Angel Russell is a native of north Dayton, but has lived in the West Carrollton/Miamisburg area since her teens.  In her sophomore year of high school she enrolled in the Miami Valley Career Technology Center, and decided to enter its Cosmetology program to become a Hair Stylist.  But because that program was full, she entered the Fashion and Interior Merchandising program. During that time Angel worked in retail jobs selling clothing. In her senior year she did a report on a nail shop, not realizing how prophetic that report would be in her life.  After graduation, Angel got married, had a daughter, and decided then she would prefer being a Manicurist rather than a Hair Stylist. In 1995 Angel attended Creative Images College of Beauty and acquired her Managing Manicurist license. For the next 13 years, Angel worked her trade in six different beauty shops.

  While she was very successful, and built up a large client following, she was not satisfied with the beauty profession.  Angel is a very devout Christian, and in late 2007 her employer asked her to not talk to customers about her faith.  She decided that this was a clear sign that she should open her own nail shop. Just before Christmas in 2007 she left the establishment she worked for and began to pursue her own business. 

   In order to maintain her large customer base, she contacted her clients, informed them of her decision, and asked that they follow her on this journey. Angel then began the process of developing her own shop.  A good client recommended that she contact SCORE, which she did and was put in touch with a long time and very skilled counselor, Alan Sipe.  Angel and Alan met in early January, 2008, and she was comfortable immediately with Alan as a mentor.  Over the next two months, Alan helped her develop a business plan, form a Limited Liability Company, set up a recordkeeping system, and was available for her many questions.

  A friend told her of a small space for lease on Main Street in downtown Miamisburg which might be a good location for a nail shop.  She checked the space out, found it to be perfect, and negotiated a lease.  Her husband did the work to build out the space to accommodate her business, and Angel used her shopping skills to furnish the space at minimal cost.  The result is a very attractive and serviceable shop. 

  In March of 2008, Angel opened the doors of Angel's Heavenly Nails.  The business was profitable from the outset.  Because of her strong following, she hasn't had the need for much marketing; word of mouth has been sufficient.  The weak economy has not seemed to hurt the business.  Angel isn't interested in growing the nail business to the point where she needs additional technicians, but she does have a vision of adding a boutique to the shop in a few years and hiring her daughter.

Angel has great respect for Alan: "Without Alan I probably would not have started the business.  His encouragement gave me the confidence to proceed.  He is very professional and gave me excellent advice.  He is my mentor and my friend, and his wife has become my friend and customer.

Dr. Pamela Ellis, www.compasseducationstrategies.com

"Access. Thrive. Graduate!" is the mantra of Compass Education Strategies which employs techniques like in depth knowledge of education research and extensive visits to campuses nationwide to prepare clients for college. Compass also works directly with schools systems and non-profits to assist kids with college-readiness. Offices are located in Oakwood, OH and San Francisco.

There are dropouts all along the academic pipeline. It starts in high school, and the same thing happens at the college level. The key with students dropping out of college is that the breakdown starts at the application process. Often students will choose a college based on location, or choose it based on what their friends say. None of that has to do with what's a good fit for them. They end up going to a place where they are under matched. Or to a school that can't provide the financial support. And they drop out.

Dr. Pamela Ellis, founder and principal consultant of Compass Education Strategies made a career switch from business to education. Once a corporate financier, she is now known as the Education Doctor who uses her research acumen to help students from all walks of life attain solid educations. She worked in education research for the past thirteen years — with school districts, state education agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

Pamela attended the Dayton SCORE's Simple Steps multi workshop Program in spring 2011. The program is designed to give business owners an in depth look at business fundamentals while working with counselors to either start a business venture or improve an existing business. Pamela received new insight from the program and counselors that helped her realize the potential for her business.

Bob Talty, a counselor and workshop leader, inspired Pamela to work on a vision and to move into new areas such as parent workshops. He provided advice on how to adjust the organization's marketing plan to take advantage of new market areas and expand the education niche. By packaging and promoting the services of the organization to match the needs of the family it created more opportunities for business growth and improvement. Bob helped her set up the workshop program.

