Unlocking Potential with a Free Business Mentor via SCORE

Heather K Turner talks about SCORE, a little-known (but mighty!) national organization designed to help small businesses with free mentoring and other resources, in this episode of the Bringing Up Business podcast, hosted by Kaila Sachse.

They also discuss the importance of mentorship, the challenges of starting a business as a parent, and the significance of financial literacy. Heather shares insights on overcoming imposter syndrome and the necessity of prioritizing family while navigating entrepreneurship. The conversation emphasizes the need for support systems and the value of community in business success.

More About Heather K. Turner

Heather Turner is a Granite Region Certified SCORE mentor. She spent twenty years cooking professionally and in 2003 started her own business (with the assistance of a SCORE mentor). She currently teaches social media and marketing for small businesses and mentors and co-mentors in the chapter for marketing and social media for startup businesses and for existing businesses who need some help and guidance in the digital age. She also specializes in working with the hospitality industry for operations, both starting a food business as well as in business.

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Transcript

Kaila Sachse (00:02.781)
Welcome to the Bringing Up Business podcast where we talk about business and parenting. I am your host, Kaila Sachse mom of a toddler and owner of a marketing and creative agency called Yumari Digital. I'm excited to chat with today's inspiring guest, Heather K. Turner. Heather Turner is a Granite Region certified SCORE mentor. She spent 20 years cooking professionally and in 2003, she started her own business.

with the assistance of a SCORE mentor. She currently teaches social media and marketing for small businesses and mentors. And she co-mentors in the chapter for marketing and social media for startup businesses and for existing businesses who need some help and guidance in the digital age. She also specializes in working with the hospitality industry for operations, both starting a food business as well as in business. Heather,

Welcome to the show. I'm a huge fan of SCORE and I cannot wait to talk about it.

Heather K Turner (01:06.626)
Thank you so much for the lovely introduction. It's a pleasure to be here.

Kaila Sachse (01:10.008)
Yeah, same, thank you for being here. So it's important to note really quick, we are going to be discussing specifically about SCORE and what that program is all about. And we want to respect their code of ethics. So we will not be talking any specifics about your business, but instead we're going to keep the conversation high level. And just so we can provide some context, let's do a quick deep dive into what SCORE is. So Heather, what is SCORE?

Heather K Turner (01:39.214)
All right, so SCORE is nationwide. It has been around since the 60s and there are chapters, sometimes multiple chapters in every state. And SCORE mentors run the gamut of experience for pretty much, I think, every type of industry and profession that I've come across so far. And I'm completely biased when I say this. I think it's a fantastic organization. I've been volunteering for about six years, little over that now, about six and a half.

And I've worked with mentors, not just in my own chapter, which covers most of New Hampshire, little bit slice of Vermont, but from mentors in many, many other chapters all over the United States. And it's, it's just a wonderful experience and a wonderful, whether you're a client coming in and you need business help or whether you're volunteering as a mentor.

And from the perspective of a mentor, it's just incredibly rewarding being able to help businesses, again, whether they're starting or whether they've been in business for many years. And I've worked with quite a few of both.

Kaila Sachse (02:39.953)
Wow, my goodness. So you are not alone in saying that you are biased in loving SCORE. I also have a soft spot in my heart for SCORE as well. SCORE has helped me level up my business in ways that I didn't even know possible. And it's also afforded me different opportunities that I, you know, when you mentioned being a mentor and that feeling fulfilling, that resonates with me as well. You know, I've donated my time giving speeches and hosting webinars and I.

Heather K Turner (02:41.536)
Thank you.

Kaila Sachse (03:07.985)
I just feel so good after, we're giving back to the business community. Yeah, so good.

Heather K Turner (03:12.618)
Exactly. I could probably go off the rails and talk about SCORE for hours and hours, but I think it's one of those little known resources for small businesses. And the fact that it's free is just phenomenal. And I think more people honestly should take advantage of that. And I think it's interesting because SCORE used to stand for, and I hope I'm getting this right, the social core of retired executives. And SCORE rebranded a few years ago.

And it's just SCORE for the life of your business. And originally it was just people that had been retired or recently retired. And now it runs the gamut of people that have retired recently retired. Our own chapter has, I would say probably about half of them are either still in business or partially retired. So it's great that we have such a huge broad spectrum of both the workforce and again, the expertise that it's out there.

When I give workshops, which we do in our chapter, we usually do one or two per week. I love doing the little intro sales pitch, which says, and I'm going to do our sales pitch about SCORE. That's not a sales pitch because we're not selling anything. And if people haven't heard that, you may usually get a chock alert through out of that.

