SCORE Lancaster Helps Women Entrepreneurs

More and more women are starting businesses, and many are turning to SCORE for assistance. SCORE counselors can help with business and marketing planning, financial analysis, funding strategies and business education. In 2008 SCORE Lancaster assisted more than 800 clients … about 60% women. Here are three recent examples – Cassie Kreider, Jessica Pavelko and Michelle Cruz – who relied on SCORE for start-up assistance:

Cassie Kreider, founder and owner of Oscar's Pet Resort on Eden Road, Lancaster, founded a pet resort on a 250-year old farm east of Lancaster. She offers overnight dog-and-cat boarding, dog day care, grooming and training services. Since opening with two full-time employees in 2006, the business employs four people on a full-time basis, plus six part time employees.

"Never having been in business before, I needed someone to lay out a plan forme" said Kreider of her reasons for contacting SCORE. Her counselors worked one-on-one with her to create and refine an action plan, and her counselors continue to be available to her for mentoring."

Jessica Pavelko started a business to assist senior citizens to find quality resources to meet their specific needs. Her SCORE counselors not only helped her develop a start-up plan, but also helped her maintain a balance between the time to be physically present at her business and the education time she needed to earn a Senior Advisor Certificate.

"SCORE provided someone who I can go to when I'm excited or discouraged," Pavelko said. She has found SCORE's counselors to be motivating when she thinks she has a great new idea … and when things don't seem to be going well. "They can get me on track and provide support from a business perspective, “ she said.

Michelle Cruz went to SCORE in 2005 with an idea to produce a CD of songs that relate to daily child care tasks, such as diaper changing, feeding, and putting infants and toddlers to bed for naps, for mothers of children under age 3 . She wrote 16 songs on "Baby Clean Fun" with her husband, James Eberly, and business partner, Beth Cardwell.
"I approached SCORE because we thought we had a good idea, and they agreed," Cruz recalled."They gave us direction by telling us what we needed to do to start a business"
Since an appearance on a cable program about innovative new products, the CD is marketed nationally through several web sites. “Without the help of SCORE counselors,” Cruz said, "I don't know if it ever would have happened at all."

For help starting or growing a small business in Lancaster County, contact SCORE at
www.scorelancaster.org or call the SCORE Office at 717-397-3092 or visit us at Liberty Place, 313 West Liberty St., Suite 231, in Lancaster. Weekdays between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.