Pamela is now using her new business plan to make improvements and to continue to adjust as they learn more about the needs of the education market. Compass Education Strategies expanded their services to focus on helping parents as well as students prepare for future education. Pamela's goal is to be able contact families with practical information around education. The ideal is to reach them where they are, when families are commuting, or around their kitchen tables when they are making decisions about their kids' educations. Her firm is pursuing that vision through producing podcasts, having a radio program on a major station, and developing The Education Doctor curriculum.

Steve Cope, www.familyfilmsforever.com

Most entrepreneurs, having formed and verified a new business concept, want to jump in with both feet and devote full time to building their dream. But that isn't always possible. Such is the case with Steve Cope, a native Daytonian with an important and challenging job, and a passion for preserving family memories, two things that are not easily compatible. Steve is General Manager of Eastco Enterprises, a firm that provides vocational training, rehabilitation, placement and support services for people with special needs. Utilizing this workforce, Eastco Enterprises, a division of Eastway Corporation, offers a number of value-added business solutions to public and private organizations throughout the Miami Valley and Ohio.

A few years ago, Steve and his grandfather began sitting for hours at a time talking religion, politics, and, most interestingly, family and the amazing things Grandpa did growing up. Steve realized that he was hearing things that no one else in the family had ever heard. He asked Grandpa if there were stories he would like remembered after he was gone. Grandpa liked the idea of telling his children and grandchildren about their family tree. One evening, Steve took his video camera to record their conversation. Grandpa was camera shy at first, but soon forgot the camera was there. They recorded several hours of stories over the next few months, before Grandpa passed away in February of 2009. Steve played some of the video at the funeral, and friends and family were able to hear Grandpa's stories, see his smiles and hear his laughs. Everyone raved about the video. The germ of a business idea was born.

Steve has always been a history buff, particularly local history. And he is particularly concerned about our WWII veterans who are leaving us and taking their war memories with them. As Steve frames it, "When an older person dies, it's like a library burning down." So he decided to explore creating a business in which he would capture real people telling their life's stories, preserve them for their families on high definition digital video, and do it as inexpensively as possible. Having a lot of good business experience, but always working for someone else, he realized he had a lot to learn about starting his own business. Eastco Enterprises has the janitorial contract for the Federal Building in downtown Dayton in which Dayton SCORE has its office. So Steve had the opportunity to come into the SCORE office and pick up some of our printed resources on business start-up. He found the material helpful, so he attended some of our workshops. Also finding them useful, he took the next step of scheduling an appointment with a SCORE counselor. He met with Ron Footer, a seasoned counselor, several times.

They did considerable market research in an effort to test the viability of the new business idea. Interestingly, they could not find another company with Steve's business model. But they did verify that, if priced right, a good market exists. Ron also suggested ideas for how to market the service, including calling on senior citizen centers, church groups and independent and assisted living centers, conducting email campaigns, etc.

Confident that he now had the knowledge to proceed, Steve invested in professional video camera and lighting equipment and launched his company, Family Films Forever, www.familyfilmsforever.com. He made arrangements with the activity directors of a couple of independent living centers to set up his equipment on a Saturday morning and do free sessions with residents in order to hone his interviewing skills, practice his equipment set up and operation, and get feedback from the interviewees. The practice sessions served these purposes well, and Steve began to get real paying customers for the service. In a few months he had paid back his equipment investment. He knew the business could be successful if he marketed it aggressively and continued to produce a valuable product.

However, Steve found that he was easily distracted from building his new business due to the challenges of his full-time job and family obligations. He wasn't getting the traction needed to put the business in a rapid growth mode. After serious reflection, Steve decided on a goal to grow the business such that it would be his full time career within two to three years. He knows that achieving this goal will require extreme focus and sacrifice, but he is committed. Don't bet against him!

Steve sings the praises of Ron Footer and Dayton SCORE: "Ron and SCORE gave me the information and confidence to get my business up and running. I will continue to use them to help me reach my goal."

Laura Simon

Laura Simon is a native Daytonian and a graduate of Meadowdale High School. To meet her is to know immediately that she is a "people person." She is high energy, vivacious, and very warm-hearted. But finding her niche in life was a difficult journey.

