SCORE mentor Mike Crumbo talks about how SCORE helps small businesses and non-profits to understand their business, the landscape, and how to succeed at their goals.
Here is the transcript from the presentation:
Ryan: Well, everybody I’d like to introduce for you, August is Back to School Month, so all month, the speakers that we’ve invited have a focus on learning and improvement for your business, plus we have the added benefit of those of us with children, get to send them back to school so we get our daytime hours back to focus on business.
Ryan: So, I’d like to introduce to you today, one of the first people I met getting started in networking. We met in Greenwood at a weekly event that he hosted. Found out that he is also a Rotarian, a member of the Center Grove Rotary Club, which their name was recently updated. Also, Mike is an Assistant Governor for District 6580 this year, which is the southern, oh about a little over, half of the state, so.
Ryan: And Mike is going to talk to us today about SCORE, which is an organization funded by the Small Business Administration and actually made possible by volunteers. So, everyone, let’s give Mike a hand.
Mike: I just one quick correction. We’re funded directly by the Federal Government. The SBAs are fiduciary agents, so they help with the distribution of the funds, but we are a separate entity, or a standalone 501(c)3, and have been since day one, so just quick clarification. Will I be able to get to share some screens? Very good, OK?
Mike: Uh, let me do a quick background about SCORE. Well, let me, I, I told you a little bit about me. I was in manufacturing operations for 45 years and I’ve worked across the United States and, and, and ¾ of the way around the world. I’ve worked in mainland China, Japan, Mexico, Canada, the US, Hungary, Italy. A few other places. So, sort of seen, seen business from all kinds of different aspects.
Mike: The best part of this is I retired 10 years ago. After the end of that careering, and, and my wife immediately felt better ’cause I was always in the same time zone with her. That was a big issue for us before and it really was. I mean, it really is 1/4 after 4:00 tomorrow morning in Tokyo right now. I can guarantee you, that, that one is embedded in the, in the gray cells here, at any rate, I, I joined SCORE because I wanted to still stay engaged with business, and, and the only difference is I had to slide a decimal point, you know, over to the over to the left in order to, to talk about the same kind of dollars and cents issues.
Mike: But the fundamental issues of running a business don’t change just because the business gets bigger. Uh, if, if they do then you end up in a ditch like GM. Did you know where they lost sight of what they were supposed to be doing as an example, so, hopefully there’s somebody there to save you. In small business world, nobody’s there to save you, so you gotta fend for yourself.
Mike: I want to talk a little bit. Uh, 1964 was the year that, that, that SCORE was started. It became a 501(c)3. It was started by, by the auspices of the SBA. They were getting a lot of people asking a lot of questions and they didn’t have the resources to answer them or to be able to stay with those clients for very long time, so the idea here is that is that SCORE will stay with the client for the life of their business.
Mike: That’s our byline. We’re there for the life of your business. So, I’ve been doing this for 10 years. My oldest client started his business in 2014, and he’s still my client. We meet every three or four months for coffee or lunch and talk about how things have been going, new ideas he might have bouncing around, sort of like what’s going on in the market. It helps him debrief.
Mike: And back when I was running the business that I was running, I had to pay somebody to do that. Who came by every month and I get a chance to talk to him and get some help.
Mike: So, we do this for free. All of it, and I’ll talk to you about the statistics a little later. But just for the record, there are 11,000 volunteers like me across the United States. And 350 chapters that help mentor clients and there are 84 mentors in the Indianapolis chapter, so if you can’t find someone here that has the skills that you want, we can reach out across the United States to the person who can.
Mike: And so, we’ve been able to do that.
Mike: Well, let me start with some fundamentals about the organization and we’ll go from there. Let’s share my screen here.
Mike: Uhm, this is some information about the mission and vision and values of the organization, so the mission is to foster vibrant small business communities through mentoring and education.
Mike: The emphasis is on small business, so it’s not like how many clients do we have, it’s how many businesses have we helped start. And so, our statistic is based on, from that, and, and from the federal government’s point of view, why they would give us money, is the more businesses there are, the more employees they can hire and the more tax dollars they can generate.
