Free Education For Small Business Start Ups

Designed specifically for aspiring entrepreneurs, the SCORE Westchester Boot Camp for Start Ups five week course covers the information Westchester business owners need to know to turn their dreams into a profitable reality. Topics covered include creating an effective business plan, finding funding for your small business, attracting customers, smart management, cost-effective marketing and more.

Advice You Can Trust, Guidance You Can Use

Those looking to start a small business in Westchester may take advantage of the opportunity to get free small business education from SCORE, the region’s most dedicated team of expert, effective small business advisors. Last year, our team helped 203 new businesses open their doors! Whether you’re interested in starting a retail business, opening a franchise, or offering professional services, SCORE Westchester can help.

Smart Start: Build Your Business With SCORE Westchester

No one was born knowing how to start a small business. Every successful entrepreneur had to learn what it took to transform a good idea into a thriving business. You can spend years of your life – and thousands of dollars – going to business school. Or you can learn as you go, for free, with SCORE Westchester.

Here’s what a recent Boot Camp graduate had to say about the experience:

“I felt that the Boot Camp exceeded my expectations. I was impressed with the generosity of the SCORE people who presented. They were not only knowledgeable but generous and interested in sharing their time and learning about our interests and ideas. I now have a clear understanding of the complexities of starting a Westchester business. I feel I am taking the next decision steps with my eyes wide open.”

Watch Out for SCORE Westchester’s Boot Camp for Start Ups

Does SCORE Westchester’s Boot Camp for Start Ups sound right for you? The spring session has ended, but don’t fret; Boot Camp will be back in the Fall! Keep an eye on our website and watch for our newsletters for important Boot Camp announcements.

Don’t want to wait until the fall to start a small business in Westchester? You can get a jump start by meeting with SCORE Westchester now for individualized one-on-one small business counseling. Make an appointment today and start transforming your small business dreams into reality!

Hit television shows are punctuated by commercial breaks; drive-time radio delivers one minute of advertising for every four minutes of music or commentary. The roadways are decorated with billboard signs. Popular websites provide content framed by advertising – and that’s not even discussing pop-up ads!

All of this advertising costs money – so much money, in some cases, that your small Weschester business can’t even contemplate buying any. How are you supposed to attract customers in this environment?

Two words: social media. Social media includes sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. All of these tools are free to use, extremely popular with today’s consumer, and can help you attract local customers.

Here’s what you need to know:

Identify the most powerful platform for your market

There are hundreds of different social media sites. It’s impossible to maintain an effective social media presence on them all. Do your research and discover what social media site is the favorite of your best customers. That’s where you want to concentrate your social media marketing efforts to grow your small business.

Keep it local

Whichever social media platform you select, you’ll need to update it regularly with content. For maximum appeal to a local audience, discuss local issues and events – mainly those that relate to your products or services, but don’t be afraid to mention a few that don’t directly relate but are of tremendous local interest. If you are doing business in Churchill Downs, it’s a good idea to mention the Kentucky Derby! People want to know about things that are happening in their neighborhood. Mention your town and local neighborhoods regularly and often to forge social connections between your customers and your Westchester business.

Connect with other relevant local sites

You’re not the only Westchester business on social media. Look for and connect with the other local businesses, institutions and events that have a presence on your social media platform(s) of choice. When it’s appropriate, respond to or comment on their postings; you want to be seen as a vibrant, active, interested member of the community. This type of participation is valuable to people who choose to shop locally.

SCORE Westchester: When You Don’t Have All The Answers

When you’re Mom, you’re expected to be able to fix everything from a skinned knee to a crashed iPad – and you do, because that’s what it takes to keep the tears from flowing! That’s part of the magic of motherhood.

Unfortunately, that magic doesn’t automatically transfer over to your Westchester business challenges. What’s the best way to raise money to start a small business? How will you find customers for your business? How do you hire help? What taxes and legal paperwork do you need to file, and when do you need to file it?

When you don’t have all the answers, turn to SCORE Westchester. Our experienced team of small business counselors is here to help you find the solutions you need to launch and grow your small business successfully. We work with you individually, focused on the specific needs of your business and industry, providing information, guidance, and encouragement.

SCORE Westchester: When You Need To Know More

Not every Mompreneur has a MBA. In fact, most don’t! Many Mompreneurs have never gone to business school. But we all know education is important. Watching our children develop and grow as they advance through school is a real time demonstration of the power of education.

The educated Mompreneur is the Mompreneur who has a significant advantage in today’s competitive business environment. SCORE Westchester offers regular free workshops absolutely cram-packed with small business information and strategies you can use to grow your small business. Learn how to create a great business plan, market your business effectively, and more.