Kaila Sachse (04:25.084)
That's a good one. That's a good one. And just to clarify, SCORE is, this is my understanding of it, correct me if I'm wrong, but SCORE is a sub-chapter of the SBA within the United States.

Heather K Turner (04:37.442)
We are a resource partner of the SBA, similar to the SBDC and CWE, so Small Business Development Centers and Center for Women and Enterprise. So we are partially funded by, and we work very, very closely with our local SBA. And we do, think, at least one workshop with them per month and talk about government contracting and what's available for SBA loans. And I think from the perspective of being a mentor and being able to

be more educated about what the SBA offers. It's a really good insight into that, that I wouldn't normally have had otherwise.

Kaila Sachse (05:15.024)
Yes, yes. And we don't want to get too off topic, but the SBA is a valuable resource for small businesses as well because the SBA can provide funding. Is that correct?

Heather K Turner (05:25.326)
Well, the SBA does not provide funding directly. It provides the availability of loans to small businesses through banks. That's kind of the more general way to put it. So you're not getting money directly from them.

Kaila Sachse (05:28.571)
Okay.

Kaila Sachse (05:46.778)
Yeah, they're almost like a connector between the small business and the bank. Interesting, very cool. so SCORE mentors, is every SCORE mentor a business owner? Have they been a business owner previously or what is the gamut of experience there?

Heather K Turner (06:02.67)
Well, I would say the majority of mentors are business owners. We do have people that may have been in upper management, for example, or are specialized. So maybe their whole career has been in mid-level. I'm just going to make this one up, but just kind of a gauge of who I've met so far and talked to. You know, they've been maybe had a lot of sales experience, for example, and might've managed a business and not necessarily owned it, but they have the expertise that we're looking for.

When mentors come in to be a mentor, they go through a fairly significant vetting process. So it's not like applying for a job. You we want to know who you are, your background, you're interviewed by a couple of people. They do, they look into the backgrounds of that, those people, and just get a general idea of whether they're going to be a good fit. Because we want to make sure that when people call us and clients need our services, that there's a good match there.

Clients come to us, they talk about personal things, they talk about financials, there's a whole gamut of things and we want to make sure that there's that comfortable match there.

Kaila Sachse (07:09.391)
Yeah, yeah, that completely makes sense. at what point would somebody reach out to SCORE for resources? mean, is there only just the mentorship? Is there more resource to SCORE? What is the offering?

Heather K Turner (07:11.63)
Hmm.

Heather K Turner (07:23.818)
So SCORE.org has workshops that are a lot of them are on a weekly basis that are live. There's a whole ton of recorded ones, but there's an awful lot of articles, white papers, to do lists, financial projections. So if someone's looking for something specific, obviously reach out to a mentor. It's completely free, but go onto the SCORE.org website and

dig around in the files because there's pretty much, I've not found anything quite yet up to date that I have not been able to find there. I think the one thing that I always tell people is if they are looking for a SCORE mentor, please make sure that you feel comfortable with them because it does need to be a good match. And if it's not, that's okay. It's free. Don't be afraid to request somebody else.

And the other thing I tell people is we're all experts on a lot of fields, but none of us are experts in everything. I would completely adore if I was an expert in everything, but we know that's not humanly possible. the fantastic thing about SCORE is that we can bring in additional mentors from our own chapter, but any other chapter in the United States. And I think one of my favorite stories to tell is I had a SCORE client that I still meet with occasionally every six months or so.

about three years ago, who was writing a book. And he's written a couple since then. And when I met with him, I could help him write his business plan. I could help him review the website, you know, work on marketing, do his, you know, work on his finances. I knew absolutely nothing about book publishing. And I found a mentor in, I'm gonna remember to say it properly, according to them, Nevada, who had been a book publisher and owned a book publishing company. And she came in, she sat in on several sessions with me.

and I learned so incredibly much. know, and I've actually, this is, can't tell you what, but I published a couple of self-published books and since then using a lot of that knowledge that I myself gained. And I think that's one of the pluses of being a mentor is you learn so much by interacting with other mentors and just being able to have access to that content, both on the national level and on the chapter level. So, you know, it's,

Heather K Turner (09:40.934)
For someone like me who's like in constant squirrel mode, like bright shiny objects, that's perfect. And that's, think that's part of why I love it a lot too.