Mike: And so, there’s an ulterior motive, like there always is, being able to get money from the federal government, but our focus is on, on the vibrant business communities.
Mike: Our vision is that anybody, everybody gets the support that they need to start, and become a business owner.
Mike: And there are people who have wide-ranging dreams, and that’s great, but sometimes they don’t even know the questions they should be asking, and so that’s our role is to help them understand the questions and then help direct them to where they can find those answers.
Mike: Our values are monitored, so clients, so, if our clients are successful, we consider ourselves to be successful. We use NPS. The Net Promoter Score, through a series of surveys that we issued to our clients to determine if we are meeting their needs and then we would be referred to others by them.
Mike: ‘Cause we need to grow our business like everyone else does. Non-profits, still need to, to grow business through acquisition. And, and for, just for the record, the Net Promoter Score for SCORE nationally is 86%, uh, the Net Promoter Score for the Indianapolis chapter is 92. We do a pretty good job of taking care of our clients, and they’re willing to refer us to their friends and business associates.
Mike: Small business matters. About 75% of the business in the United States, that makes the economy grow, are businesses with less than 10 employees.
Mike: We can think about Lily and GM and Boeing and all of those companies, but it’s really, it really does come down to, to what people normally term Mom and pop shops, right? The smaller businesses really generate the economy that that makes the U.S. go.
Mike: Uh, volunteers’ matter, so we do a lot of lifelong learning exercises. We, we promote, uh, a lifelong learning environment. We are going to have a meeting next week of our chapter and part of that will be a, role playing, is a, is a testing how we go about resolving issues when questions come up from our clients.
Mike: So, we’re, we’re practiced and able to help them along.
Mike: Uh, experience matters, and so we’re looking for people who have had, uh, leadership roles in business, and I’m just going to say it that way. It doesn’t have to be C-level. It, it has to be somebody who may have owned their own business.
Mike: They may award to add a staff level in a larger business, but they know how to, how I call it, how to get things done. More importantly, they know how the business works. And, and that’s why the experience matters to us.
Mike: And relationships matter. And as I said, my oldest client, my longest serving client, is, is from 2014. About 70% of the clients that I met are our returning clients. In other words, I have a relationship with them that lasts longer than one or two meetings. And that’s generally the, the tone for the brand.
Mike: I will operate a branch here in Johnson County. But that’s the tone for our branch. Our branch actually has an 80%, uh, engagement rate. In other words, they’re, 80% of the clients that we meet on a monthly basis are return clients, not brand-new clients.
Mike: And for us, diversity matters. You know, when you’re in business, whoever walks in the door is a potential client. Whoever answers, whoever hits your website and clicks through is also a potential client.
Mike: And if you’re in business, it’s whoever, whoever the client is, needs to be served.
Mike: And so, our issue is, is making sure that that we can configure our organization to look more like our client. And I’ll talk about our client make up in a while and, and, and that’s been an ongoing issue for us.
Mike: You know, I’m a, an old white guy with gray hair, and you don’t usually find guys who look like me necessarily starting a new business right? They look more like Ryan, you know, or, or, or people in that age group.
Mike: Uh, and so you know, diversity is, is an issue for us, and I mentioned, lifelong learning. This is not a one and done deal either. You know it’s, it’s like, yeah, I worked for 45 years but, but I can guarantee you, with the, the Payroll Protection Plan and the Emergency Individual Disaster Loans that came out during COVID, there was some fast learning needing to take place for us to be able to help our clients, because the calls we were getting were not, how can I start my business? The calls we were getting is, how can I save my business?
Mike: And so fortunately for me, my clients were able to make it through. The, that, that they, that the, the test was again making sure they got in line to get those loans and, and then talking with them about how they, how they were able to use them to their advantage?
Mike: So that’s the, the mission, vision, and values issue that, that comes along. Uh, and uh, when I talked earlier, I talked about the, um, the, the heart of what we do here is we mentor with clients, but we also provide educational services.
Mike: And so, the educational services that we provide are found on our website. Now. This is our website indianapolis.score.org. It’s a, it’s a, it’s crafted for our chapter here in Indianapolis, Indiana, central Indiana. There is a national website, which is score.org, not be surprised, and it’s similarly configured.
