Avoid Texas SCORE Mentoring and Find Other Consultants

When you need consultants, learn from my experience.

Hearing about business consultants, I knew I had to get one. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Succeed and What to Do About It recommends that businesses get outside help. Chris LoCurto offers business mentoring, but I knew I could not afford him.

The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) podcast plugged SCORE's free mentoring on every show. So how could I pass that up? As I recall, two old white guys host the podcast and they deliver their crap without enthusiasm (Webpagesthatsuck.com opined that "Boring Old White Guys" signify "websites that suck"). A warning!

I signed up for SCORE mentoring in Austin. Upon greeting me, my "mentor", Jim Grimsley, bombarded me with discouragement. Grimsley epitomized grimness. He also epitomized grouchiness, pessimism, and myopia. He dressed like a slob.

I discovered Grimsley has no entrepreneurship experience. I guess they hired him, because he did corporate consulting. The prophesy in a Nolo Press book "SCORE mentors may have had illustrious careers in big business, but they often lack the patience for small business" echoed in my head.

Grimsley did offer an idea or two, but platitudes and cliches dominated his advice. Grimsley kept discouraging me and urging me to quit; why does he care if I persevere? I have faith in my mission, so I know I have to persevere.

I gave SCORE Austin a one star review and I reported them to the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

SCORE obsesses and pontificates about business plans, so I followed their suggestion to create a full business plan. Kate Toon, among others, says businesses don't need business plans, as she has succeeded without a business plan. So, take that, SCORE! You can see the first page of my SCORE directed business plan below:

As I recall, Grimsley and the other mentor in the Austin SCORE office are old white men. The secretary adds diversity to the place, as she is a middle aged white woman.

Since SCORE couldn't help me, I knew I had to find consulting elsewhere, so I contacted one of my customers who happens to do paid consulting. She agreed to do marketing consulting. Unlike Grimsley, she had insight and she acted like she wants me to win. Among other suggestions, she advised me to "focus on one thing", so I decided to focus on marketing my Anita Sarkeesian Short Trilogy. I applied this paid consultant's insights.

After I applied her ideas, I needed more advice, so I hired a specialized consultant. This consultant also helped me and she also seemed to be rooting for my success.

Maybe paid consulting beats free consulting?

When you need consulting referrals, contact me and I can refer these paid consultants to you.