Kaila Sachse (09:49.497)
I completely resonate with that. I love working with clients from different industries because I just want to learn about everything, you know? And it's like, okay, I got to stick to what I'm good at. I'm good at the marketing, I'm good at the graphics. But like, gosh, I would just want to know about all these different industries. They're so fascinating. Well, it's super cool to hear that somebody could go to you or go to any SCORE mentor and say, hey, I need help with my business, period dot, period dot.

Heather K Turner (09:55.766)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Heather K Turner (10:06.798)
Wait, exactly, exactly.

Heather K Turner (10:16.46)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (10:18.41)
And you could say, okay, cool, what is your industry? What's your business? They describe it to you. And if it's not quite within your wheelhouse, that's fine. There are other mentors who can offer that insight.

Heather K Turner (10:31.902)
Yeah, I think it's great because I mean last year there was a restaurant we were working with down in the DC area and it had six different restaurant hunters from six different chapters all over the United States each specializing in something different. You know and it's great because sometimes when you start working with a mentor in another chapter in another state they know like you specialize in this or you specialize in that so you start working with them more often too which is just fun. You know it's great to network with other people and again learn the expertise of other people too.

Kaila Sachse (11:01.657)
Oh my gosh, that's amazing, how cool. Okay, say if I am a parent and I'm looking to start a business, mean, that, yeah, yeah.

Heather K Turner (11:09.422)
yeah, totally. So I would say as part of my sales pitch that's not a sales pitch is, sure as here, whether you are starting a business, just thinking of starting a business or you've been in business for many years. And, you know, not every business is going to fly. Not every business is a good idea. It is not. And this is in my own words. This is not the words of SCORE, but I know that they're pretty much on the same page. And most of the other mentors are is it's not our responsibility.

tell people that this is not going to work. It is our of our responsibility. And again, in my own words, that we're to get them to understand and they're that this is not a good idea. Like have them go through financial projections to think that they're, they're fantastic idea that's going to work is probably not going to bring in enough money to live on. Just as an example of that. You know, we don't want to ever have people disappointed. And you know,

Cause there's always a great idea out there. Sometimes it's just not the right time or it needs to be tweaked. And sometimes it just needs a lot of tweaking. mean, I've had clients come to me where they wanted to open a certain type of business and we walked them through the whole business plan and they kind of decided, you know, we really don't want to do that. That's not our passion. And I'll give you an example of this. had a couple I was working with and I'm still working with who wanted to open a gourmet food market.

on the coast of New Hampshire and they both had food backgrounds and after a whole bunch of discussions, you know, gave them a lot of homework to do, which they tackled in spades and came back and they were, they definitely had the entrepreneurial spirit and we had the discussion that like, are you guys gonna be happy doing this in a couple of years? And they're like, no, we really don't. And they actually opened a restaurant and they're doing phenomenally out in the Adirondacks of New York.

And that's really their passion and they're working like crazy people, but they're happy because that's what they really wanted to do. And that's the kind of story that I love.

Kaila Sachse (13:12.413)
Yeah, yeah. mean, would you say that that passion or or just general joy around a topic is required in order to be successful in a business?

Heather K Turner (13:22.36)
I think it is just because I've talked to so many people and I'll take my next door neighbor as an example, who was never a SCORE client, although I was trying to direct her in the direction. And he wanted to open in this area, I live in rural New Hampshire, and she wanted to open a, like a food truck serving coffee and bagels. And she doesn't have that experience before.

And she's like, Oh, should I start this? I said, well, you know, if you want business experience, I'm your next door neighbor. I should not be your SCORE mentor because you're a friend as well. Uh, you know, call SCORE. And she didn't get to that point, but we had a lot of discussions. And I said to her, said, why do you want to do that? Well, she thought the area needed it. And I said, okay, maybe that might be so, but is this something that you're going to really enjoy doing serving coffee and bagels out of food truck? And she kind of thought about it. And she's like,

No, not really. And she kind of redirected. I started asking her some questions like, what do you like to do? What do you, what are your strengths? You know, what are your weaknesses? What do you think that in five years you would still find really, really interesting? And she goes, I really like organizing people's stuff. And I haven't talked to her in a few months, but she apparently started a personal organizing business and she's happy as a clam. So there you go. You know, so yes.

Kaila Sachse (14:42.423)
There it is.

Heather K Turner (14:43.214)
To answer your question, think to have a successful business, think it does take some passion and just to circle back and think about why you want to start this. I always talk about, actually giving a workshop on a SCORE workshop on this in a couple of weeks called Getting Out of the Valley of Despair. Have you ever heard of the emotional cycle of change? Okay. So basically it's commonly used in project management.

