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SCORE Spokane News

SCORE Contact:
Coralie Myers, Marketing Chair
509-863-7246

SCORE Success Series - NEW!
FREE Twitter 101 Workshops
in Coeur d'Alene & Spokane Valley

Spokane/Coeur d'Alene, ID SCORE is proud to offer Twitter 101 Workshops in conjunction with Dennis Isip, a SCORE volunteer and owner of Spokane Web Profit Engineer. Isip had been offering the classes on a volunteer basis in the community, so partnering with SCORE seemed a natural fit to expand this important business training. Sandra McNett, Chapter Chair, stated: "Dennis Isip has been with SCORE only a few months but has been a great help to businesses learning about technology and harnessing the power of the Internet. We are pleased that he has agreed to share his knowledge with our area's small businesses."

SCORE Spokane News

SCORE Contact:
Coralie Myers, Marketing Chair
509-863-7246

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SCORE is Moving Up!

                                                         SCORE Contact:
                                                                           Coralie Myers, Marketing Chair
                                                                                                            509-863-7246

SCORE Spokane offers Free Classes to Veterans

Spokane, WA – SCORE Spokane offers "Starting a Business" Class free for all Veterans beginning January 6, 2009.

SCORE Chapter 180, serving Spokane, Northeast Washington and North Idaho is now offering its "Starting a Business Workshop" free of charge to all Veterans.

This workshop is offered from 8:30am - 12:30pm on the first Wednesday of every month at the Spokane Regional Business Center in Suite 444, 801 W. Riverside Avenue, Spokane. Pre-registration is required. Normal cost of the workshop is $35.

"This is a tough time for all veterans, both recent soldiers and those who served years ago. Many of those veterans are looking at starting a business, and we felt it was important that we provide them the tools they need to succeed." according to SCORE Chapter Chair, Sandra McNett.

Since 1964, SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” has helped more than 8 million aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling and business workshops. More than 10,500 volunteer business counselors in 389 chapters serve their communities through entrepreneurial education dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small businesses.

For additional information on score workshops or counseling, go to www.scorespokane.org, call 509-353-2821, or e-mail info@scorespokane.org.

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SCORE Contact:

Coralie Myers, Marketing Chair

509-863-7246

Visit the SCORE Online Community!

Spokane, WA – SCORE has seen an increase in the number of small businesses seeking its help. Those who are requesting assistance are younger - part of the "now" generation, who want a mentor who is familiar with technology and can meet with them online to discuss business options and opportunities. Enter scorecommunity.org a place where entrepreneurs can find a mentor, a business partner, expert advice, a woman's success blog, informational articles and more. Try it out, it's free!

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SCORE Contact:

Coralie Myers, Marketing Chair

509-863-7246

Spokane SCORE Chapter 180 Offers Advice to Local Businesses

on Avoiding Recession Pitfalls

Spokane, WA – Entrepreneurs face challenges on many fronts, including lower consumer spending, rising unemployment and tightening credit.

SCORE Chapter 180 serves the Inland Northwest and has counselors in Spokane, Spokane Valley, Colville, and North Idaho who provide confidential mentoring to small businesses free-of-charge. Experts at Spokane, WA SCORE offices have experience in: finance, accounting, general management, marketing, sales prospecting and scenario planning.

SCORE CEO Ken Yancey says, “Be quick to retrench expenses, quick to adapt products & services to changing market needs, and quick to build a network of advisors to help you make it through this recession in business and poised for growth. Yancey adds, “Now is the time to meet with a SCORE mentor on how to tighten credit policies, cut expenses and look at holding cash in your accounts. Experienced SCORE mentors are here to help plan actions to help you survive the recession and thrive when the economy turns around.”

Your Inland NW SCORE counselors offer the following tips on Five Recession Pitfalls to Avoid:

Cutting expenses too slowly. Don’t cut expenses a little bit at a time. Now is the time to look at expenses and decide whether your company needs to cut expenses five, 10 or up to 20 percent. Do what it takes early in the year and bring costs down.
Maintaining the same product and service mix. Your needs are changing. You can bet your clients needs have changed too. Call your existing clients and ask them what they need. Then, design your product service mix around those needs.

Reducing marketing instead of focusing on marketing. The company that stands tall, strong and visible in the marketplace has stature and status. Differentiate with strong marketing to drive leads and sales.

