Like most people, I occasionally have secret fantasies about opening my own business one day in the hazy future. Probably most of us get about as far as a good idea and wonder, now what?

 

Well, there’s a dedicated group of volunteers in the Triangle that have been in business a long time and are ready to help you make your dream a reality (or explain why it might not be doable), for free. They’re the Williamsburg area branch of SCORE, Counselors to America’s Small Business, a national group of volunteer professionals (retired or working) who aim to give sound advice to the country’s current and future business owners.

I talked to the local chapter’s Chairman, Ken Carr, who was an executive with Chanel before he retired to the area, and he said that beyond offering free and confidential business advice, the 22 local SCORE volunteers also offer outreach education classes for the business community.

They hosted around seven workshops in the last year, and offered counseling to almost 1,400 people. If you paid a consultant for all that, you’d have spent a pile of money, yet these men and women allow residents to pick their brain free of cost. I’d certainly call that good to know.

Compared to other groups offering advice, SCORE’s volunteers “have done it all before, and have been in the business field,” Carr says. “They don’t just go by the book all the time. They can tell you that even if the book says something’s right, maybe it’s not.”

The volunteers are generally people who were executives with large corporations with a wide range of skills and expertise spanning different fields. Each new client who needs help is matched up with someone who is a good fit for their business idea or question. And it’s not always new clients they see – the Williamsburg chapter has several business owners who have continued a relationship with the group for years.

I asked Carr if volunteers had noticed any changes in questions clients have been asking since the recession began, and he said there are definitely more conversations about financing now that banks are more hesitant to offer working capital to businesses.

He also said he’s noticed that there are a few folks who can’t find jobs due to the economy who are looking at possibly opening a small business.

That means a lot of hard work for an organization of volunteers, but if anyone can do this it would be tough-as-nails businessmen used to getting things done.

As for why folks like Carr would give up their free time, he says, “We enjoy it. We’re all business people who want to give back, and it’s a great opportunity to use our knowledge to help others.”

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