Shannon and Fred Converse came from different business experiences to start a successful new company. Shannon has an education background and continues to teach students with multiple and severe disabilities at the Therapeutic Learning Center at Ox Ridge Elementary in Darien, CT. Fred, meanwhile, boasts business expertise from working for Viacom for many years, then later for a Denver-based media dot-com.
The couple decided that instead of only answering to others, they would become entrepreneurs. They shared a passion for children and education, so it seemed a natural fit.
Owner/Founder
Shannon and Fred Converse
My Successes
Neither had owned a business before, so Fred first began looking into franchise opportunities. When they couldn’t find exactly what they wanted, they decided to start their own business—My Tutor and Me, LLC, which offers private, in-home tutoring for public and private school students, from kindergarten through high school, in Southern Connecticut and Westchester County. State-certified and professional teachers are carefully selected from among the brightest in their fields, including highly qualified reading specialists and special education teachers.
“We’re getting a healthy mix of new customers and repeat clients as children get older,” Fred says. “For instance, they may have previously come to us for a math tutor, and now they need help with SATs.” Fred and Shannon know their SCORE mentor is always there to help.
Five years later, the business is still growing. Last year, My Tutor and Me doubled its profits.
What's Great About My Mentor?
While doing start-up business research, Fred found information about SCORE, and the couple began face-to-face mentoring at the local office in Norwalk. They began meeting monthly with SCORE Mentor Ray Wolfe. “Ray talked about the basics of creating a business plan, and also provided competitive research advice,” Shannon says. “He became sort of a cheerleader for us, encouraging us on our marketing. He also referred us to other counselors for legal and accounting advice.”
“Ray keeps in touch to find out how the business is going,” Shannon says. “It’s not just us calling SCORE. He also stops by our home office for mentoring sessions. It’s been a very personal and rewarding experience.”
How SCORE Helped
Fred adds, “In our first year, we needed to keep our expenses low. It’s great getting all of this advice for free from SCORE.”
Taking early retirement after more than three decades of working in the Lawton, OK, public school system didn’t mean that Howard and Jo Jean Johnson were ready to slow down. They dreamed of starting a business that would fill a need in the community and provide them with a successful career change. The ideal solution was to open a franchise of Sylvan Learning Centers, the world’s leading provider of supplemental education services to primary and secondary school students.
Owner/Founder
Howard and Jo Jean Johnson
My Successes
The first task for the Johnsons was convince Sylvan’s corporate officials in Baltimore that Oklahoma’s third largest city qualified for a franchise. “Sylvan’s demographic review indicated that Lawton was indeed a viable location for its third Oklahoma Learning Center,” Howard says. “It was up to Jo Jean and me to make it happen.”
Having worked with community education during his years as a school administrator, Howard knew all about SCORE and the valuable services the organization provides to new entrepreneurs. But he was in for a surprised when he called SCORE’s Lawton Chapter. “The man who picked up the phone turned out to be Vic Yarborough, my family’s next-door neighbor when I was growing up,” Howard says with a smile. “He and his colleagues would a tremendous help in getting us started.”
More than four years after contacting SCORE, the Lawton Sylvan Learning Center serves approximately 150 students each month with after-school help reading and math, as well as other academic needs. In terms of revenue, the Johnsons’ franchise ranks among the leading 35 percent of Sylvan’s more than 900 Learning Centers in North America, putting the couple more than halfway on the road to repaying their bank loan. They also purchased a new building that gives them an additional 1,500 square feet of much-needed space for their growing business.
What's Great About My Mentor?
Vic Yarborough, a retired executive with Halliburton Services, immediately enrolled the Johnsons in several seminars that provided advice on banking, legal issues and zoning. As with most of new enterprises, though, the big issue was money. “Vic put us in touch with a bank and helped us prepare the business plan for the loan application,” Howard says. “That led to an SBA-backed loan that we used to pay the franchise fee, lease a building, do the build-out, purchase equipment, meet city zoning requirements and meet our other start-up costs.”
How SCORE Helped
The Johnson’s still call on SCORE occasionally when a question arises about management or finances. Howard is also pleased that his search for a new business advisor reconnected him with an old family friend. “I was so happy when Vic stopped by recently to tour our new building,” he says. “The expert, caring help he and his colleagues at SCORE provided was absolutely essential to our success. They have been helpful from the get-go.”
