Jim Stahly of West Chester Twp., outgoing Cincinnati SCORE chair, is shifting his focus in 2017 on building mentoring relationships with greater Cincinnati incubator and accelerator organizations to help grow their entrepreneurs’ business acumen.
Stahly shared more about SCORE and the importance of business mentorship.
Q: What is SCORE?
A: SCORE is a federally mandated volunteer organization dedicated to helping small business owners get their businesses off the ground and grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship.
We’ve been doing this for more than 50 years. There are 320 SCORE chapters nationwide, staffed with more than 11,000 volunteers. The greater Cincinnati chapter has nearly 100 volunteers with broad backgrounds in business, education, and nonprofits. Our chapter serves small businesses in southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and parts of Indiana.
Q: What is your own business background?
A: I worked for 35 years in healthcare distribution, the last 20 years as a president, chief operations officer or senior vice president with full operational and profit-and-loss responsibility. Companies or divisions I was responsible for ranged in size from startups to more than $2.5 billion in annual revenue. I left corporate America in 2005, but I still work as an industry consultant and SCORE volunteer.
Q: What does SCORE mean to you?
A: Like the majority of SCORE mentors, I had a successful corporate career and now want to share my expertise with entrepreneurs who need help learning how to run a sustainable business. Volunteering is a great way to keep growing. It's also fun to keep learning along with our clients.
Q: Why is working with entrepreneurship development programs important?
A: It's all about neighborhood economic development and creating new jobs. We can make a greater impact faster by working with entrepreneurship development programs that have several people going through the program at one time.
The organization provides the curriculum, and SCORE provides the mentoring component. We have the capacity to provide the right number of mentors needed, and we’re consistent in our mentoring methodology and quality. We offer a turnkey solution for an entire mentoring program.
SCORE currently provides mentoring and training for organizations within the region including Bad Girl Ventures, which focuses on developing women-owned businesses; MORTAR, which works with inner-city, often economically-disadvantaged entrepreneurs; Findlay Kitchen, a commercial kitchen incubator for entrepreneurs developing food service concepts; ArtWorks, which supports artistic-oriented businesses; Fly Wheel, which helps entrepreneurs build sustainable social enterprises; First Batch, a business accelerator dedicated to making physical products and manufacturing; and the UC Center for Entrepreneurship and Commercialization. But we are always eager to add more organizations to the mix.
Q: What do you find rewarding about your work with SCORE?
A: I've met many interesting, creative entrepreneurs and built friendships with them through SCORE. By working with SCORE, new business owners can establish themselves faster, better or cheaper than they would on their own. Helping in this process is our sole motivation. Our mantra for working with entrepreneurs is to suspend judgment; listen and learn; and encourage small business owners.
Q: Does SCORE need additional mentors?
A: SCORE is always looking for more mentors, especially women and minorities in order to reflect the composition of SCORE's clients. One good thing about being a mentor is that mentors don't have to do the actual work. We help entrepreneurs set priorities and help them become accountable. We aim to identify and remove their barriers to success.
Q: How can someone get involved?
A: For information about SCORE seminars, downloadable briefs, counseling or volunteering, call (513) 684-2812 or visit www.greatercincinnati.score.org.
We offer one-one-one or team mentoring for small business owners at SCORE offices at the West Chester-Liberty Chamber Alliance; Towers of Kenwood in Montgomery; the Huntington Bank building in downtown Cincinnati; the Sharonville Chamber of Commerce; and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.
About the Author