SCORE marks a milestone

Amy Bearden wanted to sell the goodies she loved to bake growing up, but she had no idea how to start a business.

Tristan and Alicia Lopez Floyd took over an ailing fence business and renamed it, but they weren't sure they were doing everything right to make it successful.

Murray Compton once operated a company in another state, but after selling it, he needed advice on writing a bankable business plan for a venture he wanted to launch in Charleston.

Their common factor is that all three turned to the local SCORE Coastal chapter for help.

Now entering its 40th year in the Lowcountry, SCORE, formerly the Service Corps of Retired Executives, assists aspiring entrepreneurs with advice on how to start their own businesses.

Based in the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce with satellite offices in downtown Charleston and newly opened help centers in Mount Pleasant, Summerville and Moncks Corner, the group taps the volunteer services of former business managers to guide would-be business owners through the sometimes overwhelming task of building a firm from the ground up.

"We help them visualize a plan for getting the business started," said Joe Conti, SCORE Coastal's chairman. "We help existing businesses if they have problems or want to expand or need a sounding board for ideas."

Among some of the startups they have helped include Copper Penny apparel and shoe stores, Wonder Works toy shops, Neita's Vinaigrettes, Charleston Wealth Advisors, Charleston Dog House, Charleston Cookie Co. and many other existing local businesses.

"Every time I get a business started, I get great pleasure out of it," said Conti, who once owned a New York company called Integri-test after he invented a piece of robotic equipment to test circuit boards for the computer manufacturing and aerospace industries.

About 2,000 ideas walk through SCORE's door each year, but only a fraction comes to fruition, he said.

"It takes a lot of drive and a willingness to work long hours to be successful," Conti said.

Guidance counselors

Bearden didn't have a clue about how to get started. The stay-at-home mom walked into SCORE's office in 2006. But instead of talking first to a counselor, she picked up a manual and studied it for two years before baking up Amelia Claire's Sweets and Treats.

"It put me on the path for what I needed to do, where I needed to go, who I needed to talk to and how to set up a business in the city of Charleston," she said.

After launching her dessert business in March 2008, Bearden went back to SCORE for counseling when she needed it and said the advice has helped her survive the recession and keep her company self-sustaining.

"That's really the only source I went to on how to start a business," Bearden said.

At Floyd Fence, the husband-and-wife team took over a company three years ago that he worked for, but first turned to SCORE for advice. He had the experience and she was getting a master's in business administration from The Citadel.

"They helped us out with any little questions we had," Tristan Floyd said. "They wanted us to succeed as bad as we did. It's free information, and they were extremely helpful. We started when the economy was not very good. We were iffy about it, and they advised us to keep overhead as low as possible so that when business was slow, we could ride it out. On a scale of 1 to 10, their help was a 10."

The North Charleston business was so successful, it earned Small Business of the Year from SCORE in 2010 after its first year out.

Perhaps one of the group's more visible success stories was helping a local businessman turn water into gold.

Murray Compton was in the water-bottling business in Georgia, but wife Cindy had ties to Charleston. They jumped at a chance to move to the Lowcountry in 1991 when the opportunity struck for them to sell their company.

Compton, also a former Coca-Cola executive, wanted to start a water distribution firm called Appalachian Springs in North Charleston, but he knew he needed a business plan to get a startup loan. So he turned to SCORE.

"I wouldn't have made it without them," he said. "We were starting a capital-intensive business and we were undercapitalized. Getting that loan was critical."

He remembers his counselor being brutally candid.

"He would tell me what I needed to do, and he was right," Murray said. "I had been around long enough to know that they knew what they were talking about."

Twenty years later, Appalachian Springs water is on a lot of shelves, and it distributes private-label water to several prominent Lowcountry venues, including Kiawah Island Club, Charleston Place Hotel, the Inn at Middleton and several other hotels and restaurants. The company also branched out into the coffee service industry and, in December, acquired Carolina Coffee Break, a Lowcountry coffee business that started in 1983.

Tough talk

Though it prides itself on its successful ventures it has helped, SCORE also tries to be frank with budding entrepreneurs whose business ideas aren't likely to pan out.

"We try to tell them that what they are trying to do is not going to be successful," Conti said. "We don't want them to invest their life savings into something that's not going to work. We feel them out, talk with them, sometimes run some numbers and say, 'I don't think this is going to work.' Some people come in with an idea but never come back."

Mostly self-funded, the local chapter was started in 1972 in the former Mendel Rivers Federal Building in downtown Charleston. It now incorporates about 50 volunteers with loads of business experience to help counsel people through the business-building process, using resources on everything from auto detailing to how to be a wedding consultant.

"Most of these people could be getting very big salaries if they had to be paid for their work," Conti said. "We have such a variety of backgrounds: from engineers to people in insurance and the restaurant business. ... It's a very well-rounded group of people that we have there."

Reach Warren L. Wise at 937-5524 or twitter.com/warrenlancewise.