The other day, I was talking to a Georgia small business consulting client. Most inquiries are made online and over the phone. Sometimes it pays to have a local consultant or business advisor who can examine the books very closely with a fine-toothed comb. In fact, I suggested this to you, specifically to consult SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and ACE (Active Core of Executives) advisers in the area. They said they had done it before, but the lady they were working with who was a SCORE counselor had moved to another job.
These things happen much of the work is done by volunteers, and although they operate a narrow boat, they are still under pressure of not having enough help. In fact, this case study in Georgia is very common. In my own city we have a SCORE office where they have small business counselors, and there is also SBDC (Small Business Development Center) at the local university. Unfortunately, all of these people lack help and need a lot of volunteer help.
Also, when the economy is depressed, more small businesses are in trouble, so services are needed even more. Then you have more demand than ever. Now I ask if these groups are too small with all that they are expected to do. And the reason I’m asking this is that I found it difficult to get an appointment to even volunteer to help out in my own city. They were too busy and told me that I would have to schedule a time to specifically come meet with them and fill out a form. Before you could volunteer, you would have to go to your basic training school.
They were so busy that they didn’t have time to talk to me or anyone who came to verify my credentials. Of course, if I never start, I will never be able to help you help the small entrepreneurs in our community. Are these groups suffering from a lack of funding? I would assume so, and I know that some of the SBDC offices have been drastically downsized.
Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and 10% of our population is self-employed in their own small business and in turn employs more than 60% of our population. If we add those two numbers together, that’s all we really need to get the economy going, that is, for all these small businesses to do well. Of course, some of them need help when times are tough, as it is much more difficult to run a business during those periods. In fact, I hope you will please consider all of this and think about it.
