the college.  It is a simplified way for people to think about their business, using nine key characteristics.  I always start by asking clients who I am mentoring to think through what is the value proposition that their business presents – what value is being or would be delivered to customers, and what customer needs are being or would be satisfied.  This, for me, is the most important part of the Business Model Canvas, and if clients can work their way through this issue with my help, they always gain a better understanding of how they should move forward.  I then work with clients to think through what their main client segments are – whom do they intend to reach and serve.  These two characteristics are really intertwined.  But if entrepreneurs are able, through the mentoring process, to gain a clearer understanding of the value proposition of their business, and what their key customer segments are, then I am confident that they will be far better positioned for success.  The process validates the foundation of their business initiative.

Q: Take me through one of your mentoring experiences.  Discuss the specific issues facing the client and the process that you followed in mentoring.

A:  I have several clients that I have mentored for a number of years, and I find that to be especially rewarding.  One of those clients is a woman who is a nurse.  To help her to make sure that she was following the correct procedures for various repetitive practices, she developed a set of note cards that she would carry around.  Other nurses saw that and asked her for copies.  Eventually, she realized that there was an opportunity to develop this into a business and she came to me for advice.  I was pleased to help her and she was quite successful.  I have also been working with an engineer who developed a device for pressure testing.  He has identified a new potential customer segment for that product and is now pursuing sales and marketing into that segment.  It always comes back to helping business people to understand the value proposition of their business or idea, and identifying the customer segment that the business or idea will serve.  If you can get that figured out, your odds of success increase mightily.

Contributed by Jim Dannhauser, Certified Mentor.

Tips from SCORE #268 – Interview with Jim Dannhauser, SCORE Mentor

Today’s conversation is a self-interview with Jim Dannhauser.  Jim began his business career as an attorney with a large commercial firm, and then transitioned into investment banking.  Eventually, he became the Chief Financial Officer of a private company that later went public, and served in that role for ten years.  Jim later became an investor/advisor for several small businesses.  He is now retired and lives full time on the Cape. 

Q: How long have you been a SCORE mentor?

A:  I became a SCORE mentor in the spring of 2014.

Q: What drew you to become a SCORE mentor?

A: After retirement, I was looking for a way to stay active, making use of my varied business experience.  I researched a number of possible avenues to accomplish this.  I chose SCORE because it provided a clear path that enabled me to use my business experience to help others in the community of which I am now a part.

Q: What are your specific areas of experience that you have most drawn on in your mentoring efforts?

A: I have a fairly broad range of business experience, especially in legal and financial areas, as well as general management and strategic planning.  I have also had a lot of direct experience with small businesses, and the special challenges that they face.  I draw on all of that in my mentoring efforts.

Q: Do you do your mentoring face-to-face?

A: I do some face-to-face mentoring.  But most of my mentoring is done remotely.  SCORE has been endeavoring to create programs through which clients can access mentoring services without needing to travel to a specific location for a specific time on a schedule that may not work for them.  This began with offering potential clients the opportunity to reach out to mentors via e-mail.  Clients can go to the SCORE website (www.score.org), search the roster of mentors from anywhere in the country who have experience in the areas of their concern, and contact that mentor through the SCORE e-mail system.  Chosen mentors then respond to the initial inquiry within forty-eight hours, and commence the mentoring relationship.  I often respond to requests that I receive in writing, and then try to set up a telephone call at a mutually convenient time to explore the client’s business and issues more completely.  There are also programs that enable mentoring to be delivered via Skype. 

Interestingly, a number of the clients that I have mentored through e-mail are Cape Cod residents.  It is just that being able to access these services – all complimentary, of course – in a more convenient way can be a real benefit to busy people.  We always try to make things as easy as possible – we have mentors who meet with clients in Falmouth and Eastham in addition to our Hyannis office, and utilizing remote means just adds one additional way for Cape businesses to access our services.  We also subscribe to the philosophy of we go where our clients are. 

Q: What other things do you do for SCORE?

