Tip of the Mitt SCORE, the local chapter of SCORE International, has selected Tillie’s Tafel as the 2023 Client of the Year. The Client of the Year is selected by the local SCORE mentors from the clients served in the year prior. SCORE offers confidential mentoring services at no charge for current or prospective small business owners.

SCORE Tip of the Mitt has been working with Patti and Jeff Dewes, owners of Tillie’s Tafel, since 2021 when the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce recommended SCORE’s services. Here is their story:

Patti and Jeff had semi-retired in 2019 and were traveling

In Northern Michigan one of our biggest hurdles to running a small business is finding and hiring the right employees. There are many factors that contribute to this including the lack of affordable or workforce housing, an aging population, more kids being involved in extracurricular activities during non-school hours that conflict with business’s needs, too many positions are seasonal, etc. As a SCORE mentor, I see this is one of the key points that many people miss in their business plans. How are you going to find and hire employees. As a business owner or a hiring manager/HR professional

As a small business owner, managing your finances is no small task. One of the main reasons businesses fail is poor cash flow management. If you don’t have a ton of experience with accounting/bookkeeping, there are some things you need to know. The money you will spend for these professional services is worth it!

Even though the terms are frequently used interchangeably, bookkeepers and accountants are NOT the same thing. They each provide distinctly different services for your business. Bookkeepers record transactions and financial activities of your business. Accountants use this financial

As you consider starting or expanding a business, one helpful tool is understanding your Unit Costs. This is important whether you are offering a either a service, or a product.

Simply stated, your unit cost is the cost of your service or product at a given volume. It is calculated by adding up your fixed and variable costs and dividing by your expected units to be sold.

Some definitions:

Fixed Costs are those that infrequently change in your business. These typically can be rent, utilities, computers and networks, phone, internet, insurance, an annual repair budget, auto leases, certain

Two thirds of businesses survive two years in business, 50% of all businesses will survive five years and only one third will survive 10 years. The primary reason is thought to be lack of financial knowledge, tracking, cash flow and funding.

If revenue was lost for two months, 86% of small businesses would need to supplement funding or cut costs. We see what happened when COVID shut down many businesses. 

Why is bookkeeping throughout the year important?

It helps you in all facets of your business. You need to prepare a budget so you can be sure you are going to make enough to pay bills all

We all agree that marketing is critical and crucial for the success of a business. And marketing is a broad term that includes many media – online/content/web/social media/advertising/public relations/community outreach and more. Most medium to large businesses have a marketing department to handle these responsibilities so that there is a consistent focus on the company. What’s confusing is that many small businesses believe that it’s a DIY project. 

What I have found in years of consulting for small companies and nonprofits, is that they have great intentions to market their companies. But

This week I was staring into my cell phone watching a you tube video and looked over at my wife as she was looking at her cell phone while using her earphones to block out the sound coming from my phone video, and it hit me – this is crazy – we are 6 feet away from each other and couldn’t be further apart in our communication.

We both kind of laughed and put down our phones and talked – yes actually talked.

This dovetailed with my recent appointment to the economic development board in my county of residence – as I have now attended a couple of those meetings and thought – wow – we really need

I’ve been inundated with spammers trying to sell me Google Reviews for my business profile. No matter how tempting it sounds, just say no to buying reviews!

Why? The answer is simple, really.

Buying reviews for your business profile violates Google’s guidelines.

Not only is it against Google’s guidelines for your business to offer incentives for reviews, you can’t solicit reviews from your customers in exchange for payment.

• Per Google’s guidelines, content is “most valuable when it is honest and unbiased.”
• Per Google Support, “Business owners should not offer incentives to customers to

Your business manages social media profiles to reach more people and to communicate. Social media engagement refers to the level of interaction between your business and your audience.

Engagement can include likes, comments, shares, direct messages, and all kinds of interaction on your social media posts and profiles.

Engagement is an important metric for your business to track. It tells you the level of interest and connection that people have with your brand.

A high level of engagement will lead to increased brand awareness, customer loyalty, and the opportunity to make new sales.

Measur