Deep Bench Offers Help

January 6, 2012

Rick Barkley, SCORE counselor, left, and The Four Firkins owner Jason Alvey stood in his new location in St. Louis Park, Wednesday, December 22, 2011.

It’s great to start a new year with a SCORE success story.  Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury (todd_nelson@mac.com.) wrote the follow SCORE success story for the Minneapolis Star Tribune paper in early January.

Deep Bench Offers Help

Thirsting for stronger growth, Jason Alvey, owner of the Four Firkins craft beer specialty store in St. Louis Park, sought advice from the Minneapolis chapter of the SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Alvey spent months working with SCORE counselors on a business plan and marketing strategy. The result was he relocated the Four Firkins to a more visible store that’s twice the size of his old shop, which opened in May 2008. Now he’s on pace to triple his sales.

The new store has been “absolutely insane” since the October relocation, Alvey said, with holiday shoppers snapping up the latest from Surly, Fulton and other local breweries, or trying abbey-brewed Belgian ales among other far-flung craft brews. Last month’s sales of $180,000 doubled those of December 2010, Alvey said, and the new store has nine employees compared with the previous five.

“I honestly could not have done it without their help, without their insight,” said Alvey of his SCORE counselors. “We are now at a completely new level. This is a dramatic improvement, and the potential to grow this is amazing. The future is very bright for this company, and we have some big ideas.”

One thing that isn’t big is the tab for SCORE’s services, which came free of charge. The nonprofit SCORE, in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), offers free online and face-to-face business counseling to small-business owners. Some classes and programs are available for a nominal charge.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” Alvey said. “If more people knew what these guys are capable of and what they do, they wouldn’t have any free time. Their phone would be ringing off the hook.”

While start-ups represent 80 percent of SCORE’s clients, its business counselors are eager to hear from more business owners like Alvey, those who have been in business for a year or more and are seeking advice on how to expand their companies, said SCORE counselor Rick Barkley, one of 100 Minneapolis volunteers.

To read the rest of this wonderful article go to http://www.startribune.com/business/136461788.html

 Looking for help in your business?  Contact one of the SCORE Chapters on the right column of this blog.  They can help you as the Minneapolis Chapter helped Jason Alvey.

Al Hanzal,
View more posts by Al Hanzal

Filed under: SCORE Success Stories