A:  Starting last year, I took over responsibility for administering the free workshop program that the Cape and Islands chapter of SCORE conducts each year.  In this program, we conduct a series of free 90-minute workshops at locations throughout the Cape, covering a variety of topics of interest to small business owners – from branding and networking, to business planning, employee management and social media.  We are fortunate to have received a grant from the Cape Cod 5 Foundation to support these efforts, which are co-hosted with Coastal Community Capital, and promoted by us and a number of Chambers of Commerce.  Beginning in the fall of 2017 and continuing into the spring of 2018, we will conduct 28 of those workshops, as well as another 3 on Martha’s Vineyard.

In addition to this program, we will have a program of 6 workshops specifically geared to the non-profit community this year, and I will lead one of those workshops.  I also help to administer a special one-half day workshop that we do in the fall aimed at the hospitality industry, as well as participate in other specialized programs that we present from time to time, things like Simple Steps to a Well-Run Business, a three-part program developed by SCORE national that we have out on several times here on the Cape.

I find participating in these workshops to be an interesting way to meet small business people here on the Cape and provide them with some information that they can use to improve their business and achieve greater success. 

Contributed by Jim Dannhauser, Certified Mentor.

Tips from SCORE #292 - Interview with Laura Gaito, SCORE Mentor

Today’s conversation is with Laura Gaito.  Laura became a SCORE mentor earlier this year.  She has been in the banking industry for her entire business career of almost 40 years.  Laura started as a teller, and worked in branch management, private wealth management and residential lending.  Since 1993, she has been a commercial loan officer, providing financing to help businesses to expand and grow, at various Boston-based banking institutions. Laura has also taught economics and fundamentals of banking to adult learners at the New England College of Finance and maintains a real estate broker’s license.

In addition, Laura is the sole owner and operator of a food truck business that she operates on the Cape and in surrounding geographic areas on weekends – a business that she started and runs by herself.

Q: Laura, what led you to join SCORE as a mentor?

A:  I am inching toward retirement from my banking career, and thought it would be nice if I could find a way to help small businesses and as I did that, giving something back to the community in which I live.  I knew of SCORE from my banking work, and reached out to the local chapter to see if I could get involved.  In short order, I became a SCORE certified mentor and now mentor once a month. (up to 4 hours)  I expect to continue mentoring until I retire from my full-time banking position in a few years.  And, mentoring is in my future in retirement.

Q: How do you approach your mentoring activities?

A:  It’s very important to make a positive connection with the mentoring client. I have found that you have to listen to your clients to find out what he or she wants or needs.  SCORE has a great process called SLATE for its mentors to follow – we Stop and Suspend Judgment; Listen and Learn; Assess and Analyze; Test ideas and Teach with tools; and then work to set Expectations and Encourage the dream. 

That sounds a little formulaic – but it really works in practice.  The key first step is to make that positive connection, and then listen.  And then I can bring my many years of experience to bear in trying to help my clients find that right path to success.

Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge for small businesses on the Cape today?

A: All small businesses face a host of challenges.  But I feel that funding is among the biggest problems, especially on the Cape.  Lenders are reluctant to finance seasonal businesses, and most businesses on the Cape are seasonal to some extent, so owners need to find creative ways to get funding.  The Small Business Administration programs can be a great resource in that effort.

Q: You have started and are running your own small business with a food truck operation.  How did that come about?

A: I enjoy cooking and I enjoy people.  I used to go to running events and after competing I couldn’t find anything to eat.  So I knew that there was an opportunity to fill a void and do something that I love.  And I decided to just go for it.  I spent a fair bit of time searching for a truck.  I finally found one, bought it, retrofitted it with cooking equipment, and started in.  Now I operate the truck at various locations on most weekends.  And I love it!  I get to serve food and have great interactions with interesting people.

Q: You are really living the small business life in this effort.  What have you learned from it that you can bring to bear in your mentoring efforts with SCORE?

A: You are right – I am living THE small business life.  And I have learned that it is not easy.  It takes an enormous amount of time, and there are a myriad number of details that need to be attended to, from getting the right organization in place, to licensing and permitting, to insurance and worker’s comp, and on and on.  To do it right requires careful planning and execution.  But