Workers at a small auto parts custom electroplating shop were having headaches. A gas-fired hot-water boiler had recently been installed. An OSHA consultant analyzed the problem: Carbon monoxide from the boiler was coming into the building because there was no vent to bring fresh air to the boiler, and, the exhaust fans, instead of helping, were making the problem worse. The employer, with the consultant’s help, was able to fix the problem easily.
| Meat Packer Gets Solution to Hazard Problem |
A meat packer’s employees worked on a slippery platform 10 feet above a concrete floor. The employees stood on the edge, working with power tools on carcasses suspended from a moving conveyor. The platform was slippery with animal fat. Guardrails could not be used since they would inhibit the conveyor. The employer contacted other meat packers and found that none had a solution.
An OSHA consultant gave a free, confidential, no-hassle safety survey. He recommended the employees wear a body belt with a lanyard attached by a sliding ring to an overhead rail. The employees thought they wouldn’t like it, but after trying it found it convenient and comfortable, and it didn’t slow them up.
| Census Data Helps Sales |
A manufacturer of corrugated boxes contacted the U.S. Census Bureau to help him analyze his sales in the state of Arizona. At the time, he was selling primarily to food packaging companies. Using census data, he found the market potential was 15 times larger than he was experiencing. Lumber, pottery, and glass industries in Arizona also needed his products and he successfully marketed to these previously unidentified customers.
A manufacturer of products for dairy farms used census data to locate counties with large numbers of dairy farms. By next determining which were the most prosperous, he was able to optimize his marketing efforts.
| Government Publication Brings $2,500,000 in Sales |
Barrier Industries of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, manufactures an insecticidal paint called “Bug-X.” They approached the Department of Commerce, who suggested worldwide exposure in the U.S. Government publication Commercial News USA. Information on “Bug-X” resulted in $2,500,000 in sales. The firm has signed six overseas agents and reports another eighteen under negotiation.
| Teenage Landscape Entrepreneur |
A Pennsylvania teenager applied for and received a Department of Agriculture Youth Project Loan to start a landscaping business. He purchased all of the necessary equipment and operated the business for three years before moving on to bigger things.
| Grant for Solar-Powered Outhouse |
A Missouri inventor applied for and received a grant to research and construct a solar-energized outhouse. The Above Ground Aerobic and Solar-Assisted Composting Toilet uses solar energy to decompose waste.
| SCORE Helps Two Young Ladies Launch Butcher Shop |
An old-fashioned butcher shop where you can buy ready-cut and portioned meats, but also obtain cut-to-order steaks and roasts, is the unusual business of a pair of young women from Ohio. The father of one has a meat market in another area and he taught his daughter the business. With the help of a knowledgeable SCORE counselor they were able to draft a credible business plan and obtain an SBA-guaranteed loan of $150,000. The money advanced to the two entrepreneurs was used to purchase display cases, a walk-in freezer, smokehouse, and double oven. With continued help from SCORE counselors, lots of enthusiasm and hard work, the two women recreated a business that had been a vanishing breed -- and customers have been coming from near and far because they learned that the shop’s products were truly a cut above.
| SCORE Helps Prevent Loss of Lifetime Savings |
This is a non-success story and it could apply to any business anywhere. This one comes from San Diego where a man who had been pensioned from a large company had a bundle of cash to invest. He liked the liquor business because of its quick turnover, constant business, and easy-to-handle merchandise. A business broker offered him two stores on the market for $300,000. Fortunately, even though he had his mind pretty well made up to buy them, he followed a friend’s advice and contacted the local SCORE office.
A counselor with many years of liquor store experience did his own investigation of the stores -- checking inventory, merchandise, traffic flow, competition, service handling, pricing -- and then recommended against the acquisition. It was $100,000 overpriced. The locations were weak. The competition from big chains and discount stores was overwhelming. Despite his enthusiasm, the would-be entrepreneur finally realized the SCORE counselor’s wisdom and withdrew his offer -- possibly saving his lifetime assets before, like alcohol, they could evaporate.
| SCORE Doubles Jewelry Designer’s Business |
A jewelry designer in Seattle happened to see a story on SCORE in her local newspaper. It stimulated her to seek free counseling and explore her desire to go into a retail business. First off, the counselor guided her in executing a viable business plan, and then advised her on seeking and securing a good location.
A seven-step plan was developed under which she doubled her business after the first year. The counselor still helps out after four years, including proposing a “Men’s Night” promotion before Christmas, which turned out to be the year’s most productive sales event.
| Rags to Riches for Fashion Designer |
In Massachusetts, a young African-American mother, divorced, with two children, and struggling along on sheer guts and hard work, heard about SCORE and requested an appointment. The assigned counselor evaluated her talent and enthusiasm accurately.
Her unique use of knit fabrics and design combined with her capability and vitality led to creating a media event around her. A publicity campaign was planned that attracted a number of local notables and generated considerable press coverage.
A well-executed projection and business plan enabled her to get an SBA-guaranteed loan that allowed for the addition of several sewing machines and more workers. Currently, she heads her own design studio, producing fashions under her own label, and has gone national with her line. She was selected as “Woman of the Year” in New England.
| Long-Term Relationships with SCORE |
Supermarkets are admittedly one of the toughest businesses next to running a restaurant. This Indiana family supermarket has had the longest counseling arrangement of any business in the U.S. -- and all with the local SCORE counselors. For sixteen years one or several members of the Service Corps of Retired Executives have advised them.
Ownership is now in its second generation. Ironically, the family-owned business was encouraged to take over the vacant premises of a former Kroger supermarket that had a well-established location.
SCORE counseled budgeting, financial planning, quality assurance, promotion, and the kind of public relations that chain stores could not provide. They helped the family to get into computerization as well as guide them into each step of planned expansions.
| Day Care Center - Just Kid Stuff to SCORE |
Reading in the papers that day care centers are one of the most needed and hottest enterprises, a