Kaila Sachse (15:05.873)
No. Okay. Tell us, tell us the things. I'm so curious.

Heather K Turner (15:12.334)
And it's kind of an upside down bell. So people start out in business, what we call uninformed enthusiasm. Hey, I want to start my own business. I want to be my own boss. Nobody's going to boss me around and work my own hours. And then that's like the high level. And then they start to dip a little bit like, Oh my gosh, it's a boatload of work to do this. And then they start going into, wow, this is a lot of work to do this. And that's the valley of despair. And if you can get out of that.

into that informed optimism and get out of that, that's when they succeed. But there are people that get into that valley and that's where they quit. It's important to recognize that and there's ways to get out of that valley by kind of circling back and thinking about like, why did I want to start this in the first place? I wanted to be my own boss. I love what I'm doing. You know, so there's some placeholders that you can put in that I think can help get you out of that.

If you really want to start it, you know, think some people, my husband's a perfect example. Don't tell him I said that. know, he's always talked about starting his own business, but he doesn't have that. And he knows it too. We've had that discussion. He doesn't have that entrepreneur spirit, you know, just because he started to write a business plan. He's like, yeah, this is too hard. Like, you're not going to do that. You're not going to launch the business. Just being honest here.

Kaila Sachse (16:29.162)
Hahaha

Kaila Sachse (16:37.352)
Yeah, yeah, you know, how would one know if they have that entrepreneurial spirit or not? Is it something that you just know or do you kind of figure that out?

Heather K Turner (16:47.758)
Ooh, that's a loaded question, isn't it? Well, so that I wish there was a perfect answer for that because I've had people come and talk to me where they're just like super, super enthusiastic about things and everything you throw at them, you know, do the business model canvas, which is a one page business plan, do your full business plan, do your financials, do your location assessment and they do it. Blah, blah, blah, blah. They like totally, totally into it.

Kaila Sachse (16:49.866)
E

Heather K Turner (17:17.646)
And then they kind of peter out for whatever reason. And then there's people that don't really put 100 % to starting it, but they still start the businesses. So there's no easy answer to that because it's kind of all across the board. I mean, I think the ones that are most successful, and this might be a bit of a biased opinion based on what I have seen in the past six years though, is the ones that do their homework.

that stay enthusiastic, that are really into their product or service, those are the ones that are doing well.

Kaila Sachse (17:51.795)
Yeah, yeah, that makes complete sense. It makes complete sense because when you are really into something, I can speak for myself. I have been so into what I do that, yes, I used to put in really long days before I had my son. Now I just don't have that luxury. Like I need sleep and I also need to watch my kid and, you know, take care of the house. But I would put in these crazy long days and...

Heather K Turner (17:56.952)
Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (18:19.432)
It didn't feel the same as when I had worked jobs, did double shifts, did things that just weren't really interesting to me. It's just a very different type of work and feeling. Yeah, yeah. And then there've been moments where I'm like, I am done with this. I am frustrated. I've hit a wall. And then the next morning I'm like, that was just a silly little fleeting feeling. I'm back in this. I love it, you know?

Heather K Turner (18:31.982)
Hmm, it is.

Heather K Turner (18:43.95)
Yeah. Well, yeah, to me, it's interesting because I think some people have that I want to be my own boss, I'm going to set my own hours, you know, and then they sometimes they do get into business and then they realize that they don't like it because it's not structured enough. You know, I know I've run into a ton of people who have home based businesses. And from I can speak for myself, when I had my office in the house for many, years, it was difficult not

so much that I was getting distracted but shutting it off. Some people have that issue of, I'm home, the laundry needs to be done or I got to walk the dog or whatever. So I've seen both sides of that where, you know, when I was in the house, I was like checking my email before bed at 1030 at night. And like when I woke up at 630, it was like the first thing you have business, business, business. But there's also people that can't hyper focus on work and they go the opposite extreme.

So it's, think having that business, especially a home-based business can be even more of a challenge for a lot of people versus having an actual brick and mortar office somewhere where you have that clearly defined line.

Kaila Sachse (19:54.098)
Yes, yes. I have a neighbor who she works outside of the house and her and her husband take turns watching their kid, you know, between work for both of them. And she and I were chatting and she was like, my gosh, you work from home. That must be so nice. And I was like, yeah, it is. It is nice. And also it's just a different type of animal. You just have to figure out how to work it in a way that's actually effective and efficient.

Heather K Turner (20:02.39)
Yep. Yeah.

