• Review/reduce expenses and inventory.
• Analyze your customers and take very good personal care of the important ones.
• Husband your cash. You can squeeze cash out of many places in business (don’t forget about tax loss carry forwards)
• Market hard.
• Hang in there.

Jack Scott
Denver SCORE (#62)
Denver, CO

• Start with the basics.
• List the problems you plan to solve and how your product or service will do it.
• Work on your business plan – we can help and mentor you.
• Plan the reason to start your business and how will you exist.
• Learn how to raise money and how to attract friends, family and fools, but make it work to generate revenue to grow or attract VC’s.
• Hire or form alliances to get your business up and running. Always hire smarter people than yourself. Analyze your talents and only do what you are good at, bring on outside help when you need it.
• Build your team – start at SCORE and take all classes offered, ask for a mentor team, do the work and let the mentor give advice and follow it when it works, decide your definition of success and figure how much your company needs to do to develop a sustainable lifestyle, put aside money for R&D to develop a sustainable business.
• Read, take classes, think about your business and where you can take it.
• Develop an exit strategy and have your business hire great people. Give them authority to have small failures that they learn from and grow. Hire, train, grow and develop sustainability.
• Never give up!

Tom Loegering
Greater Phoenix SCORE (#105)
Phoenix, AZ

• Do not be greedy. Have faith and pray.
• Be visible in the community with whatever help you can provide. You cannot take, take and take from people with returning good.
• Provide quality products and services…customers remember.
• Good, earnest, sincere service is immeasurable.
• Re-evaluate your lifestyle. Are you living beyond your means?

Edna Mathis
Coastal SCORE (#285)
N. Charleston, SC

Clients are not two people, their personal/work life are entwined. Clients are encouraged to "google" suggested websites for personal self-development, complete self-help surveys for feedback. Gaining clarity of purpose, vision, values and philosophy will be integrated into business practices.

Jacquelyn Martin
San Diego SCORE (#140)
San Diego, CA

• There are always two sides to a story, get both. Investigate, Investigate, Investigate.
• Contact a SCORE office for face-to-face mentoring.
• Do not only market research on your competitors but also do compensation and benefit research also on a yearly basis, including contacts with the State Human Resource centers for exhaustive, helpful information on all facets of business.

John Whiteside
Asheville SCORE (#137)
Asheville, NC

• Be patient.
• Be creative and willing to take risks.
• Be open and honest with clients and employees.
• Network and socialize as much as possible to promote the business.

Linda Shaheen
Orlando SCORE (#138)
Orlando, FL

As a former middle-market banker, I dealt with and financed hundreds of small and medium sized businesses over a twenty five year career. The basic principles of successful businesses have not changed for centuries.

Carve out a position or market niche in a product or service category and manage the business to yield real profits that generate real cash in excess of cash needs.

Bankers have always set the limits on businesses relating to imprudent expansion, by withholding funds. Over-trading or over-expansion of markets, sales units of retail chains, number or size of real estate developments, etc. often lead to failure due to inadequate capital, management depth or preparedness for adverse economic conditions.

I have often found the seeds of future or even imminent failure through the analysis of the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Many businesses fail because they cannot achieve reasonable inventory turnover, relative to sales and capital. They often ignore recommendations of auditors to write down and/or liquidate outdated or excess inventory. This is especially true in seasonal businesses. Heavy inventory relative to sales (slow turnover) usually is a precursor to future losses.

Martin Leibowitz
Nassau County SCORE (#1001)
Long Island, NY

Existing businesses that are having problems surviving usually are owned by entrepreneurs who are reluctant to seek help until it is too late. SCORE can help with triage and we have done so through specially designed workshops and also through one-on-one mentoring.

When working with SCORE or with any external advisor, try to avoid being too proud or too set in the way you operate to change.

Robert Bailey
Indianapolis SCORE (#6)
Indianapolis, IN

In addition to having a banking relationship, the owners must have an ongoing relationship with an attorney for more than the obvious role of drafting up stock certificates; buy out agreements, non-compete agreements and reviewing loan agreements. Legal council will be a continuing requirement as the company progresses and potential legal liabilities or actions occur.

Insurance coverage is most important and cannot be overlooked. An experienced insurance advisor is absolutely vital and the purchase of insurance policies must be completed before any operations can begin. Life insurance policies for all partners are a must in the event it is necessary to repurchase stock from family members of the deceased.

Adhere to conservative financial management and common sense. Salary management is without question the most difficult aspect of corporate operations. Someone has to be the tough guy and say no to a raise request when it is not warranted or affordable. Confidentiality in salary discussions is absolutely vital to moral. No employee has a right to know a fellow employees’ salary. An absolute minimum and hopefully only one administrative employee should have payroll responsibility and that employee must have a locked desk and office. Salary decisions must be managed by the senior partner and not by respective division managers.

Taxes must be accrued on a monthly basis and paid quarterly. Many business failures are a result of IRS intervention because management procrastinates about this most important matter, which cannot be overlooked.

Robert Perry
SCORE Birmingham (#84)
Birmingham, AL