In her 30-year career as a teacher and trainer, Gail Greenbaum discovered that the best way to help kids learn and achieve goals is to present information through clear concepts that they can relate to their daily lives. She also knew that in order to be more engaged in learning, young people needed encouragement to develop better eating, sleeping and exercise habits. The best way to do that, she felt, was for teachers to set the example. In addition, by drawing analogies of these habits from the stories, teachers could teach more compelling lessons.
New York
NY
United States
My Successes
Gail, who spent most of her profession teaching English at a very high performing school, put her ideas to the test when she spent her final year as a teacher in a low-performing New York City school. Pass rates improved dramatically. “I realized that I had the centerpiece of a training program that could benefit all types of schools, and help re-ignite teachers’ passion by showing them the power of improving their own healthy habits,” Gail says. “Since all of my experience was as a teacher, however, and I knew nothing about marketing or how to create a viable business, I knew I needed help.”
Schools that are using Gail’s training are getting some equally incredible results. One saw its students’ math scores increase by 31 percent. The school is now applying T.E.AM. to its English classes.
What's Great About My Mentor?
At a friend’s recommendation, Gail contacted New York City SCORE and outlined her training program idea to a volunteer mentor. The mentor immediately realized that Gail’s then-business partner was actually a liability. He recommended an attorney for her to consult. “He left a lasting legacy,” Gail says. ”The lawyer he recommended has become an invaluable advisor.”
Gail has similar praise for her current SCORE mentor, Elliott Merberg. “He’s simply terrific,” Gail says, noting that one of the first things Merberg recommended was renaming her program “T.E.AM.” for Transforming Education in AMerica. “This defined exactly what I wanted to do,” she says. “That clarity made me even more motivated to make this idea work.”
Elliott also worked with Gail as she developed a sales presentation for schools. He accompanied her to the first appointment, and offered some follow-up ideas for improvement. “Within a couple of days, I had sold the program to three schools, which was exactly what I felt I could handle starting out,” Gail says. “The effectiveness of Elliott’s advice and support was incredible.”
Elliott is now helping Gail think about how to expand T.E.AM. from a one-woman effort into a successful business. Among the issues they’re discussing are investing in a dedicated marketer and creating a structure to hire and compensate a team of trainers who can bring the program’s benefits to many schools.
“Elliott is always expanding my awareness, and making me think about the next step,” Gail says. “I’m very appreciative to him and SCORE for helping me learn how to make this a viable and sustainable business.”
How SCORE Helped
Gail says that the experience of working with SCORE itself is a valuable lesson for entrepreneurs of any age. “The outer world is changing so rapidly that young people don’t always realize the value of experience since many basic elements of human nature never change,” she says. “It’s wonderful to have a program like SCORE that honors experienced people.”
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During Jay McChord’s 10 years in the financial services industry, he noticed that the older executives he worked with had trouble managing and motivating the demographic group he belonged to—Generation X. He recognized that generations not only differ in age, they bring to the workplace a distinct approach to doing their jobs. Jay saw an opportunity to serve as a generational bridge-builder.
Lexington
KY
United States
My Successes
When Jay’s employer experienced troubled times and he was laid off, he made the decision to start a business focused on breaking down generational barriers and educating different age groups on each other’s different styles and traits. Jay’s Lexington, KY business, Workplace Buzz, was born in the fall of 2000.
Today, Jay is on a mission to see more Gen Xers benefit from SCORE mentoring. He says, “People in my age group aren’t learning what we need to know in our formal education. Generation Xers need and want to be mentored, but he have a lot of pride and don’t always ask for help. We look for mentors who will teach and share experiences.”
Jay explains that while Generation Xers appear to have a skeptical outlook on work and their loyalty centers around individuals rather than organization and companies, they possess entrepreneurial qualities. Gen Xers are flexible, action-oriented, independent, self-directed, technically competent and comfortable with the constantly changing nature of work today. Jay thinks that with long-term guidance and support from SCORE mentors, more Generation Xers can survive and thrive as small business owners.