Kaila Sachse (20:23.764)
is so that I'm not checking my emails at 10 o'clock at night, or I'm not checking them while I'm trying to cook or take care of my son or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up, because that really is an important topic. So if I'm a parent, I'm looking to get into business and say I am looking to do a home-based business, how should that be structured? What kind of structure could be implemented in order to make that work?

Heather K Turner (20:32.577)
Yes, absolutely.

Heather K Turner (20:53.282)
Well, so that's a conversation I actually have had with more than one client in last six years. And I think every mentor handles this different. Everyone has their own mentoring style. You know, I've worked with probably several hundred different mentors, not just from my chapter, but all over, and everyone has their own swing. You know, my feeling about it though is you need to, and I always tell people, you need to put your priorities straight.

Is your priority family first and then business or is it business first and then family? If it's family first, which is something that and I tell them, I said from a personal perspective, you know, I have kids, my kids have kids. They should always come first. I can't tell you how you should structure your own business, but you really need to think about that first. And if your family is first, you need to structure your business around that. So can you.

work hours that are going to be copathetic with, you know, your kids getting back and forth from school? You know, is this something that if you have an emergency at school and you need to go talk to somebody at school or whatever happens, can you go to their sports games when they get older? You know, because and I think we had this discussion when we talked originally, when I was in the restaurant business, I missed a lot of my kids growing up and I will always regret that, you know, if I could do that all over again.

Yes, I definitely would do it completely differently. But sometimes you don't think about that until after the fact. And it was part of it. I I was not an entrepreneur at that point, but I was definitely very, motivated in my business. But I think if I had been running my own business at the time, I would have hoped somebody would have shaken me and gone, what is wrong with you, Heather? Wake up, wake up.

But people need to prioritize that. I can't say there's a wrong answer for that, but my personal one is family should be first. And I just say, if you want to go that route, which I personally would suggest, let's try to create a business plan and a business that is going to work around and work for you and work for your family. And most importantly, to bring in money because that's, need that to survive. Yeah, absolutely.

Kaila Sachse (23:08.848)
Yeah. Kind of the point of a business is to make some money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's understandable how easy it is to fall into the trap of work first in this society where, hey, we've got expenses. We have expenses and we are constantly being told, you know, it's like the typical trajectory of trajectory of like go to college.

Heather K Turner (23:27.246)
Mm-hmm.

Kaila Sachse (23:35.837)
get a good job, work really hard, buy a house, then have your family. And I think that thinking is so deeply ingrained, especially in my generation and Gen Z too, I'm starting to see this, where we want to have our ducks in a row before we start our family. We kind of realize that it's almost impossible to be able to do some of those things. Not saying that things are impossible, but they're very challenging, right?

And then, okay, so in my situation, we decided to just, okay, have the kid because at the end of the day, my biological clock is still ticking. want, you know, I want to have kids. Let's hop on this opportunity now before it ends. And then it's like, okay, well, now we have to rework all of these priorities because, you know, hitting two, $3 million before having a child is just, that's an old plan. That has to be reworked. Yeah.

Heather K Turner (24:32.238)
Exactly. You want to make sure it works for you. I and some people do have that entrepreneurial spirit. And we just talk about the fact that, you know, you've got a great idea, you've got a great plan, it's going to be successful, but maybe this is not the right time for it. You you have a two year old, okay, what is it going to look like when they're four or five, for example? Well, great, don't abandon your business idea, because it's a great business idea. But this look at it from the perspective of this gives you more time to work on it.

Yeah. So always keep the goal in mind. You know, you're an entrepreneur, you want to start something, you want to work for yourself, you want to make sure everything works, family and business works together. This gives you additional time to plan. You know, the businesses that just kind of jump into it, and I think I mentioned this before, that don't do the research, that don't put the work in, those are ones that they can work, but they're rarely as successful as the ones that are planned out.

Kaila Sachse (25:03.845)
Ooh, that's good.

Heather K Turner (25:33.806)
And I have seen that where sometimes it takes a couple of years to really put all their ducks in a row. And, you know, they've stripped each dies. I can't even say that. They've created a strategy where maybe they've, they've thought of different directions for the business to go and they really, I would say, overthink it, but they've, they've thought about it and let it process more.