Lacking systems to free up your time. Streamline your business and become more efficient. Use a handheld organizer to keep track of phone numbers, dates, appointments and meetings. Set a time each week to handle routine tasks, bills and paperwork.

Keeping everything to yourself. Your team knows the economy is tough and wants to understand what the company is facing and how, together, you can make it through. Lead toward a brighter future by focusing your efforts on today.

For more information about starting or operating a small business, or to schedule a counseling appointment, go to www.scorespokane.org.

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Coralie Myers, SCORE Marketing Chair and owner of SBA Business Solutions,Inc., was the very surprised recipient of the Small Business Administration (SBA) District Director's award for service excellence. The award was announced at the SBA/SCORE gala in Seattle on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

District Director Nancy Porzio presented Coralie with this honor based on her service to the SBA, for her work as a lender, for her work with small business clients as a SCORE counselor, and for her work with the Make Mine a Million program.

Billie Shaw Moreland is the winner of the 2008 Small Business Administration (SBA) business journalist-of the-year champion award for the Pacific Northwest Region 10.. SBA’s Region 10 includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The award was presented in Seattle on Tuesday, April 29.

SBA spokesperson Patricia Jordan states that “as a small business owner of a technical writing service, Moreland combines the power of the pen with the reach of the information superhighway to share entrepreneurial topics in electronic newsletters, technical news articles, and magazine features. Billie Moreland focuses on enterprises that are challenging to explain and appreciate – such as high tech, unusual or extremely small companies. Her writing projects repeatedly raise awareness and contribute substantially to the success of its small businesses while also placing the city of Spokane on the national map.”

After obtaining bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees from Kansas State University, Moreland moved to Spokane and started out as a food columnist for a weekly newspaper. In 1972, she opened her own “country French” lunch and dinner restaurant that also provided catering services and accommodated banquets. She sold the restaurant after 20 years of successful operation and launched her technical writing and consulting company, Billie Moreland & Associates (BMA). Serving “food for thought” within the culinary arts and food industry, she authored a regional magazine’s most popular series of articles featuring food sector businesses ranging from kitchen stores to gourmet delicatessens to ethnic markets. Business income increased at the establishments profiled.

According to the SBA, “Billie Moreland serves as a true advocate of small businesses. She is the only freelance technical writer in Spokane with extensive experience in business, technology, science and food writing. Her business-related articles expertly explain who might need the featured innovations and why.”

To further aide small business enhancement and growth, Moreland has counseled several hundred clients since she joined SCORE – Counselors to America’s Small Business -- in 2000. She is the current district director of the SCORE chapters that serve eastern Washington and north Idaho. She is an active member and corporate partner of the Inland Northwest Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). She created a monthly newsletter for NAWBO and continues to produce, publish, circulate and post it on-line.

The SBA continues that she “was instrumental to the growth of the Terabyte Triangle - a distinct area of downtown Spokane characterized by commercial space with high-speed connectivity. The dynamic synergistic benefits of this downtown business district have drawn an alliance of businesses such as multimedia producers, graphic designers, attorneys, music producers, software developers, and other microenterprises. Now there are over 120 optical fiber buildings and 150 high-tech businesses located in the Terabyte Triangle.”

Moreland publishes the official Terabyte Triangle electronic newsletter covering technology businesses, bioscience businesses, educational institutions, and real estate and connectivity resources. Her articles featuring businesses within the Terabyte Triangle have increased community awareness of their core services or new product offerings, boosting customer demand. The e-newsletter also attracted a powerful business capital company that subsequently relocated to Spokane bringing with it a new potential source of funds for regional entrepreneurs.

Finally, SBA notes that “Moreland excels in integrating news articles into compelling master documents of all forms – including grant applications, civic award nominations, and summary articles for regional publications. She wrote the nomination document for the international Intelligent Community competition, putting the state of Washington on the worldwide map. For two years in a row, the city of Spokane obtained top honors as the “most intelligent community in the United States” for its technology foundations and use of optical fiber communications; and number two internationally only behind Glasgow, Scotland. Her nomination also helped earn Spokane a national “All-American City” award in 2006. Another nomination document resulted in a Spokane woman entrepreneur being named the national NAWBO/Verizon Business Owner of the Year.”

Chapter 180 Receives Award for Diversity

Chapter 180 was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the National SCORE Organization for having 28% of its membership comprised of women and minorities. This was awarded to only 116 SCORE Chapters.

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