Each year SCORE helps tens of thousands of small businesses. Find out how today's entrepreneurs are succeeding with the benefit of free and confidential business counseling from SCORE. Look for new successes every month.
Dabney Properties Meet Slayton Dabney, President of Dabney Properties www.dabneyproperties.com, a corporate housing firm he started about four years ago. His niche is satisfying folks in need of upscale temporary housing. His clients include individuals on temporary business assignments and those who have their job relocated. Also, people displaced due to a property insurance loss, and Virginia legislators while the General Assembly is in session.
Tots on The Go Meet Ellie Venafro, wife and mother of two young boys, and “mompreneur” of Tots On The Go. A business that rents high quality strollers, car seats, cribs and other child care products, for example, to a visiting parent or grand parent who needs these items for a short stay in the area. The idea for the business model is a consequence of her own real world experiences traveling with small children.
WSI - We Simplify the Internet Howard Deskin is the President and owner of a WSI "We Simplify the Internet" Central Virginia office, working with small to medium sized companies. Their mission is to improve clients branding and ultimately increase their profits by delivering a full suite of Internet Consulting, Marketing, Web design & development, e-Commerce, and Social Media solutions, focused on driving visitor traffic to company websites and converting the visitors into customers.
O'Brien Financial Planning We are a small financial planning firm focused on individuals, families and small businesses. We have a focus on comprehensive financial planning and institutional investment management for individuals as well as qualified plans for small businesses – 401(k)s and profit sharing plans. I started this business after eighteen years as a senior leader at GE, in a number of businesses and industries.
Adonis/Aphrodite NachoMama's Nacho Mama's in Carytown was established in September of 1996. Since it's premier Nacho Mama's has become an award-winning restaurant throughout the years receiving several honors such as “Best Carytown Restaurant”, “Best Margarita”, and “Best Outdoor Dining as well as many others.
It's Homemade I have always enjoyed baking good food for the people I love, especially from those old family recipes. Good food can do so many things! It can bring a family together around a table, reunite old friends or brighten a neighbor's smile. It's been so much fun starting our company and watching people really enjoy cooking in their kitchen!
Mansilla Medical Practice "SCORE provided my first step. If you don't know how to take the first step, you can't go anywhere. SCORE serves as the guide there."
Dexios Corporation Kyle Tucker started Dexios Corporation; a radiology based medical billing company, in 2007. He has a strong business background, having owned and operated another small business, and was familiar with this industry.With this background, why then seek the services of SCORE?
“I use SCORE like a pseudo board of directors,” says the 47-year-old entrepreneur.“I could hire a series of consultants and spend more of my limited start-up capital or I can utilize the experts from SCORE for free.I have a well-rounded business background so I don’t need basic Business 101 assistance. What I do need is a team of people that I can bounce ideas off of and dig deeper into those issues where I only have a surface understanding.”
Tucker was teamed with Richmond SCORE counselor Gray Poehler, a retired small business owner, and Emmett Richardson, a retired IT professional from a large consumer products company.“Between the three of us, we have about eighty years of business experience in different fields,” Tucker said.If we don’t know the answer, Gray and Emmett can find someone in the Richmond SCORE chapter who does.”
The three men have discussed a wide array of business topics including software evaluation, marketing strategies, financing alternatives, venture capital and business planning.To date, Dexios is right on track with its business plan, in terms of revenue, growth and operations.
In the midst of bringing up Dexios, Tucker created a second start-up, RadReferral, which is a free, niche business referral network that meets via teleconference.Kyle Tucker admits it is hard enough to bring up one new business, much less two at the same time. “This is where SCORE really came in handy.While medical billing is a traditional, mature industry with limited variables, the RadReferral idea is a whole new concept which required out-of-the-box thinking.There was no template to use for this business.We had to start from scratch.”Tucker says that Emmett Richardson’s IT background was especially helpful in starting up RadReferral as they not only had to build the business conceptually but make it work on the web. The team spent many hours discussing everything from how to monetize the concept, to telephony, to web design.
“I am very grateful that these two gentlemen took time out to help me.Their contributions have been considerable to my success.Could I have done it without SCORE?” muses Tucker.“Possibly, but that is not the right question.The right question is why would anybody want to go it alone?”