Kaila Sachse (25:44.465)
It's okay, strategize, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Heather K Turner (25:59.214)
and thought after a while, well, you know, I thought I wanted to do this originally or, you know, I'm a service business and I want to offer these six services. But after thinking about it, I don't really like to do two of those services. So why am I doing though? Let's focus on the four and how can we market those? So sometimes pulling back and making sure you're in a better financial position to do so too is really helpful. When I started my own business with the help of a SquareMenter,

we had a very interesting discussion where I had her, she had me do the financials and the projections for my business. And I did, I did all of the things that she requested of me. And I, when I gave them to her, she basically said, you know, she didn't really say you're going to hate me for this, but she kind of said that in the nicer language. And she said, I want you to redo these. I was like, no, no. And I'm like, why? And she said something like,

I want you to think of kind of the lux tax or the luxury tax. She says, I want you to think about the fact that, you you want to go out to dinner occasionally, you know, you're married, you know, you want to go see family. Maybe you want to go buy a suit. You want some actual luxuries. And she said, you kind of build that into your projections. And I said, well, no, not really. And, you know, we had a frank discussion. She says, are you happily married? And I said, well, yeah.

And she said, do you want to stay happily married? She was a little blunt, which is fine. Cause I tend to do. And I was like, well, yeah, of course. And she says, think about the number one thing that, most people fight about is money. And she said, do you want to be stressed? And I said, no. And she, and I said, and it was great that we had that conversation because when I first started the business, I ended up working for about a year plus part-time as an office manager. wasn't the glorious job.

Kaila Sachse (27:27.566)
you

Heather K Turner (27:53.548)
but it was great to be able to build my business up to the point where I could actually make it and be able to go out to dinner, for example, versus being completely stressed out. And I'm glad I listened to her because I don't think I would have really made it if I had just gone forth with my additional projections of just quitting the job and going full force ahead. So I have, I try to have that discussion with people, especially if they're not in a place where they can just quit their job for six months or a year and work on the business.

If they've got a mortgage, if they've got rent, if they've got ongoing bills, and maybe their credit scores aren't that great, and they don't have money in the bank, think about that. Do you want to start a business and in four months you're going to be so stressed out that your coal, your head wants to explode and your family life is not good? People don't sometimes think about that process.

Kaila Sachse (28:44.623)
my goodness. Money is so integral to a business's well-being and a family's well-being, including the relationship who is heading the household. Wow. That is huge. So if somebody wants to start their business and they have to think about their financials, mean, what does that look like? Are we writing down all of our personal stuff and then including... What does the Lux tax look like? How does this...

Heather K Turner (28:48.846)
Yes.

Heather K Turner (28:56.398)
Mm-hmm.

Heather K Turner (29:12.524)
Well, what does like? So I did basically when I did my projections for my own business, did, okay, mortgage, insurance, business expenses, gas, car payment, all the normal expenses that I would have been paying. And then the normal things that I would pay for a business, licensing, et cetera, et cetera. And then kind of built into, well, I'm expecting to get this much, this many clients.

you know, paying me money per month or per job or, you know, however, I don't even remember how I based it. was so long ago now. And then basically she just said, you know, add some extra in, add some, I don't think she said fluff, but that would be a good way to put it. Add a little padding in, you know, just to be able to say, you know, maybe you had a slow month, but maybe you've got some extra to put in, put in the savings bank too. You know, we had a discussion then, and I try to have this discussion with people starting a business now.

is when you start the business, you build a website, you've got your initial startup expenses, but a lot of people in business rebrand in a few years. They review the website in three to five years, and that's typically not cheap if you're going through a web developer. And I say, when you start off, just because you put away all your initial big business expenses doesn't mean that when you go and if you're in business for a while,

you're not going to need a fairly sustainable chunk of money to, you know, redo things because if you redo your website, you're going to have to redo your business cards and your flyers and your other literature and any other branding you have too. I always tell people, you know, if you're starting in business and you're good to go, start putting just a little bit of extra money in the kitty aside for when you want to go do that. And then you're not putting it on, you know, credit cards or having to take a loan out for it.

Kaila Sachse (31:05.166)
Yes, yes, it sounds like cash is king. Why are credit cards, I mean, this is now a little bit of financial talk, but it's important. Why are credit cards and loans dangerous for a small business?

Heather K Turner (31:15.822)
Because it's so easy to get upside down, especially on not just credit cards, but both, loans to where, you know, you've taken a loan out, for example, you know, you've had a bad month, maybe your, business is an outdoor business. Let's pretend you do kayak rentals, for example, and you have an extra rainy summer and your typical income is almost half of what a normal summer is.

