Monday, November 15, 2010

Know of Someone starting a business? I know the best kept secret in Fairfield county.

Little over five years ago (I still can’t believe its been 5 years!!!!) after I had made the decision to become a CMIT Solutions owner / operator, I jumped into action to learn what I didn’t know.  I had heard of SCORE but didn’t really know the extent of their services.  But I was willing to give them a call because they were free (yes, FREE!).  I had never run my own company, and I knew I didn’t know everything that I needed in order to be successful. 
SCORE, stands for The Society of Retired Executives.  That much I knew.  Could a retired executive really help me with a Technology company ? The resounding answer is YES; you are doubly fortunate if you are in the Norwalk SCORE “service area”.  As it turned out the Norwalk SCORE chapter has become the top chapter in the county.  I also learned that SCORE was funded by the Small Business Administration (they are really up to date on how to leverage the SBA).
Over the past 5 years, I have been a client and a witness of there penetration to their “clients”.  They now offer advise, coaching, education on not only start up businesses, but to established businesses as well.
I sat in the 5th of 6 sessiosn of their new “Quick Start” program and although this geared to help people launch their businesses, I’m realizing there are some financial areas (the session tonight is on building your financial plan) that I have yet to learn about (cash flow statement?  Is this why I’m flying by the seat of my pants there??).  I also just learned that they have this amazing spreadsheet on the SCORE national site that you load your figures and assumption into and POOF it produced a Financial Plan. 
Are you already a business owner?  Do you have a financial plan?  If not, call SCORE get a counselor, download the spreadsheet and POOF you to will be flying less blind and have one more reason to believe you will be successful.

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