SCORE’s Team Counseling Gets Designing Women in East Orange, NJ Off to a Good Start
In 1999, Emily McHugh needed one more class to finish her master’s degree in business at Columbia University. The course, “Managing New Business Ventures,” required her to write a business plan for a new enterprise. While searching for a topic, Emily noticed that most of her classmates used the same black laptop cases for their laptops. On the other hand, Emily had a more stylish case that her sister, Helena, had made for her. “People were always complimenting Helena’s bag,” Emily recalls. “So, I developed a plan for a company that would make laptop and Palm Pilot cases, and custom logo handbags.”
Emily got an “A” in the class, and an idea for starting a real business with her sister. She was unsure about pursuing it, however, because the real world of business is much different than a class assignment.
As part of her research, Emily had learned about many SBA programs, including SCORE. She visited Newark, NJ SCORE Chapter 15 and began meeting with volunteer business counselor Lou Zivi, who counseled her on business start-ups, setting priorities and obtaining financing. Emily also had several sessions with SCORE volunteer Dan Frisch, a former accountant, who helped fine-tune her business plan.
A year into her business start-up project, Emily met SCORE counselor Stephanie Farrar, an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. “It was wonderful to work with someone directly involved with the fashion industry,” Emily says. “She offered many ideas on the creative side, and encouraged me to attend seminars and other meetings where she would introduce me to her industry contacts.”
As the McHugh sisters began putting the pieces of her new enterprise together, Emily began seeking help on specific business issues from SCORE experts. When a fellow Columbia alumnus helped Emily identify an overseas manufacturer, SCORE counselors Peter Nachburg and David Malka provided help with international trade and shipping issues. For marketing guidance, Emily relied on counselors Al Pearl and Marvin Solomon. Former attorney Joseph Horowitz reviewed contracts and provided legal advice. And whenever she was at the SCORE office, Marvin Strauss always made time to check up on her progress.
With SCORE’s help, Emily and Helena had everything ready to debut their line of designer laptop and palm computer cases in time for the start of the December 2001 holiday shopping season. Their products can be found in several stores and boutiques in New York City, including Bloomindales and Sony Style.
Casauri has come a long way from Emily McHugh’s class project, and there are still many steps ahead on this entrepreneurial journey. Whenever Emily needs help with a decision, she goes right to her team of small business experts at SCORE. “They are just like an advisory board for us,” she says. “You can bounce ideas off them and get tangible feedback. If they didn’t know the answer, they always guide me to someone else who does.”
Camela Williams always knew two things about her professional future—she wanted to work with children and she desired to be her own boss. Six years ago, she was inspired by her love of the little ones—and pushed by the hand of fate—to open Camela's Cuddle & Cradle, a daycare center in Tyler, TX.
Camela started her career at a young age. She was a single, teenage mother when she provided in-home daycare upon graduating from high school. Simultaneously, she took child development classes at night. As more parents asked her to watch their children, Camela decided to open a daycare center.
Unfortunately, she says college did not teach her anything about starting a business. For instance, she soon realized if the property owner wanted to terminate her first lease, she would have to move and possibly lose her business. It was at that time Camela discovered the resources of her local SCORE office. A counselor worked with her to compile paperwork for a business plan, as an element to acquire a property loan.
"Camela has a natural energy and charisma—that is why she is successful. She's a hard working entrepreneur who has faced some tough times, but overcame them with her positive attitude," says Don Proudfoot, Camela’s SCORE volunteer business counselor.
It was through the work of several counselors that Camela was able to write the plan, secure a loan to buy property, and begin to operate more professionally. She continues to rely on the expertise of Don for business management and financial advice. Today, she is using SCORE's services to plan the purchase of a second building.
Today, Cuddle and Cradle cares for 40 children, with Camela at the helm as both owner and director. Her center operates on state government funding that helps the business better operate, at a time when the law requires lower child-to-staff ratios. She says the low ratios attribute, in part, to the decline in daycare options for working families. Unlike her center, most facilities need to charge higher rates to afford to meet the ratios.
