SCORE, which provides free counseling to U.S. small business owners and entrepreneurs, recently added a new Minority Entrepreneur section to the SCORE website.
SCORE volunteers have compiled a variety of best practices, statistics and valuable resource information geared toward the minority sector.
According to the press release you can find these resources in the new section:
Insights for Minority Entrepreneurs offers key articles on business licensing, protecting your idea, generating income, and business financing.
Resources for Minority Entrepreneurs features a list of more than 30 organizations, groups and Web sites that offer news, strategies and advice.
Stats on Minority Entrepreneurs provides the latest research and facts on the growing number of African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American entrepreneurs.
How SCORE Can Help You highlights SCORE’s free online and face-to-face counseling, low-cost workshops and free eNewsletters.
SCORE has 389 locations around the United States where you can get free one-on-one counseling and classroom training. The website has lots of other resources — you can even ask questions online of SCORE counselors.
It’s free to register and use the tools. For instance, there is a 2-minute Business Assessment Tool which asks 17 yes/no questions about your business. Once complete, you receive an overview of your answers. You also get recommendations for training and classic business books to enhance your learning.
Another excellent example of the online training is a free online workshop on pricing. One of the biggest areas of concern many of you have as entrepreneurs is whether you charge the correct amount, particularly for service-related businesses.
So tell me; have you ever used SCORE? Have you attended a workshop or met with a counselor? Their website touts some pretty impressive success stories. Are you one of them?
Tell me about it. As a small woman-owned business I borrowed from friends and family. I leveraged every asset I had, and I refinanced my home multiple times. Fortunately these creative financing oppotunitues allowed me to create a growing business. There is little doubt that innovation and creativity are clearly the by-products of the work environment you place yourself in each day. When your assets are intellectual property it is even more important that you invest in a work environment that generates as much innovation and creativity as possible. Once I decided to purchase discount office furniture for my business it has been on a very positive trajectory.
Martin Lindeskog
Sounds like a good resource. Here in Sweden we have several organizations giving advice to small business owners and start-up companies. One example is “Drivhuset” (Hothouse / greenhouse in Swedish). Check it out: http://drivhuset.se/en/