You know, when you say, okay, you know, this is a temporary, I'm going to take out a business loan just so I can pay my bills, pay my vendors, you know, continue to operate. And then the next year, the rainy season is even worse. And so at that point, you're, you're hitting that downward slide and it makes it so much hard to recover. You know, I always tell people if you're going to have a business credit card, for example, do not run a balance on it. If possible, try to pay it off at the end of the month.

if you can. you know, it's one thing if you're going to buy a Dell computer, for example, where you're on a payment plan where it's zero interest, fine. But if you pay something on a credit card and it's got a high interest rate, and you're paying the minimum every month, you you're basically paying the interest off. You're not paying off the primary. You know, once you start spending $200, pay the $200 off, it's not that much.

once it starts to add up incrementally and all of sudden you go 10 grand instead of 200.

Kaila Sachse (32:48.738)
Yep, yep, it starts to snowball. sounds like financial literacy is also really important for someone who wants to go into business for themselves.

Heather K Turner (32:50.339)
Mm-hmm.

Bye.

Heather K Turner (32:58.478)
You know, it is, and you don't have to be an accountant or a bookkeeper. It's just to understand your expenses and understand, you know, what your time is worth and think about that. I always tell people, put down what you would want to be paid. What is your time worth to you? And some of it that ties into marketing. I know social media is everybody loves social media marketing and social media is not the end all and be all of marketing, but people sink so much time into it.

And I asked people, said, it's all about the money when it boils down to this. You said, if you're going to go spend three hours a week on Instagram, that's great. How much is your time worth? If it's worth $60 an hour, are you bringing in that three hours times the $60 an hour? Because if you're not, why are you doing it?

Kaila Sachse (33:47.627)
Yep, yep, yep, yep. that is brilliant. And I also think too, if I am being paid a certain amount, does it make sense for me to be doing this task or should I hire somebody else to do this task so that at the same time I could be bringing in the income that actually justifies that expense plus profits?

Heather K Turner (34:05.87)
Yes, and that's exactly right. And sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. But I think a lot of people in this really surround social media, particularly, but a lot of times other things that businesses spend money on, they don't take a step back and evaluate it quarterly. So I'm spending money on this business association and I'm spending $300 a year on it. And basically all I'm getting is a business listing. Am I getting business from it or not? Granted, it's only $300, but 300 here,

$100 there, $50 here, it all starts to add up. I'm a huge fan of business associations and chambers of commerce, but if all you're looking for is to get the link on the website, you're not doing yourself any favor. Go to the networking events, put an hour into your calendar. And this is probably one of my favorite stories about that is back when I lived in Connecticut, there was, I...

have worked with a lot of bed and breakfasts over the years, legal bed and breakfasts like the old traditional ones, and there was a local bed and breakfast owner that was very involved in the chamber, and I think there was three or four other bed and breakfast owners that were also members of the local chamber, but she came to all of the events. She volunteered at a lot of them. She was an ambassador for the chamber. You know, she had a couple of business after hours.

and some lunch and learns at her B &B. So everybody in the chamber knew her and nobody ever saw the other bed and breakfast. And when people came to stay in the area or someone had a business association that was looking for a place to stay, who do you think they sent it to? And realistically, she might spend an hour or two per month with us, but it came back to her because she was getting to know everybody.

Kaila Sachse (35:44.873)
Bye.

Kaila Sachse (35:54.667)
Yes.

Heather K Turner (35:56.167)
People don't really recognize the value of that sometimes.

Kaila Sachse (35:59.878)
Yes, there's a tremendous value in relationships. the end of the day, that's what business is, right? You are working with other humans. You're creating win-win scenarios with other humans. So you want to have those relationships. And it's not in a manipulative or gross way, right? People can smell that from a mile away. It's that genuine, like, hey, how are you doing? How are things going? Let's connect.

Heather K Turner (36:23.534)
Exactly. Well, I always look at it from the perspective of people I think are more likely to buy from someone you know. And actually, I take that back. I'm not going to say I think I know that they will buy from people that they know, versus I saw your business on Facebook and I'll just call you versus I met you and I talked to you and you're a real person. I can put a name to the page.

Kaila Sachse (36:49.228)
Right. That completely makes sense. my goodness. There are so many gems to chew on. if I'm starting a business, I've got to think about my financials. I've got to think about whether or not it actually works for me, if it's going to fill my cup. I've got to think about how is this going to fit into my life or how can I restructure my life to make this work? If the timing's not now, maybe it's later. That's okay. We have more time for planning.

Heather K Turner (36:57.134)
Yes.

Heather K Turner (37:04.002)
Yes.

Kaila Sachse (37:16.348)
And know that there are resources out there. know, starting a business, you're not alone. There are plenty of people who can help. SCORE is a huge, huge resource. There are also other resources too. Just reach out to your network and see who knows who.