After graduating from high school, Laura established a residential and commercial cleaning business, which she ran for 10 years. After a few years, however, she realized that the business, while financially successful, was getting her down. It didn't suit her personality or her need for a "hands on" relationship with people. So, while maintaining her business, Laura began taking nursing courses at Sinclair Community College because helping people was her passion. For a year and a half she enjoyed her coursework tremendously, but when she began talking clinical nursing courses, which involved dealing with very ill patients, she found that she was not well suited for that type of work. So she ended her pursuit of a nursing career, but continued her cleaning business.

By the time she reached her late 20's, Laura, now married with a baby daughter, began contemplating her next move. She recalled that as a very young girl she was fascinated with hair styling, and that a baby sitter would often allow her to play stylist with her hair. So she decided to consider hair styling as a career path, and enrolled in Creative Images Institute of Cosmetology, again maintaining her cleaning business. Upon graduating, she finally gave up her business, served her six-month internship with a salon, earned her hair designer license, and continued to work for the salon for two years.

Laura knew that she wanted to open her own salon eventually, but to gain more experience she worked for two years for Regis Salons, first at the Dayton Mall and then in Englewood where she and her family, now including two daughters, lived. In late 2008, she felt the time was right to get serious about her own salon. She went to the library to get information on starting a business and read that SCORE was a great resource. So she contacted Dayton SCORE, made an appointment with counselor Rod Childs, and had a very productive session with him. But, as she recalls: "I got cold feet for a few months, worrying about taking the big step." Her family and her clients, however, finally talked her into moving forward. So in early May of 2009 she contacted Rod again and began working closely with him. Over the next four months Rod guided Laura through the steps to obtain the necessary licensing, select a name for the salon, form a Limited Liability Company, and set time lines for all the plans leading to start-up.

Simultaneously, Laura and her husband selected a site for her business in Englewood, a site that had been vacant for two years. Interestingly, the site had been a barber shop with an apartment above in which Laura and her family had lived for several years. They knew the owner, of course, and negotiated a lease for the space. They then undertook a major do-it-yourself project of demolishing and rebuilding the space and equipping it as an attractive and efficient salon. They took on significant debt in this process.

In late September of 2009, Laura opened the doors of Fixation Salon. Many of her clientele followed her, and their referrals and general word of mouth led to a good business ramp up. As of early February, 2010, four months after start-up, Laura had paid down much of the debt incurred and was very close to turning a profit.

Laura is very happy that she has finally settled into her perfect career. She enjoys developing strong relationships with her customers, making sure she understands precisely what they want done with their hair, and providing them exceptional service. Her vision is to grow the salon to a four stylist crew and possibly a manicurist within a few years.

She sings the praises of Rod Childs: "He went above and beyond in leading me through the start-up process. In a very nice way he made sure that I stayed on track. He was, and still is, a mentor, a friend, and now also a steady customer!"

Kent Garber

Kent Garber noticed that many seniors had special home modification requests for dealing with their physical challenges. They needed provisions for special lifts, ramps, walk-in tubs, grab bars, and other handicap aids. This realization caused Kent to research the idea of starting a construction company specializing in home modifications for the physically challenged.

He found that there was no other company in Preble County addressing that market, so he decided to pursue the idea. He studied the American with Disabilities Act provisions and technologies for dealing with disabilities. In late 2008 he heard Ray Potter, a seasoned SCORE counselor, at a Preble County Chamber of Commerce meeting giving a talk on SCORE services. Ray lives in Eaton and runs the Eaton branch of Dayton SCORE. After the meeting, Kent asked Ray for help in setting up his business. They began meeting in January 2009. With Ray's guidance over the next several months, Kent formed his company, Garber Contracting, LLC, attended five Dayton SCORE workshops, developed a business plan, and began marketing the business. He quickly began getting contracts for his special construction services. In 2009, he had several small jobs, but in 2010 thus far he is very busy, has obtained several larger jobs, and has hired two full-time craftsmen. He envisions growing his business to perhaps four employees in the next couple of years, and is pleased with his station in life. Clearly Kent has taken his core skills in accounting, sales and management, married them with his strong values for family and friends, to continually uncover new business opportunities.

Kent credits Ray with providing him excellent guidance throughout his new business development process. He says: "Ray is not only my mentor, he is a good friend."