SCORE Westchester: The Price is Right

Many Mompreneurs start their new business on the thinnest of shoestring budgets. SCORE Westchester’s services – the expert business counseling, the workshops and classes – are all free! There’s no cost to you at all. Our services are paid for by a Federal program designed to encourage American entrepreneurship.

So come on, Mom! SCORE Westchester is here to make your life easier. Click here to schedule your free, confidential consultation.

Westchester Wisdom at Work: Small Business Mentorship

There are two essential elements to Westchester business success: Money and Mentorship. SCORE Westchester’s team of experienced small business mentors provide entrepreneurs and established Westchester business owners with free counseling services focused on successful small business growth.

Connect With SCORE

Are you interested in learning how SCORE Westchester can help you start or grow your small business? Our counselors can meet with you in person, over the phone, or via e-mail. If it’s easier for you for a member of our team to come to your business location, we can make that happen. Our individualized mentorship services help with every aspect of establishing and running a successful small business, from writing a strong business plan through securing funding, marketing and more.

That’s not all! Every month, SCORE Westchester provides free workshops from leading business experts specially created to help you start or grow your small business. So many entrepreneurs have never had the chance to attend business school. Here’s a way to get the knowledge you need to be successful – without spending a cent!

Who Does SCORE Westchester Help?

SCORE Westchester’s mission is to serve aspiring and existing small Westchester business owners. All of our services are free and confidential.

The guidance and insight provided by SCORE Westchester’s counselors is particularly helpful to traditionally underserved groups. Nationally, the SCORE networks’ clientele were 53% women, 32% minorities, and 13% veterans.

We’re here to help you. Our services work: last year, we helped 203 entrepreneurs open their doors for the first time ever. Are you ready for the next step? Click here to make an appointment with a SCORE counselor.

Your SCORE Westchester small business mentor can be a great resource in this process. Looking at sales numbers, expense reports, and other data regularly provides a very accurate picture of what’s really going on in your business. It’s so easy to get caught up your day to day routine and lose sight of what type of business you’re actually doing. By looking at the data, you can know with confidence what types of merchandise you sell the most of, for example, or which of your service offerings are the most popular.

Regular reviews also make it easier to assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Look at your sales numbers and the promotions you were running at the time. Can you see a relationship? If you were heavily promoting teapots, for example, and didn’t see a corresponding rise in the sale of teapots, there’s a problem that needs researching and resolution.

Quarterly reviews also are a good time to consider employee performance. How well are your people performing for you? If they’re doing a good job, let them know. Simple recognition is a powerful management tool and hardworking, happy employees are essential in helping you grow your small business. People like to know that they’re valued and appreciated. If there are problems with an employee, addressing them sooner rather than later is good for your business.

The value of regular performance reviews for your Westchester business can’t be overstated. You can compare your actual performance to your business plan to assess how well you’re progressing toward meeting your goals and objectives. If you’re not sure how to conduct a performance review, or you need help putting together a business plan, SCORE Westchester is here to help. All services are free and confidential. Schedule your face to face appointment with a SCORE small business mentor today.

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for a bad situation to get even worse. There are two common mistakes small Westchester business owners can make when they first discover that there’s some kind of issue with their taxes. The first is to ignore the situation and pretend that nothing is happening. The second is to try to resolve the issue on their own without any advice or counsel.

Here’s what is wrong with ignoring the situation: The IRS and state tax authorities aren’t going to just let things slide. The government will pursue collection efforts relentlessly, and any interest and fines that you may owe build daily. Do nothing long enough, and the government may move to garnish your wages, place liens upon your property, or even seize bank accounts or other assets to settle the debt.

Doing nothing makes tax problems worse.

Trying to resolve tax issues on your own without representation or counsel is another mistake. Tax issues can be extremely complicated and hard to understand. Talking to your accountant is a good first step. It’s important that as a Westchester business owner you understand the issues as completely as you can – your SCORE Westchester small business counselor can help you with that – and find an advocate to represent you in front of the taxing authority. This is comparable to having an attorney represent you in a lawsuit. In many cases, the right advocate can negotiate a much better deal with the IRS or state tax authority than an individual can on their own.

To recap: if you are notified by the IRS or state tax authority that there’s an issue with your taxes, you need to take action. Don’t try to ignore the problem – it won’t just go away and it may even get worse. Get advice from people you trust, and professional assistance to help resolve the issue on your behalf.