What's Great About My Mentor?
Excited by the vision of becoming “the spokesperson for Generation X,” Jay went to SCORE for some marketing advice. He met SCORE Mentor Mark Halleck, a former advertising agency business owner. Part instructor, part advocate—Mark turned out to be an ideal coach for Jay. Meeting with Mark each week, Jay has experienced first-hand how two generations can work effectively together.
Jay continues to meet with Mark each week, and Workplace Buzz continues to grow. Jay tours the country speaking to business people on the mindset of Generation Xers and how understanding the viewpoints, desires and motivations of this age group can affect their bottom line. Last December, at the SCORE District Directors Conference in San Diego, CA, Jay spoke to district directors (DDs) on how to attract and form long-term mentoring relationships with Gen X clients.
How SCORE Helped
“The future of small business relies on Gen X entrepreneurs taking up the torch passed on from a retiring generation of small business owners. Older people want to leave a legacy beyond their bank account and building. SCORE allows these folks to leave a legacy by investing in people,” says Jay.
Summary
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It just didn’t make sense, thought Laurie Gadbois. Most experts claimed that the best time for trimming babies’ finger- and toenails is when they are sleeping. But seeing the nails of her two-year-old son, Tor, she thought the delicate job of clipping was difficult enough in the daylight, let alone a dimly lit room. She worried about accidentally cutting Tor in the dark, or waking him and facing the difficult ordeal of completing the clipping, then settling him back down.
Laurie soon found many other mothers had the same concerns. Fitting baby nail clippers with a built-in light seemed like a great idea, yet no such product seemed to exist.
“The answer was simple,” Laurie says. “Why not do it myself?”
Las Vegas
NV
United States
My Successes
Enlisting the creativity of her father, Laurie went through the process of developing the idea into manufacturable product that Laurie named Baby Light and Clip. Along the way, she learned some difficult lessons about the scruples of potential business partners and the intricacies of readying a product for the market.
Although Laurie’s determination and her family’s limited financial resources kept the concept Baby Light and Clip moving forward, she still lacked a business plan that would guide her product when it became reality. A chance conversation at a fast food shop led Laurie to Orange County SCORE and volunteer mentor Jim Anderson.
Four years after being inspired to create Baby Light and Clip, Laurie finally completed the arduous product development process. With the assistance of a Florida-based outsourcing company and a foreign manufacturer, she received a container load of products and began demonstrating the product at various trade shows.
At Anderson’s suggestion, Laurie also marketed the product directly to retailers to maximize profit. A public relations agency also has generated valuable publicity for Baby Light and Clip in parenting magazines and on the Internet.
Within 11 weeks after Laurie launched her marketing campaign, Baby Light and Clip could be found in 114 stores nationwide with the promise of more to come, thanks to the sales expertise of Laurie’s husband.
What's Great About My Mentor?
“I thought about everything we were trying to do, and generated a business plan for Jim to review,” Laurie says. “He helped me feel confident that I was on the right path, but said we had to pay closer attention to the financial aspects.”
Anderson created a spreadsheet that Laurie could use to monitor and analyze her company’s financial position. “I can send him the numbers anytime and make sure I’m still on the right track,” she says. “And he’s always ready to provide guidance and encouragement.”
“Jim makes sure I’ve considered everything, which is so important because there are many unknowns to starting a small business,” Laurie says. “He is a true source of strength.”
How SCORE Helped
While the experience of becoming an entrepreneur has been both exhilarating and sometimes frustrating, Laurie confesses to having only one regret. “I wish I’d known about Jim Anderson and SCORE earlier,” she says. “It would have made things go so much faster. Jim could have helped me focus on the right path rather than sometimes being all over the place.”
As Baby Light and Clip grows in step with son Tor, now six years old, Laurie is counting on SCORE to help keep her company on the right path.
Starting a business or non-profit organization is not a trivial undertaking. The following steps should only be undertaken after you have completed your business plan and obtained sufficient funding.
Business Plan
Starting a business or non-profit organization is not a trivial undertaking. The following steps should only be undertaken after you have completed your business plan and obtained sufficient funding. Help in developing a business plan is available from local SCORE mentors, Online mentors, face-to-face workshops and
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