Leronda Lucky, www.lflinsurance.com

Leronda Lucky was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, and graduated from Middletown High School. She displayed a strong work ethic early, with jobs in a restaurant, hardware store and retail establishment. She gained manufacturing experience with a five year stint with Crystal Tissue as a paper finisher. Following that she worked in a customer service role with MetLife Insurance, and became a licensed MetLife agent for a year. In 1994, Leronda joined the L.M. Berry Company for eight years, selling Yellow Pages advertising in inside sales, outside sales, and training manager roles. From 2000 to 2002 she also took classes at Sinclair Community College. While she enjoyed the Berry Company, at the end the job required her to be on the road much of the week, which proved too much, given that she was raising two sons.

Therefore, in 2002, Leronda took a huge risk and started her own insurance agency, LFL Insurance Agency LLC, out of her home in Dayton. At that time, as now, her business is the only Female African American independent insurance agency in the Dayton area. As a start-up independent agency, it was very difficult to obtain a contract with a major property & casualty insurance company. A break came when she was named the sole broker for the insurance for the huge construction project undertaken by the Dayton Public Schools. In 2004 she hired an administrative assistant and leased an office suite in a major office building on S. Dixie Dr. in Kettering, Ohio. In 2005, Leronda landed a contract with Erie Insurance, a major player in the property & casualty insurance field. She also represents Farmers, AIG, Progressive, Motorists and Anthem.

While her business made progress over the next few years, Leronda was busy working in the business, not finding time to work on the business, and consequently the business was clearly lacking in terms of planning, administrative functions, market focus, and personnel management. In May of 2008, at a Dayton Rotary Club meeting, Leronda discussed her situation with Leif Jacobsen, a SCORE counselor. Leif put her in touch with SCORE counselor, Bob Halstead, who spent his long career in Dayton as a partner in a major insurance agency. Leronda and Bob hit it off well immediately. Over the next several months they worked on the following issues: organizing office tasks and hiring an office manager; selecting appropriate target market segments and focusing marketing efforts toward these segments; and networking, customer contact and follow up strategies. They conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis and worked on the issues that surfaced from the analysis.

Leronda's business is now performing well. Her vision for the future is to grow to the point where she can employ five agents, each of whom specialize in a particular insurance area, allowing her to focus on the commercial insurance area. She credits Bob Halstead with helping her learn to be able to work both in the business and on the business. She states: "Bob has provided me with very sound advice and has helped me implement that advice. I am in much better control of my business, thanks to Bob. He continues to be readily available to be my sounding board. I am in his debt."

Eric Majors

The ideal client relationship for a SCORE counselor is one in which the small business client accepts the counselor as a long-term mentor and they work closely together on problems and opportunities as they arise.  For any number of reasons this ideal is not often realized.  Even rarer is achieving this ideal in a long distance email/telephone relationship.  But it happened big-time between 15-year Dayton SCORE counselor, Gordon Callihan, and Jasper Indiana pet store owner, Eric Majors.

Eight years ago Eric chose Gordon to ask for help via the SCORE online counseling system.  Eric's first note was dramatic: "Please, sir, can you help me save my business?"  Gordon responded asking for extensive information (financials, competitive situation, employees, facility, parking, marketing, etc.) which Eric willingly provided.  They identified and attacked three initial key issues: attracting customers, hiring and keeping good employees, and achieving personal happiness.  In those early months, Gordon and Eric communicated frequently, often twice a day.  When they began to look closely at margins, inventory turnover and other issues, it became clear that they needed to focus on basic retailing principles.  Step by step, Gordon coached Eric on how to purchase better and demand lower delivered prices from suppliers by buying closeouts, ordering larger quantities, and the like. 

Eric's business, Seven Seas Pet Store, carries an extensive selection of aquatics products, including aquariums, ponds, and tropical fish. It also offers food, treats, toys, grooming products, training supplies and more for cats, dogs and small pets.  After a couple of years of mentoring, Gordon introduced Eric to the concept of departmentalizing the store.  They defined 14 departments, considering each department as a profit center, taking inventory by department, bringing goods into the store by department, and keeping a P&L for each department, charging each a portion of the store's fixed costs on the basis of the space used.  Margin and profit goals were set for each department, and management decisions were made based on departmental performance. 