Mike: There are some things that are interesting about the site. There is a, we have a YouTube channel here during the COVID, uh, outbreak. We were unable to do workshops, which we had done about 50 workshops a year, 5-0, 50.
Mike: They dealt with a wide range of issues and we were unable to do those, of course, during COVID, because everything was shut down, so we went into the web and our business and we started generating, generating webinars.
Mike: So, things like our simple steps for starting your business, which is a two hour, 2 1/2 hour workshop.
Mike: So, we do, we, we turned it into a webinar, so that we could do that.
Mike: Tax tips for small businesses, paid advertising tactics. How to write a marketing plan. How to develop a website at 101, primer for how to go about doing that. Well, that and 17 other webinars that we worked on during the course of the, of the COVID, are all there at, at the landing page, right?
Mike: Easy enough to do, and if you need a mentor, you can schedule a mentoring meeting on the site as well. The site contains information about the business workshops I mentioned. There’s a search tool. You can find everything from how to start a hair salon, you know, to, to webinars that deal with taxes.
Mike: For small businesses, things that deal with how to form a business. How to write a business plan. There’s a whole series of success stories based upon the clients that we have worked with.
Mike: And then we’re always looking for volunteers, like everybody else, and in a non-profit organization, finding a volunteer is a, is a key issue, and so we are working always by trying to find new volunteers.
Mike: Anybody who still needs information about COVID their resources. We’re still all listed here and if you want to donate some money, we have a donate button as well, because while we get money directly from the federal government, and, and just did, they just passed the bill through the House and the Senate and they were signed up. It’s a big organization. There are 30 paid staff for 11,000 volunteers.
Mike: And so, maintaining the websites, providing training materials, generating webinars nationally, all takes money, and, and so we’re always looking for people who are willing to contribute to us as well, and then we have the webinar recordings that are here or the national webinar recordings. And they do probably two or three a week, on, on a wide range of business-related topics, so it’s quite elaborate, and, and certainly worth looking at.
Mike: And this website is free. You just go on here and you can see what, what information is being generated. We have a list of school resources for the Indianapolis area and so it’s everything from the Secretary of State’s website, you know, to getting information about licensing, you know, for, for your business, you name it, so listed there.
Mike: And then we have 38 checklists that are things that that business owners need to consider and it takes them through a checklist type environment in order to make sure they don’t miss any of the box. This is, as they’re going through and doing that.
Mike: And then when we have a workshop scheduled, it’s here at the bottom of the landing page. So, that’s our website. It’s free, it’s available to anybody who wants to access it, or you can browse the library.
Mike: One of the things that’s important and I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it. Depending on where you’re, you’re box is, but here in the upper right-hand corner is a general search box, and so if you put in an issue in that general search box, it’ll take you to webinars blog. Workshops, templates, tools, any of those things that are available on that website. And that’s, you know, I would call it mostly the education portion of what we do.
Mike: And then I’m going to, I’m going to show you this. I’m not going to take you, I’m not going to do anything with this, but, when we start talking about business plans, we are using the Business Model Canvas, which is what this is when you think about a business plan.
Mike: Most people think about a white sheet of paper you’ve got to start writing down. You know, what is my business about? What does my client look like. Who else is servicing those clients? Why am I different? How do I go about selling and all of that? It’s pretty daunting if you’re looking at a white piece of paper or a blank screen on your computer.
Mike: This is a format that you can follow in order to put that information together, and the reason this is more powerful is that if you run into a client who is entrepreneurial in the true sense, and they find a problem, they can use this in order to determine if the, the business has feasibility or not.
Mike: So, it, I begin in the middle here, the value proposition says, what’s the problem that needs to be solved? How is it currently being addressed and what is your way of doing it that is different and it provides you with a unique solution.
Mike: And then it talks about who is your customer. How do you get to your customer? How do you develop the longer-term relationship with your customer, and, and key activities and then cost and revenue so?
