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SCORE builds e-mail link to clients, despite fund cuts

Stacey Myers

12/28/1998

High tech counseling methods have helped extend the reach of the Service
Corps of Retired Executives, which has struggled to promote itself since
losing some funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration in
recent years.
More than 10 percent of the free counseling service provided by SCORE
volunteers is now provided via e-mail, according to officials from the
nonprofit organization’s Washington, D.C., office.
Since www.score.org went online in June 1997, about 3,000 people a month
have received advice from SCORE counselors, who are located all over the
country, by using the e-mail network, said Beth Schimel, a SCORE
spokesperson.
“It’s been pretty big, we have about 500 e-mail volunteers. The whole
purpose of it is that just by going to the local chapter you might not
find a person with the experience you want,” Schimel explained.
Anne Kleine of Hamilton, Mont., said she got help starting a business to
market a specialty sauerkraut – that’s right sauerkraut – from SCORE
counselors in Colorado and Arkansas. After retiring from her job as a
hospice nurse in western Montana, Kleine opened a small hot dog stand
called Hot Diggity Dog; but she found people more interested in buying
the homemade, sweet, tangy sauerkraut relish she offered as a topping.
It is made using a recipe passed along in her husband’s family, she
explained. Some customers, she discovered, even put it on top of cheese
pizza and as a result one local pizza shop is going to start offering it
as an official topping.
In January of 1997 she began researching how to start a business from
the comforts of her home in Hamilton, which has a population of about
2,500 people. “In western Montana resources here are pretty limited,”
she said.
She bought a computer and explored her options on the Internet. First
she found a food entrepreneur program offered at the University of
Nebraska, then she literally stumbled on the SCORE site.
“I don’t even know how I got there quite honestly,” Kleine said.
Through the SCORE site she connected with Erv Simon of Colorado Springs,
Colo., an expert at business start-ups who helped her organize her
business plans, and Dennis Haase, a patent-trademark attorney in Little
Rock, Ark.
Since then with the help of her two online mentors, she has formed Mrs.
Kleine’s Ltd., Co.; filed for trademark protection for Krelish, which is
the name she gave the side dish; and found a Portland, Ore., sauerkraut
and pickle manufacturer to produce and package Krelish.
In June the company, Steinfeld Products, packaged the first run, 500
cases of one gallon containers for the food service industry and 500
cases of 16 ounce containers for specialty food markets. That’s eight
tons of Krelish. In November they needed to package another 2,000 cases
for retail sale, or about 10 tons of Krelish, according to Kleine.
“We didn’t know with our first run in June whether 500 cases would last
a month or a year. Well it lasted a couple of months, that was basically
(done) with some limited marketing in Montana, small segments of
Washington, and a small run in Salt Lake City,” she added.
Next month, Kleine is scheduled to formally introduce Krelish to the
national market at the International Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.
After that, she is planning to sell Krelish in specialty food stores and
from a Web site she’s creating.
“Everything has been done from my desktop,” Kleine said, adding her
geographic location would have kept her from launching the business,
because she couldn’t find anybody who had the expertise she sought.
On a more basic level, she said she didn’t realize SCORE or the
University of Nebraska program existed until she began her computer
research. Though she had to travel to Nebraska for a food entrepreneur
workshop, the program includes opportunities to follow up by
communicating with the faculty online.
Being able to contact SCORE counselors online also saved her money.

When she spoke with trademark attorneys in Montana, their fee system was
always a stumbling block. “We were looking at thousands of dollars,” she
said.
“It was, like okay, I’ve got to find another way to do this, because I
don’t have that kind of money,” Kleine said. “Quite honestly I have
started this whole entire operation on a shoestring that is shorter than
a shoestring on a penny loafer.”
Navigating the SCORE site and finding an e-mail counselor is pretty
easy. Click on the “get email counseling” icon, then look through an
alphabetical listing of 598 “unique skills” that will help identify
counselors with experience in certain areas. Users can then read over
the professional biographies of counselors, fill out a form, and click
the “submit” button.
Schimel said counselors are supposed to respond within 48 hours.
SCORE was founded in 1964 and its volunteers offer professional advice
and guidance to entrepreneurs who want to launch new businesses. It now
has 389 chapters in the United States and its territories, and assists
about 300,000 entrepreneurs each year.
There are also links to the SCORE site available on the SBA’s Web site,
Visa USA’s site, and the Yahoo search engine, Schimel said.