|
SCORE does a great job at unique workshops that are actually hands on, discussion oriented, and very specific to my needs. They have actual business people mentoring from live personal experience. Most are in business right now volunteering their time. Great resource. |
While I am not sure what the acronym stands for I know the organization stands as an opportunity to receive valuable knowledge from successful business people who get no reward other than the gift of helping other starting business ventures. Don Weil, thank you! |
What do the SCORE mentors of Essex do? |
My mentor is quite helpful. Always there for a sounding board and good orderly direction. |
Keep up the good work! Their service has been incredibly helpful, and I am very thankful! |
I am so happy with the service SCORE provides, it is such a comfort to get outside advice from an experienced mentor and couldn't praise Mike Moittel enough. He has been guiding us towards making our company a success by helping us focus on the core areas we need to get right now, helping us avoid the common pitfalls and giving us tips and support. An amazing service! |
Great resources! |
|
The experience and connections you'll get from SCORE is very resourceful for any entrepreneurs who would like to start up a business. |
|
SCORE is a wonderful resource that I was introduced to in 2002. They try to pair you with a mentor that fits your industry as closely as possible. I've taken classes through the SBA and met regularly with my friend and mentor, John Dellar. Words cannot express my gratitude for having John walk me through the ups and downs of business. He's been a blessing and I tell him repeatedly that any time I haven't listened, I've fallen. For my fellow entrepreneurs - take advantage of this resource--you may not always like what you hear, but these SCORE counselors have been through it all. They donate their valuable time and energy to help us not make potential mistakes. Best of luck and thank you to SCORE! |
I highly recommend them to any one that its in the starting stages of their business or in the middle of madness when it comes to help with a clearer view of the whole picture, SCORE comes in very handy. Juan E |
I had an appointment with John Dellar, who made my head spin with information, but I walked out with a priority task list and several things to think about. After my second experience with SCORE, I'd say that it's a must have for any entrepreneur. |
My Mentor is wonderful. I have been meeting with him for about 6 months and I always come away from our meetings with some new insights and strategies. He has been tremendously helpful. Having someone with so much experience to talk to about my start-up has been a big boost. Thank you Score! |
I was told by a colleague of mine that this is a great resource for people wanting to start their own business. I went on their website and got in touch with a mentor. He suggested about setting up an appointment so we can do a face-to-face. Totally cool! So I just called to set up an appointment and the woman who was trying to "help" me was a total B. I decided to look past the fact that she was chewing gum on the phone and her lack of enthusiasm, but that didn't work. She informed me that the mentor I wanted to meet was only available on Wednesdays. Okay, no big deal, but after asking about his availability, she was very firm that he is only available on Wednesday. Okay, that's not what I meant so I rephrased the question to what his availability is on Wednesdays. She started off with tomorrow and there were only 2 slots available that actually wouldn't work for me. So I just asked what his schedule was like for the following Wednesday. This woman not evening knowing how my schedule is, straight tells me, "If you are looking for an afternoon availability with him, that's not going to happen." I hung up. Thank you, fat B. |
After spending weeks trying to educate myself on business practices I took a class at The Small Business Admin. The class answered most of my questions and the questions I didn't get answered, Eli Frank, a SCORE mentor, gave me. The SBA classes are fantastic!! I plan on taking a few more. Eli Frank is wonderful!! I appreciate that he talked at my level, but never talked down to me. He gave me all the information I needed to get moving forward on my new business. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ELI ! ! ! |
Excellent! The staff have greatly helped our business to grow by recommending resources and nudging us in the right direction. I recommend Score to anyone starting a business for the first time. |
Score is a hidden gem in San Francisco. If you are looking for professional, credible and free advice on virtually any topic any small-mid size business faces, I recommend you work with Score. Score has helped my business on a range of topics from Entity Formation to HR and other legal questions that have popped up. Most recently an hour session (free) with Eli Frank was incredibly helpful. Eli is a retired attorney and is a no nonsense kind of man. He is approachable, bright, quick, knowledgeable, helpful and is in your corner. He had answers to all of our answers, kept us focused and invited us to come back should our legal needs arise again. We covered a lot of ground in just an hour and I am now able to strengthen the fine print of our contracts reducing our risks down the road. I've worked with and known many lawyers over the last 25 years and I can assure you Eli Frank is among the best. You are in friendly, capable and caring hands. |
I was laid off about 1 month ago. Since then I have been gathering information about starting my own business. I mainly needed someone with a lawyer sense to bounce some ideas off of and discuss my future professional responsibilities. My appointments at SCORE, with Eli Frank, have been a tremendous resource in trying to figure how best to go about starting my own business. The knowledge that my SCORE adviser gives me is so helpful... and it's FREE!!! I feel like I can get a lot out of the appointment each and every visit. I usually bring a list of questions in and shoot them off one by one. I get only constructive answers. He doesn't judge. We are all trying to make it in this world and I feel SCORE is such a great asset to all potential small businesses. 5 STARS for SCORE!! Thank you so much for your help:):) |
