Women Entrepreneurs

Cloak and Dagger Meets Chocolate and Peanut Butter - Aleksander Hewitt

Date
Fri, 2013-02-01 11:53

Delivering home-baked cookies that leave you guilt-free, Undercover Cookies is run by three health-conscious yoga instructors. Valerie Mantzoros, Cindy Toda, and Eva Klembarova all work at the Bikram hot yoga studio on Higuera Street in San Luis Obispo where they came up with the idea to create healthy alternative cookies.

They took their cookie company idea to the SLO chapter of SCORE, which is a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education.

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Military Spouse Foundation Gives Entrepreneurs a Place to Go - April Dudash

Date
Fri, 2013-02-01 10:10

Mary John-Williams turned to Fayetteville State University's Veterans Business Outreach Center and the SCORE mentorship program before starting her business.

John-Williams saw an opportunity in Fayetteville not long after moving there with her Army husband about three years ago. What began as a word-of-mouth business cleaning houses for fellow military spouses is now A Green Clean Environmental Inc.

 

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Aviva Esthetics

Owner/Founder
Alisha Finneran
My Location
152 Court Street
Portsmouth NH 03801
United States
Year Company Formed
2012
How SCORE Helped

January 31, 2013 2:00 AM
Portsmouth Herald

Photo by Deb Cram

PORTSMOUTH — Aviva Esthetics, the dream of owner Alisha Finneran, opened at 152 Court St. just after Thanksgiving and has bustled into the new year providing personalized skin care and hair removal treatments for local clients.

"My vision for my own spa developed slowly," Finneran said. "I love what I do, and it's the clients who motivate me. I wanted a place where I could provide a truly personal experience for my clients."

Aviva Esthetics offers full-service skin care, including waxing and facial services. Using the Murad line of skin care products, Aviva tackles a wide range of skin issues from acne to mitigating sun damage with glycolic peels and vitamin C treatments.

Finneran, who lives with her husband in Kittery, Maine, began her career as an esthetician in 2006. She started at Solari Salon and Spa in Portsmouth, where she practiced her craft for more than six years before establishing her own business.

"Solari was a wonderful place to learn and grow," Finneran said. "They've been incredibly supportive of my move to create Aviva Esthetics."

SCORE Helps Navigate Challenges

Finneran said she has had a passion for skin care for years.

"What I didn't have was the experience to navigate the tricky challenges of starting a company: financial forecasting, legal issues, insurance, lease negotiations," she said. "I needed coaches to help guide me through that process."

Last March, Finneran turned to SCORE's Seacoast chapter 185 in Portsmouth. SCORE volunteers Liz LeSavoy and John Udaloy began working with her on a business plan, cash-flow management, accounting, legal and insurance issues. SCORE counselors are experienced small-business professionals who volunteer their time and advice to new businesses.

The time invested has paid off, according to Finneran. She said the number of customers during the holiday season greatly exceeded her hopes, and she's looking forward to a busy winter and spring growing her new business with the support of loyal customers and her counseling team from SCORE.

New Esthetics Business Launches in Portsmouth

Date
Thu, 2013-01-31 09:37

Aviva Esthetics, the dream of owner Alisha Finneran, opened just after Thanksgiving and has bustled into the new year providing personalized skin care and hair removal treatments for local clients.

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Jaimi Ellison, Owner of Santa Cruz Core Fitness, Named Woman Entrepreneur of the Year - Jondi Gumz

Date
Fri, 2013-01-18 09:56

Three and a half years of hard work is paying off for personal trainer Jaimi Ellison, with the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship naming her its 2013 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year.  Ellison, 30, owner of Santa Cruz Core Fitness, was nominated by Jack Zahorsky, a business consultant who volunteers with Santa Cruz SCORE counseling startups.

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Moats Kennedy Inc.

Marilyn Moats Kennedy, a former journalist and Glamour columnist as well a DePaul professor, had a successful and profitable business giving keynote speeches and workshops on changing workforce demographics. Towards the end of 2008, business slowed and by 2009 it was at a standstill.  At the advice of a friend, she sought assistance from a SCORE mentor who helped her launch the business into the digital age.

www.MoatsKennedy.com

Owner/Founder
Marilyn Moats Kennedy
My Location
Chicago IL
United States
Year Company Formed
1975
My Successes

Marilyn began blogging to showcase her expertise. “Blogging has been tremendously helpful, because unlike traditional journalism, people give immediate feedback,” she says.

In the past, Marilyn had only gotten work from those who had heard her speak. Now the blogging campaign “extended my reach beyond those whom I had already worked for. Speaking and workshop leads come from the website and blog as well.”

How SCORE Helped

Marilyn had spent $3,000 on a website to revive her business, but the developer was unresponsive and the project unsatisfactory. Then Erica Levin, a SCORE client, referred her to SCORE mentor Peg Corwin for help with online marketing.  Together she and her mentor revised the moatskennedy.com website, which she can now access and edit herself. Peg advised on appropriate copy, search engine optimization, and blogging. She helped her find a developer by providing names of three from whom to get quotes.

Peg also advised Marilyn on her social media presence, helping her fill in her LinkedIn profile and organize and network with target clients through it.

Marilyn concludes, “Peg Corwin has helped me with the social media, my website, SEO, and marketing more than I even knew I needed. I am 200% ahead of where I was before she worked with me.”

Revelle Academy

Growing up in Norway, Evelyn Squires had a passion for ballet from an early age.  Upon settling in Sarasota, Florida she founded Revelle Academy to bring dance to the next generation. The academy has a strong underpinning of ballet but has responded to market demands by offering tap, jazz, flamenco, modern, lyrical and hip-hop dance instruction.  Evelyn says, “Our goal is to teach our students to work together, to believe in themselves, to appreciate the arts and music and to take a chance.  The training they get here, they can use for the rest of their lives.”

www.RevelleAcademy.com

Owner/Founder
Evelyn Squires
My Location
Sarasota FL
United States
Employees
10
Year Company Formed
2007
My Successes

Two years into the business, Revelle has 10 part-time employees in an 8,200 square foot facility catering to 175 students.

SCORE mentor Charlie Sax commented on Revelle’s success saying, “In a very bad economy, they grew their business dramatically.  She has a real passion for what she is doing.”

In 2009, Revelle Academy was named Manasota SCORE Small Business of the Year.  The business was recently chosen by Sam’s Club Holiday Cheer for Small Business program to receive a $1,000 gift card and funding to attend a 2-day SCORE “High Speed Growth Seminar” in Dallas, TX.  The award was given in recognition of the business’s growth and Evelyn’s commitment to ongoing learning.

How SCORE Helped

Evelyn’s mother-in-law, Heather, encouraged her to contact SCORE to fill in the gaps of her business knowledge.  SCORE mentors Charles Sax and Richard Radt taught Evelyn how to develop a business plan and then reviewed the plan with her.  The two mentors also brought in a banking specialist to advise on obtaining a loan.  When presented with an offer to buy out a competitor, her SCORE mentors helped Evelyn evaluate the possibility.

“They made me think about a lot of things I hadn’t thought of before, how to develop a mission statement, where was my money coming from,” she said.  “I would have made a lot more mistakes if they (SCORE) hadn’t helped.”

How To Articles
Published Jan. 16, 2013

 

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