Mike: This is a step by step process that we follow. It doesn’t work for everybody, but it works for many, and we, we moved into this format about eight years ago. It’s a format that was developed by some academician’s at Stanford and Harvard, couple of schools I’d heard of and they, they put this together, that there is an interesting book that goes on behind the scenes in this too.
Mike: But it’s when people come to us and they say I need a business plan. The bank told me I need to see you to get a business plan. We’ll begin here. And the important thing is, is you gotta be able to solve a problem, right?
Mike: Everybody that’s on this call right now, uh, is a problem solver, whether it’s financial or whether it’s finding or selling your home, or whether it’s trying to figure out how to make your computer operate or how to be able to reach out to customers through your website. But, you know, we’re all here to do that, and for us, it’s how do you get your business off the ground, right? Or how do you deal with that, gnarly problem that’s coming up in your business?
Mike: So, being able to find it, a good definition of the problem and then understanding how it’s being addressed by clients is an important step. So, that’s just sort of the technical end of, of what we’ll do if somebody is just beginning, but let me say many clients that we run into, our clients were already in business and they’re looking for some specific help on marketing or they’re looking for some help on being able to find more employees and creating a, a more inviting work environment and, and all of that.
Mike: And, and I’ve got a couple of clients now who’ve already gone off into business and, and, and didn’t know the difference in the types of businesses they could possibly start so. They’re obviously a so- sole proprietor, right?
Mike: But they don’t, you know, didn’t understand the, the importance of being able to structure the business more formally. Well, that’s always a challenge because they’re, well, down the road so, now it’s like building the airplane while it’s in flight and, a good challenge, however.
Mike: I mentioned statistics. Let me say, when you get money from the federal government, the federal government is interested in everything that you do, so, so, SCORE, because we do get money directly from the federal government, is, it needs to answer to 4 committees in Congress, 2 in the House and 2 in the Senate.
Mike: And so, part of that, that group of 30 people at our headquarters, are preparing the next presentation to the next committee or subcommittee hearing about how we’re spending that money. So, it’s important for us to make sure that we are measuring success properly, and so this is a, data from 2021. Now we’re on a, a government fiscal calendar, so our year begins October the 1st, and it ends on September the 30th. So, this is from October the 1st of 2020 through September the 30th of 2021, and I have not yet seen data for 2022, because it won’t be out yet.
Mike: Uh, so, this is some information, though, that, that’ll give you a feel for the scope of the work. So, in that fiscal year, in that fiscal 12-month period, SCORE was involved in establishing 25,084 new businesses, that were launched during that year, with the assistance of SCORE.
Mike: And there were 71,475 non-owner jobs created. And if you throw in the owners of those businesses, 90- almost 97,000 total jobs were created during the course of that year, and we’re talking about small businesses here, our target is, is generally around 10 employees, max. SBA’s small business target goes up to 500 employees, ours is much smaller, as we, as we work with, with really, many times just an individual business owner.
Mike: For the, when we receive money from the federal government, the question is, well, what are you doing with the money? Well, $466 of that helps us create a business. And $163 of it this helps us create a job.
Mike: But here’s the important number, of the money we received from the federal government, for every dollar we get from the federal government in our grant, we returned $61.45 to the Treasury in taxes paid by those businesses that were born.
Mike: As far as investments go, uh, I think you’ll find it hard to find one better, right, Jamie?
Mike: You know, investments are, are, you know, it, it’s, it’s what everybody says. You know, if I’m going to give you money, what are you going to do for me? So, from the federal government standpoint, they give us a dollar. They’re going to get 61 bucks in taxes, so, and that’s the key number, right? I mean, it’s interesting to talk about, you know, 70,000 businesses and 90 and 97,000 jobs being created, but the money is what everybody keeps track of. So $61.00 comes back for every dollar that it comes to us.
Mike: We are over 11,000 volunteers now. It was 10,000 at the time that this report was done for 2021. 1500 communities for the record. There are around 3500 counties, so we’re in, pretty, pretty much widespread areas.
Mike: Our client base in 2021, 63% of our clients were women. 47% of our clients were minorities and 9% were veterans and, and I’ve had a fair share of people who are veterans who, who have come out of the service, uh, we have been well trained and do not want to go to work for somebody else.