At Gordon's suggestion, Eric purchased a point of sale system that allowed him to track inventory by stock keeping unit for even better control.  Year by year, the pet store became more profitable.  Gordon then encouraged Eric to think in terms of defense.  What would he do if one of the large pet store franchisors decided to place a franchise in his territory?  They also studied the strategy of opening a second store in an adjacent area, but rejected it based on the financial analysis.  They researched employee incentives, considered employee specialization, and other ideas.  When they finished a study they documented the analysis and their decision.

In the last couple of years, Eric's store has done very well, but Gordon and Eric continue to communicate frequently to discuss the business.  While they have never stood face-to-face, Gordon stresses that their relationship is more than counselor/client, they are close friends.  This is a tribute to both parties:  Gordon is a skilled counselor with extensive retail and management experience from his career with the NCR Corporation where he was a top flight salesman and sales manager in the cash register industry, and a sales trainer for the company throughout the world; and Eric is an excellent client who trusted Gordon and followed through on all of Gordon's recommendations.  Productive long-term mentoring via email and telephone communication is clearly more difficult than face-to-face, but they made it work.

Eric tells it this way:  "When I first contacted Gordon, I had had my business for about 20 years, but I thought I was going to lose it.  After exchanging several emails with him he told me that I was 'flying blind without a license', and he was right.  Over literally hundreds of emails, he told me exactly what to do, and I did it, and it worked.  My business is thriving and I owe it to him.  This spring I am going to travel to Dayton and give my friend a big hug." 

Rebecca Belcher, www.workerscomppremiumrecovery.com

Rebecca (Becky) Belcher is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from Hiram College, she moved to Washington D.C. and began a career in the insurance field with State Farm Insurance. She earned her Chartered Property/Casualty Underwriter certification and became a licensed staff assistant and underwriter for Property/Casualty insurance. After a time Becky and her husband moved to Dayton. She went back to school at Wright State University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and a MBA in Accountancy.

Becky's next career step was with the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation as an Audit Reviewer in 1993. She supervised a team of auditors to insure audit consistency, quality, and accuracy. She was selected as the BWC's Southwest Ohio Adjudication Representative for audit issues, representing BWC on many insurance premium audit cases.

Workers'Compensation insurance pricing is done by classifying different workplace exposures into a system of codes, each one with a rate commensurate with the risk associated with that workplace exposure. In most states the classification system used is one devised and maintained by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). Becky was an active participant in Ohio's conversion to the NCCI system during the mid-1990s. For the next decade, she performed hundreds of rating inspections and premium reviews of Ohio employers: manufacturing, farms construction, wholesale, transportation, public entities, and many more. She also completed post-graduate courses in fraud and compliance.

In mid-2008, after working for the BWC for 15 years, Becky decided to explore her longtime dream of starting her own business in which she would provide workers'compensation-related services to businesses; e.g., conducting independent onsite review of NCCI codes used for premium calculation, checking on the accuracy of premium reporting, conducting pre-or post-BWC audits, serving as an expert witness for disputes in premium audits, providing education on premium reporting, and helping with questions related to adherence to BWC's policies and regulations for premium reporting.

Recognizing that she needed guidance in the process of staring her business, Becky attended a Dayton SCORE workshop on business planning and then made an appointment to meet with a SCORE counselor to discuss the viability of her business idea and obtain help with her business plan. Fortunately, Becky was matched with Bob Halstead, a longtime SCORE counselor who spent his career in the insurance industry and was co-owner of a large local agency. Bob encouraged Becky to pursue her business concept and work on a business plan, with special attention to marketing. In September 2008, Becky became sufficiently confident with her business concept that she resigned her job with the BWC. Bob and Becky continued to interact frequently over the next few months as she continued working on her plan, attended small business networking events, formed a Limited Liability Company, Workers'Comp Premium Reduction & Recovery LLC, developed a training module for workers' compensation premium audits, and created a marketing brochure.

Thus far in 2009, Becky's business is off and running. She has several client assignments lined up, has plans for moving the business out of her home into an office in the spring, and is in conversation with a potential partner. Becky is most complimentary of and grateful for the support of SCORE and Bob Halstead: "Bob's knowledge of my field and his encouragement to develop a strong business plan and to think hard about how to market my business gave me the confidence to take the major step to start this business. SCORE and Bob are wonderful resources. I can't thank them enough."