Score Nashville

SCORE Nashville is part of the national SCORE organization, a resource partner of the Small Business Administration (SBA) with over 348 chapters nationwide with mentors. The Nashville chapter has 44 mentors many of whom are retired business owners or executives, although a growing percentage are in-business volunteers looking to give back to the business community. Last year the Nashville chapter mentors with met with, counseled or trained over 1700 small business clients and conducted over 42 workshops which were attended by 347 business owners or potential entrepreneurs. SCORE provides one-on-one mentoring to start-up and existing businesses looking to improve their chances of success. These services are provided at no charge to small business owners. Advisory boards can be provided for small businesses and meet on a quarterly or semi-annual basis to help guide business strategy. SCORE also provides a series of low-cost workshops on topics such as How to Start a Business, Business Plan Development, Marketing, Selling Skills, Social Media/Internet Marketing and Accounting Basics. The Nashville chapter also hosts a TV show, “SCORE on Business” that airs on News Channel 5+ on weekends. Small businesses are often started by entrepreneurs with great ideas but little business experience. By working with a SCORE mentor, these business owners can benefit from years of real world business experience. SCORE mentors are not consultants; they do not do the work for the business owners. Instead they provide guidance on how to do the work and review the owners’ progress as they move through the process. In the end, the entrepreneur owns not just the business, but also the strategic plans that he or she has developed with the guidance of seasoned business mentors.