Mike: I, I was in the army for six years. I can guarantee you that the people who are in the service are taught to be independent. And, and that’s part of the strength of our military, right, is everybody thinks that the mission, and so they’re not quite ready to go in and, and work for somebody else? Many of them.
Mike: And so, I’ve got several who’ve done quite well. Who’ve come out of a military career 20 to 30 years. Who do not want to go to work for somebody, they wanted to do something on their own, and, and they are a very good to work with, in my point of view, because 1, is they want to learn, 2 is they pay good attention, and 3 that they, that once they say they’re going to do something, they’ll do it, and so they’re committed to that, and it’s important.
Mike: Talk about the impact on the community here. So, so this is the, the chapter data, so our chapter is in Indianapolis. We’re a virtual chapter, so bear with me. We don’t exist in the real world, we’re in the cloud. So, the 80 mentors or so who are working here in central Indiana area, uh, we are made-up of a of the core group and then there are two branches, though the one that I operate is here in Johnson County.
Mike: We cover Morgan, Johnson, Shelby County, and I’ll call it the southern half of Marion County. And then there’s another branch in Anderson that covers, yeah, Delaware County and the surrounding area.
Mike: During 2021, we started 101 new businesses here in Central Indiana. Uh, 223 jobs were created, and total chapter services: we impacted 3,124 people that some mentoring sessions and what we call workshop attendees. But during 2021 those were all webinars.
Mike: And so those were people that we met through our webinar. Uh, and the, the number of chapter volunteers always changes. There were 80 mentors. We had some non-mentoring volunteers as well who do workshop presentations or generate the webinars right? Work in the background to make those happen and we’ve got people who are called Subject Matter Experts and these are people like, people who are certified QuickBooks Pro Instructors and they’re working regular jobs, but we’re able to call them in. We’ve got a Subject Matter Expert who is a commercial real estate agent broker, and he’s able to come in and help us with things like that. So, it’s not, just I’ll call it the one-on-one mentoring philosophy, it also includes some Technical Support that is there.
Mike: When we look at the NPS scores to see what people said about us. 86%, this is the national number, 86% of clients said that they would recommend a SCORE to a family or friends. 77% of people who were in business with business clients was still in business at the end of 2021.
Mike: Given the 2021 was still COVID heavy, that’s a pretty decent number because it was 2020 and 2021 calendar years. 74% of clients confirmed SCORE helped them with their business and 61% of business clients reported an increase in revenue during a pandemic.
Mike: The story that we tell to the congressional oversight committees is a pretty, pretty compelling story, and we have to, or elsewhere they wouldn’t give us any more money, right? So, $61.45 comes back, but for us the ability for people to feel that they got somebody that they can call, that they can come and that they can get, not only education, but they can get somebody who will actually sit there and work through problems with them. Uh, is it important?
Mike: That’s why I do this. That’s why really all of us mentors do this, is we’ve been there, done that, and, and we know how lonely it can be, can be when an issue comes up and so we want to be there to help people through it and we don’t charge him $200.00 an hour to do that. We do it for free.
Mike: So, I’m going to stop talking because I’ve talked a bunch and I’m going to let you ask questions or, or see you know, ask for feedback. Whatever you like.
Ryan: Mike, what kind of volunteer opportunities do you have available?
Mike: We have several classifications, one of them is mentor, OK and becoming a mentor is a, probably 60-day process. There is a, oh I, yeah there is a, uh, a training orientation process. It’s done online, but it’s a, it’s a response driven online process. And then there is a certification process that takes longer. Obviously, that talks about how do you interact with the client.
Mike: We use we use an acronym called SLATE, for what we do and, and that, so, quickly is to sort of suspend your judgment about the business because, you know, somebody can come to me about a business I may or may not fully understand it, so I may just need to ask questions, but I’m not going to say that sounds crazy. I’m going to be supportive. That’s my job, right?