Love getting candid, actionable advice from Gary, my SCORE advisor. I came in a year ago with ideas to start my company and now it's getting off the ground. I find that opinions from all corner are out there, but not all are useful. Experienced perspective counts when starting a business for the first time. That's what you can find at SCORE. |
For business owners and those thinking about it, SCORE is a fantastic resource! They are knowledgeable, helpful, resourceful, and offer extensive experience that is city specific. They know the ins and outs of the City starting from paperwork, taxes, and financing and all the way to legal, marketing, research, and sales channels. They offer training sessions too. What questions do you have about starting, managing, and expanding your business? The SCORE team has the answer, and it is free. ------ Personal Experience: I found SCORE on-line and decided to try it out. At the time, I was new in SF and still researching my start up. They helped me figure out what type of business was right for me and where to file paperwork. Then, they answered my legal and tax related questions and helped me find a lawyer and accountant by pointing me in reliable directions. They even offered to take a look at my research and pointed to areas that I had missed or didn't think of at all. As it turns out, the first meeting that I had at SCORE was with someone who offered 20+ years of experience in the area of my start up. And she was happy to give me all the advice that I could handle. She even showed up at a financing event to provide support and advice on the spot. Guess where I will be going for my next business related question? |
SCORE is the very best place to go, if you are serious about starting a business. The team of counselors are great, the very best. And all of the services are free. I work with a team of the best counselors: My counselor and my friend: Huyla Koc, she cares about me so much, even when during her vocation, she still write e-mail to me, help me, support me and guide me. The advises she gave to me are so valuable, truly helped me stay focus and understands the problems with my business. Plus, she is such a loving person, always supports me like best friend. My counselor Gary Geschwind, he is marketing and pricing expert, he always helps me understand the market I am in, especially he guides in my business direction: what I should do, and what not to do. His advises in pricing are so great, and he helped me getting into a profitable business which I was not sure I would change my direction. My new counselor Steve Gordon, a super smart man, he is " very good at quickly analyzing a problem and efficently arriving at solutions." He is expert at legal issues and online business. There were two more great counselors: Kieth Mercier is great at fashion and retail side. The advises he gave to me I can never forget. But sadly he is too busy to be counselor any more. I missed him and I hope one day he will be proud he was my counselor at SCORE. His support and advise have been in mind guiding my business even he is no longer my counselor any more. Michael Wray is another great counselor, he is very sharp and strait forward. He is taking a break and hopefully he will be back soon. I hope my review can help you, if you want to start a business, do not miss this opportunity. SCORE is five star, the counselors are five star! |
This place is rad (so far). I'm in the middle of a business plan course and was directed by our facilitator to seek additional business plan advice here - best advice for advice ever! I was teamed up with a counselor/mentor who is razor sharp, doesn't treat me like an idiot and follows up with me regarding my progress. This kind of assistance is invaluable and one of those rare times the metaphorical lunch is actually free. In fairness, I should mention that I haven't used any of their other services yet, but can confidently give them the highest possible rating based on my experience to date. Whether you're in the concept phase or already opened your doors, you have nothing to lose by checking them out. |
When I heard about Score, I was so excited and eager to get some assistance in incorporating my new business. When I made the appointment, I stated specifically the area of expertise that I was seeking. I was assured that Score could help me and was told to come in. My husband and I took the day off from work thinking the session with Score would be much too valuble for our new business for either of us to miss. When we arrived, we were told to log-in on the computer instead of signing in on paper. We spend precious time preparing for the session by answering in detail the questions that Score had requested us to do before the session. When we met with the counselor, we presented the answers to him. I got a sick feeling when he neglected to read them. He just looked at the four page document and said,"it's interesting". We told him that we needed advice in incorporating our new business, he commence to discourage us with negatives and he talked on and on about totally unrelated issues. We attempted to ask questions about incorporating a company and he became frustrated and quickly ended the session. We were so disappointed. I would advise all others to not waste your time with this organization because it seems that they only want you to log-in so as to keep their bottom-line. They are obviously funded by the number of people who log-in to their program. My husband and I lost two days pay and wasted our time in the process. |
The class was amazing Noemi provides the information and show us how to use it. I love it!