John Dilbeck Musings

“Funding Secrets to Start, Expand, or Buy a Business,” a free workshop, will be presented on 5/21/07 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM in the Patterson Building at the Tri-County Community College’s main campus in Murphy.

The instructor is volunteer SCORE business counselor Jerry Chautin. He has over 30-years business lending and commercial real estate financing experience. You can e-mail him for details at JKChautin@aol.com.

Pre-registration is required and space is limited. Please call Cecelia Crawford at 828-835-4318 to reserve your place.

Mike Arriola, the U. S. Small Business Administration’s Senior Area Manager for Western North Carolina, in cooperation with the Small Business Center at Tri-County Community College and SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), will offer a free workshop on financing techniques for businesses and will provide attendees with an opportunity to ask questions about other SBA programs. SCORE and Small Business Center representatives will be available for expanded business counseling and mentoring.

The workshop will be held at Tri-County Community College on January 14, 2005. If it snows, the alternative date will be January 19, 2005.

You can learn more about the SBA and its programs by calling 1-800-827-5722 or by visiting their website at www.sba.gov.

For more information about the upcoming workshop, call Cecilia Crawford at the Small Business Center at 828-835-4297 or email her at CCrawford@tricountycc.edu

If you have corporate or small business skills, and a desire to help business owners succeed, SCORE would like to speak with you about volunteering at the Murphy branch office. Contact Jerry Chautin at PO Box 254, Murphy, NC 28906 or via email at JKChautin@aol.com .

Hendersonville-based SCORE Western North Carolina announced that Judy Grove has joined its new branch office in Murphy, North Carolina, as a volunteer business counselor.

SCORE is a not-for-profit all volunteer resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. They offer free business advice, counseling and mentoring to entrepreneurs who want to start, expand, finance or buy a business.

Grove, a seasoned entrepreneur, is president and chief executive officer of Grove Enterprises, Inc. in Brasstown. She has many years of experience overcoming the challenges of starting and making small businesses profitable and will apply these skills when helping her SCORE clients.

Dick Adams is the chair of SCORE Western North Carolina and met with Grove in Murphy. He told her that Washington-based SCORE was started 40 years ago and has since grown to 10,500 volunteers, in 385 chapters nationwide. Adams said that new Cherokee County branch is an outreach of the Hendersonville-based, SCORE Western North Carolina with 27 volunteers and branches in Brevard and Rutherford. It will serve small businesspersons in Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties.

To learn more online, check out, www.scorewnc.org and www.score.org. Grove’s Web site is, www.grove-ent.com.

Domiciled at the Small Business Center of Tri-County Community College in Cherokee County, NC, the new SCORE office conducts private and confidential counseling and mentoring sessions with business owners.

SCORE’s local branch office is looking for a few more volunteers. This interesting opportunity is available to working and retired men and women who have small business or corporate skills. They must enjoy helping others succeed spend a few hours monthly on a flexible schedule. Resources and training are provided.

For further information on volunteering or to request an application, please e-mail: JKChautin@aol.com or call (828) 837-4598 in Murphy or (828) 693-8702 in Hendersonville.