As a Westchester business owner, you know that digital marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways you can promote your company and grow your small business. But using social media does take time, energy and attention. Should you concentrate on Facebook and Twitter, or is there any value in establishing a presence anywhere else?

To answer that question, you need to really know your customer. If you don’t have a customer profile, your SCORE Westchester small business mentor can help you develop one. A customer profile tells you who your customer is, and why they choose to do business with you. You can use this information to make educated guesses about what social networks they’re likely to belong to.

Many of the smaller social networks are organized entirely around one common interest. Ravelry, for example, is for the knitting and crocheting enthusiast, while PatientsLikeMe focuses on healthcare. If you have a yarn shop, establishing a presence on Ravelry makes sense, while getting set up on PatientsLikeMe doesn’t. It is true that some of the people who visit PatientsLikeMe may very well love to knit or crochet – but they don’t visit that social platform with their yarn-oriented interests in mind. Being smart about social media means concentrating your efforts where they’ll be most successful to help you grow your small business.

Talk to your customers. Ask them what social media platforms they find to be the most influential, useful, or just plain fun. Use signage to invite your customers to follow you on whatever social media networks your Westchester business is established on.

Keeping current with the dynamic, changing world of social media is challenging. As a small business owner, you want to take advantage of any resources that will make this easier, such as SCORE Westchester’s free, informative workshops. Here’s a schedule of upcoming events. Remember, the more you know, the better business owner you will be!

April is Stress Awareness Month. Here are some tips to help the Westchester small business owner manage their stress more effectively:

Limit Your Workday

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners try to pack at least 26 hours into every day. All work all the time is a surefire recipe for severe stress. Make sure you’ve got plenty of time for sleep and rest in your schedule. How much sleep should you be getting? Though the amount of sleep you need varies by individual, the National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours per night for adults. Every day needs to include some ‘down time.’

Exercise Energizes

Physical activity is a great stress buster. By increasing the heart rate and boosting circulation, exercise can leave us feeling revitalized and energized. Take a brief walk, go to spin class, practice a few yoga moves: it doesn’t matter what you do. It only matters that you do something.

Remember You Don’t Have To Go It Alone

One of the most stressful aspects of running a small business is the feeling that you’re all alone and isolated. There are so many decisions to be made every day, and it’s hard to know what choices are going to be best for your Westchester business. That’s stressful! Alleviate some of the pressure by creating a board of trusted advisors you can turn to for insight and guidance as you face challenging decisions. Your SCORE Westchester small business mentor is a great resource. Schedule your appointment today, and get ready for your stress levels to go down fast!

However, being a successful business owner turns out to be a lot easier when you have a good grasp of the financial side of your operation. There is certain information every Westchester business owner needs to know. At a minimum, you’ll want to know what revenues you’ve got coming in, what expenses you have, and how profitable your business is.

That’s a starting point. The more comfortable you are working with numbers, the easier it becomes to assess whether or not a particular decision is a good one to help you grow your small business. Should you carry this type of merchandise or that one? Is it a good idea to open a new location? How many employees can you afford to hire? Many times, small business owners try to make these decisions by ‘listening to their gut’ or ‘following their heart,’ but for consistently better results, you’ll want to look at the numbers first.

The more you know about your business, the better you’ll be able to run and grow your small business. Luckily, there are many software programs available now that make it easy to keep track of your business’s vital financial information. The time you invest in learning how to document and make use of your business financials will yield tremendous rewards.

Attend our FREE QuickBooks workshop on Wednesday, March 27th to learn the basics of working with QuickBooks. Register for free today!

What’s the secret to hiring great salespeople to help you grow your small business?

As often as possible, try interviewing your potential salespeople yourself. You’re choosing someone to represent your Westchester business, to be that face-to-face point of contact with the customer. You want to know what it’s like to engage with this person. Are they friendly and personable, or do they give off a ‘don’t talk to me’ air? Is it easy to have a conversation with them, or do you have to coax out every word?

Setting aside the nervousness that is an inherent part of the interview process, the personal interaction style demonstrated by your candidate is likely very similar to the experience your customer will have dealing with this person. Is this the right person to help represent your brand and grow your small business?

Retail experts agree: hire for personality and attitude. Skills can be taught. Smiling can’t.

Finally, it’s important to understand that sales training should never stop. Nobody ever learns everything there is to know. By discovering ways to become a more powerful, effective sales person and sharing them with your Westchester business sales team, you’re equipping them to sell even more – and that’s when your business thrives.

That’s why SCORE Westchester provides free, informative classes to Westchester business owners. Don’t miss next week’s seminar on Sales Strategies. Registration and attendance are free of charge!