Mike: So, I suspend my personal opinion. I listened and learned what they’re telling me about this and I can ask questions, but I really need to learn more about where they’re going, and then I sort of assess and analyze what, what they talked to me about. And, then the T is I teach with the tools that we have so, it may be that they need a financial forecast and then we’ve got a three-year financial forecast tool that we can work with them in order to put that together to determine if they need a loan, what their cash flow looks like, and, and all of that and then, and then we evaluate all over the time.
Mike: You know, if they’re, if they’re making the proper progress so that we can help them, you know, in order to do that. So, that’s a part of the certification program that is renewed every year, so that, so that we can be sure that we stay up on what’s happening.
Mike: There is a code of ethics that we follow, and it’s not a sheet of paper. I mean, I’ve worked at places where you know you have an NDC, you’ve got, you know, you keep secrets and all of that and, and you sign it and you move on, right? This is a process again where there are questions and you need to respond and it reinforces the fact that when I tell you about a client, I, I’m not going to tell you who they are or where they’re located, I may tell you a little bit about what they do, but I’m not going to trade secrets for any of my clients, unless they give me permission to tell you who they are and where they are and what we did.
Mike: And so, and some will. And I can certainly share some of those stories, but many are concerned about the proprietary nature of what they do and that’s when we share that. We’ll never trade that secret.
Mike: Uh, and, and I’ll call it, that’s sort of the general process of doing that and then the, the person who, who has been interviewed who’s called a provisional mentor once they get through that kind of training and understanding, kind of the structure of our, of our chapter, will, will co-mentor on three different clients.
Mike: And, and we’ll write up the notes of that mentoring interaction. And, and that’s so that they get an understanding of how we operate and, and in each, each one of us, I would say, do, do things a little bit differently, because we’re individuals, and so the, the new Mentor candidate will, will get a chance for that exposure.
Mike: And we have a pretty solid CRM package for each of our clients. And so, we write up every engagement we have with them, whether it’s telephone, video, in-person, doesn’t matter. We write that up, so we have a record of it.
Mike: So, in case I’m not available and somebody else needs to come in and help them, they can read up on what’s happening. They don’t have to ask 20 questions. If I need to bring a Subject Matter Expert in, they can read up, so they don’t, so that they’re up to speed when they come on board to help them with accounting or their website or social media or any of those kinds of things.
Mike: And so that’s an important practice to get into, of writing up reports that go with each of those sessions, and then once they’ve completed those three sessions, they are eligible to just go out and mentor on their own. But a lot of times they’ll co-mentor with, with more seasoned mentors.
Mike: Or, well, until they get more comfortable moving, moving ahead with.
Mike: So, everybody, everybody thinks it’s a cookie cutter deal, right? And there isn’t, yeah, because no two businesses are alike. And, and that’s, you know, that’s really the nature of it. You have to be able to adapt to that individual client. That’s why it’s important that you suspend any judgment.
Mike: You gotta really find out, you know, what, what they’re thinking and, and, and then be able to ask them some, some opening questions to be able to better understand what their idea is.
Ryan: Hey Mike, I have a question for you. Have you ever had a client that, after looking at their business plan, that you’ve just said that this doesn’t look viable and recommend that they at the very least revise their business plan or look at other opportunities?
Mike: You’re talking about the hardest clients that we have. We’re not, I, I am never going to tell the client that’s a bad idea or that they don’t, they, they, you know, there isn’t any way you’re going to be able to do this. That’s not my job, right?
Mike: So, I’ve had, I had a client. Let me see if I, how I want to tell you this story. I had a client and the client I had just gotten out of jail and didn’t have a driver’s license, was living in a motel, that had a great idea for buying a distressed government property and then breaking it down into components and reselling it in the open market.
Mike: Uhm, it’s not- that business idea is a pretty good business idea.
Mike: You know, you bid on, you bid on a two-and-a-half-ton truck and then you part it out for the transmission and the engine and, and, you know, do what repairs need to be done. And, and there’s a whole marketplace for that.
Mike: He didn’t, he didn’t have- he had a, a extremely low, uh, credit score. Uh, didn’t have any cash. And so, over a series of four or five meetings, I had him investigating how much it would cost for him to get, he needed liability insurance for sure for this, right? And then, how was he going to go about getting somebody to drive him to the bid?
