Three Free Resources to Help Grow Your Business

Statistics show that most businesses fail after five years. The reasons can range from weak marketing to poor planning. Fortunately, there are some excellent resources available to help your business succeed and some of them are free of charge. Three of the best free resources are SCORE, SBA Small Business Development Centers and your local library.

SCORE stands for the Service Corps Of Retired Executives and, as the name implies, is made up of men and women who have excelled in the business world and now volunteer their time to help others with their businesses. SCORE offers two services: counseling and courses. Counseling is free and the courses have a nominal fee (usually well under $100).

SCORE counseling is mainly for people in the start-up phase but they can assist a venture in virtually any stage of development. Working with a SCORE counselor is very easy. You can either visit your local office or receive counseling via email. Each method has its advantages. Meeting face to face allows you to have an interactive dialogue, go over your product or business plan and connect with your counselor at a more personal level. Counseling via email allows you to have access to a wider array of counselors, doesn't require you to schedule a meeting and all the advice you receive is easily accessible from your email inbox.

It's advantageous to use both methods as the face to face meetings will help you connect with your local office which may additional resources. Email allows you to run ideas by a wider range of counselors and you can receive advice from a lot of different angles.

SCORE courses vary from chapter to chapter but typically include a full day program that covers the basics of starting a business. For example, one program covered marketing, financing and legal issues in the morning. Then in the afternoon, attendees were split into groups based on their industry (technology, restaurants, services, retail, etc...) and participated in a round table discussion with counselors that had expertise in those areas. For more information, visit SCORE.org.