A friend sent me a copy of this blog today...20 Free Things You Can Do To Put Money In Your Pocket.

The real reason why I'm posting is #13 on the list

"13) GO TO WWW.SCORE.ORG FOR FREE BUSINESS ADVICE. This company is comprised of retired entrepreneurs who spend all their time mentoring people into thriving businesses. You can get free advice regarding everything from venture capital to business plans."

Seems pretty cool! They have courses...one about writing business plans. And you can ask a question and develop a mentor relationship with your respondent. Cool or what!

(I didn't want to post about Score without sourcing; hence, I started with the blog! It includes info I think most of us are already on to.)

Did I already mention that my favorite four letter word is F R E E?

Make it a great day!

Sundi

Score is a very cool resource - I've never actually taken advantage of their advisors, but love the other parts of the site. Thanks for making note of this

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SCORE is an awesome resource. I refer a lot of people to it as well.

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Rosanna Tussey
OfficeSupportNow.com
The Virtual Assistant Connection - A blog for VAs

SCORE helped me tremendously when we were starting my husbands business years ago. They actually sat down with me to fill out all the paperwork to become an S-Corp, and helped me with our business plan. I can not tell enough people about the valuable FREE service they provide!

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

I was just looking at our local SCORE website this weekend and talked to a couple of people about their experiences, but theirs were not as good as everyone's here. I was very hesitant to fill out the form, but maybe I will knowing that some people did have some success with this program. Some free help could come in handy!!!

I just received my first response from SCORE and not only did I get a ton of helpful attachments I was also given a source for FREE legal advice in Missouri from the UMKC Law School! How sweet is that?

Make it a great day!

Sundi

Wow! what a great source thanks everyone

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Deb Frawley
Gem's Virtual Office

SCORE can be very helpful, if you have a business concept that they think is viable. I met with two different chapters - the first chapter was very helpful, but I was in the very early stages of planning my Deaf Awareness business. They are also in the "big" city 30 miles away. She took the time to read a letter I sent to area businesses. When I went to the smaller chapter, in my town. I left crying. I suppose I deserved it because I asked point blank, personally... "Do you think this business can succeed"? He said "NO, but Hey I've been wrong before".

I think for standard courses they are a great resource. The classes are not free but you can use your counselor over and over for free. They are "retired" so if you have a concept that isn't concrete, it's best to use advisors in your market or even age bracket.

For me, it's just another nay-sayer (I've got many).
Good luck to you.

Sundi, that's great! Just out of curiosity, for anyone who's interacted with SCORE what kind of contact did you have with them (was it via email or in person?) and if you dealt with them via email, what is the process for getting set up with your expert?

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In the top left side of their website it says "Ask SCORE" and you just click there. Next, you can enter your question and it will provide suggestions of mentors or you can click to select by industry or state. I checked to see if there was someone near me and there was so I picked him. In the areas I skimmed I did notice that women were seemingly under-represented but there were a few. Not that men don't have equally valid advice! Just might not be the place to go for a wide variety of female mentors.

Another plus is there are language options in case english isn't your primary language!

I get the impression that how you want to set up the mentor-ship is up to the parties. You can communicate through SCORE only or, as in my case, the mentor might send you their email address. I don't see why, if you found a willing party, you couldn't meet face-to-face.

As a side note - It drove me crazy I couldn't use my browsers back button but had to use the one they have built into the site. I'm sure there is a technical reason for this (right, Tess?) but it still drove me nuts!

Sundi