To further assist those in need of daycare, Camela also trains people on how to open their own center. She preaches, "A good daycare center provides safety, love and a caring environment. The work has to be in your heart. You cannot do it for money. It is something you have to want to do for others."
In June 2000, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) honored Camela as the Welfare-to-Work Entrepreneur of the Year in the Dallas/Fort Worth District. But, she says her greatest professional achievement to date is not running her own business, but setting examples for some of the parents that are in lower-income brackets, as she once was. She understands teen mothers and the urge to drop out of school. So, in addition to her role as a business owner, she also provides counseling and mentoring for these young women.
As a minority female business owner, recently divorced with three children, Camela proves a determined soul. When asked how she achieved and maintains her business success, she says all she simply thinks of is her first son's first year of life. "We had nothing and all I did was pray for this moment. Times have been hard. I do get overwhelmed and I just think of where I am and what I did not have before."
“The best piece of advice SCORE gave me was that no matter where you come from, there is help available for small businesses, especially for single, independent woman,” Camela adds. I was surprised that it didn't cost me a penny.”
Dreams Come True as SCORE Helps Turn a Home Handbag Hobby into a Thriving Business
There were no guarantees of success when Yolanda Chavez became an entrepreneur 15 years ago. But the Albuquerque, NM wife and mother of two was certain of one thing; she did not want to fail. “I was 40 years old at the time,” she recalls, “and had too many assets at stake. I really could not afford to gamble my family’s future on something that would not work out.”
But what started out as a hobby of designing and sewing handbags has blossomed in ways that even the industrious Yolanda never thought possible. Her company, Carmen Handbags, is now a full-scale manufacturing operation headquartered in a building she purchased last year. Carmen Handbags produces nearly 70,000 purses and handbags a year for clients around the world and maintains a popular retail shop in Albuquerque's Old Town district.
It all began on a Sunday afternoon in 1986, when Yolanda took some of her hand-sewn purses door-to-door to some Old Town merchants. She managed to convince one store to sell the products, then went home to see what would happen. Within a few days, the handbags had been sold and the store was pleading for more. Yolanda had to work around the clock to fill the order; and once again the handbags sold quickly.
In the months that followed, Yolanda stepped up her sewing work in response to the growing number of requests. She named her products in honor of her mother, who had passed away recently, and began organizing a supply and production schedule. In 1988, Yolanda realized that she all the makings for a full-time business, one that would help finance college educations for her son and daughter.
Because she had no experience with payroll and business taxes, Yolanda called the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), which in turn, referred her to SCORE's Albuquerque Chapter. That turned out to be one of the best calls she ever made.
"I discovered a valuable resource of experienced business professionals," Yolanda says. "They not only provide valuable expertise for free, but also the kind of advice and wisdom that usually requires a lifetime to learn."
SCORE's first assignment was to tailor an accounting system for the needs of a manufacturing business. The system helped Yolanda monitor and project the company’s cash flow, and provided for a smooth transition when she was ready to hire an accountant. As the business grew, Yolanda worked with several volunteer mentors at SCORE's Albuquerque chapter, addressing issues ranging from evaluating potential manufacturing facilities to adding new products to the company's inventory. “SCORE counselors are very, very patient and willing to take as much time as necessary to help you,” Yolanda says. “It's great to have that kind of one-on-one interaction.”
Among the most important benefits of SCORE's counseling has been helping Yolanda avoid the pitfalls that lead to failure. “One of most valuable lessons has been to concentrate on the fundamentals, be frugal, and be disciplined in business habits,” she says, adding that accessing such experience at not cost is invaluable to small business. “With SCORE, you get all that knowledge in the counseling sessions, plus great seminars, all for free.”
Carmen Handbags has also proven to be a fitting memorial to Yolanda’s mother, a widow who raised seven children alone. "Making this business succeed is the result of hard work, drive and determination—traits I inherited from my mother," Yolanda says proudly. “When I needed advice starting out, SCORE was one of the best sources available. Today, even though I only work with them two or three times a year, I still rely on SCORE. They are wonderful people.”
