SCORE may just be the key to your business’s success. A resource partner of the Small Business Administration, SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), which was founded in 1964 and launched its Westchester chapter in 1987, offers free one-on-one business advice. Its staff of 35 counselors is made up of mostly recently retired executives.
“We were all fortunate and want to give something back,” says Bob Apter, chairman of SCORE Westchester and an Ardsley resident who spent 35 years at NBC, retiring as a senior executive.
Last year, SCORE Westchester provided counseling to 1,207 clients, a 38-percent increase over the previous year.
New clients first confer with two counselors for a “generalist meeting,” then they are paired with an appropriate counselor(s). Need help managing your funds? You’ll be set you up with an accountant. Have legal questions? A lawyer.
Tony Seideman needed help. Four years ago, Seideman was the public information officer for the City of Peekskill. But after a change in administration, he found himself out of work. He decided to start his own PR company, and contacted SCORE.
“I thought I’d be talking with a lot of retired guys who’d be more interested in talking about their past glories,” he admits. Instead, he met with Jerry Rosenstrach, a volunteer who still owns his own consulting firm (Rosenstrach Consulting Services in White Plains). With Rosenstrach’s help, Seideman launched a boutique PR firm, which specializes in jewelry stores and jewelry-related companies. “I had always been interested in lapidary work. SCORE helped me figure out what my strengths were.”
Today, his one-man company, the Seideman Group, affords him revenue in the low six-figures. “Among my clients are Abbott & Shapiro, LLC, the jewelry industry’s leading retail automation software supplier, and Devon Fine Jewelry, Northern New Jersey’s top jeweler,” as well as a top jeweler in Westchester who prefers to keep its affiliation with Seideman on the down low “because they regard me as something of a secret weapon.”
For more info, contact SCORE, 120 Bloomingdale Rd, White Plains (914) 948-3907; scorewestchester.com
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