Mike: And, and was he going to be able to pay for somebody to get the equipment and bring it back? And then where was he going to store it? So, he needed to find a place that he could rent and store, and he eventually got to a point where he realized that, without some capital, he was not going to be able to, to make this work.
Mike: And, and he wasn’t going to be able to get the capital, because he didn’t have the credit score, you know, to be able to pull it off, but he didn’t go away angry. He just went away with, with like, knowledge, right? And that’s, that’s the point of this is, is to understand, because let me say, and if he gets himself in better position financially.
Mike: I mean, he had kind of a job that he was working, where he might have been able to start saving some money and making some connections when he got his driver’s license back, then he would have the ability to do some transportation. He could have potentially pulled that business back together again.
Mike: Now I, I didn’t hear from him anymore, but I, but I wouldn’t want to say that’s a crazy idea.
Mike: You don’t have what it takes, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then find out that he ended up being, you know, the next billionaire that wouldn’t be the, that wouldn’t be very good.
Mike: But, so, so part of it is, is trying to be very patient about helping them understand what they need. And then determining if they have the wherewithal today to be able to do that, and they may not, but it gives them an object to work on for the future.
Mike: Obviously, I like what I’m doing. I’ve been doing it for 10 years now. And my wife’s OK with it, ’cause I’m in the same time zone, so that works out really well too, ‘cause I traveled a lot when I worked, so, so this is, this works out really well, and recently because of COVID, you know, it’s been this, you know, we’ve been doing it on video.
Mike: And, and that’s worked out OK, but I still like the chance. I still have opportunities to go out and meet with clients, person to person and I still like doing that. And I just have to be, I had to, call reinstitute old habits.
Mike: If I come to a zoom meeting with a client and they forgot and they’re not available, then I just close up my computer and I go downstairs and get another cup of coffee. Or what if I drive for 30 minutes to a Starbucks and the person doesn’t show up, then I’ve got a cup of coffee and I gotta drive home 30 minutes to get home.
Mike: So, I’m very much aware that I have to start texting people and to confirm that our meeting is going to be at this time at this place, be able to make that, and that’s a habit you get out of when you spend two years since you met anybody face to face.
Mike: So, I’ve had a couple of near misses on that as well, but it works out OK.
Mike: Uh, yes, we co-mentor. I, I didn’t mention that. I mean, I said with a new candidate we co-mentor, but we have those situations where there will be two of us who will work with a client. And I’ve got a client down in Franklin and one of the other mentors in my branch here, is a, is a professional HR person. He was the VP of HR for Franciscan Health so he and I co-mentor with a person who’s the executive director of a non-profit organization.
Mike: There are issues there that they wanted to work on. Some things like improving their employee handbook and dealing with things like that, and, and other than knowing that I had an employee handbook and it met the criteria, I am not going to be able to help somebody put that together. He was able to do that, and then, and then I got some non-profit background.
Mike: And so, I’ve been able to work with the non-profit side of board interaction and things of that nature.
Mike: And SCORE is the only organization of its type that will work with non-profits. The Indiana Small Business Development Center, SBDC. The women, the women, women owned business organization and I can’t remember their acronym. [Audience guesses] No, no, not NOW, but there it is a different one.
Mike: It’s a, it’s another non-profit similar kind of situated group. They are not allowed to work with it. The SBA is not, by law, allowed to work with non-profit organizations. And so, we’re the only game in town actually for non-profits.
Mike: So, we have a fair number of people who approach us. Well, both earning a non-profit which is harder to start than a for profit business. Uh, and for continuing them, and so I’m on the continuing side of several of those.
Mike: My one of my co-mentors is, has been involved with the starting of two non-profit organizations, so they’re, they’re, they’re always looking for help, and, and we and we’ve got the resources to be able to help them do.
Ryan: Excellent, well Mike. We appreciate you being here very much. That’s excellent information. We absolutely appreciate what you’re doing here in our community for business owners. Help them be successful, it it’s just, it’s absolutely amazing and we’re just grateful. So, let’s give Mike a hand.