Heather K Turner (37:31.118)
Yes. And it's not just the professional associations. There are so many resources that are free out there that are not just the traditional ones. But I always tell people, you know, if you're starting a business, especially in the startup phase, it's always good to have an accountability partner. Have somebody, a friend, close friend, family member who's going to have your back, who's going to be there when you you sink into that. Oh, I don't know if this is such a good idea or not.

You know to be there to cheer you on. They don't have to be a coach, but they can be a motivator and somebody to say hey, you know your SCORE mentor. Your SBDC mentor said you need to work on this. Hey, did you work on it?

Kaila Sachse (38:15.377)
that personally my husband is that person for me. He's somebody who I go to and I'm like, I'm, I, you know, I mentioned earlier, I hit the wall. I've hit the wall. And he's like, yeah, it's just the wall is this high. You can jump over that. So it's good to have that cheerleader in your life to just keep you going.

Heather K Turner (38:32.526)
Well, I think it helps, especially from a women's perspective. A lot of women entrepreneurs suffer from imposter syndrome and having that cheerleader or guy, cheer guy in the background, cheer person, I think really can help with that. That kind of positive reassessment and reaffirmation just helps get you keeping going.

Kaila Sachse (38:40.425)
Oooh.

Kaila Sachse (38:48.907)
you

Heather K Turner (38:59.842)
You know, I think everybody, matter where they are in the business phase, whether you're starting, you're in business, you're just planning it, or you've been in business for years, we all run through those slumps.

Kaila Sachse (39:09.906)
Yeah, yeah. Let's talk a little more about imposter syndrome. What is that? What does that look like?

Heather K Turner (39:15.928)
So imposter syndrome is, and I think, I don't know if you remember SNL and this may not necessarily be relevant, but SNL used to have a character in it that would look in the mirror and say, am I good enough? I strong enough? Do people like me or something similar to that? And imposter syndrome is basically like, can I really do this? Do I have the knowledge? Do I have the power? Do I have the mental, physical strength to do something? And I think

A lot of it depends on people's backgrounds and their upbringing and also the resources that they've had growing up in the past and in the present. So I know some very, very successful business people that have gone through a huge part of having to deal with imposter syndrome because of what's happened to them in the past. But I think on the flip side of that, that's made them a stronger person and a stronger business person too.

But getting over that and dealing with that can be really, really difficult for some people to do. There are resources out there that can help too. I know there's, and I'm drawing a blank on a, there's a couple of good books that are out there about that. And there's coaches that can help walk people through that as well to kind of say, you you are good enough, you can do this. And at least myself, and I can speak for most of the other mentors that I worked with, a lot of that what we do to people is,

Kaila Sachse (40:15.368)
Right, right.

Heather K Turner (40:39.532)
hey, you're doing a great job. I know you're getting stuck on this, but you can work through this. You got to this point where you've done all this work, you're motivated, you want to do this, don't give up, keep going. So there's a little bit of coaching in there. We try not to do too much of that, but that's also kind of prodding. No, prodding is not the right word. Gently massaging people into that position where they do keep going and they don't give up with that.

Kaila Sachse (41:07.399)
Yeah, yeah. I know for me personally, I've hit moments where I'm like, I don't, you saying I don't know enough, that is something that is an old tape that plays in my head. I don't know enough. I need to learn more. need to plan more. I need to get more of these ducks in this giant oversized row that is ridiculously too large for this whole thing. I should just do the thing. And so, instead of getting stuck in the analysis paralysis, I find that the

Heather K Turner (41:17.998)
Mm hmm.

Kaila Sachse (41:36.899)
Action for me personally is what helps me get through that that slump. Yeah taking action. my goodness, Heather Yeah, yeah, yeah the action is kind of a kind of an important crucial

Heather K Turner (41:41.144)
Yes, exactly.

Heather K Turner (41:50.67)
My favorite little tidbit for when people are kind of like, I don't know if I can do this, is there are such a small percentage of people that even think about starting businesses. And the ones that get to the point where they actually start them, it's like less than 1 % of the population. If you think about it, so I'm like, anytime you feel like you're in the dumps, just circle back on that. You're a very, very small fraction of the population that's even gotten to that.

Point at yourself on the back a little bit for that one. It is true.

Kaila Sachse (42:22.376)
That is good. It's so true. It's so true. Wow. Heather, oh my goodness, so many gems. Thank you for sharing with us today. Where can people find you? Where can they find SCORE? If they need a mentor, where can they go?

Heather K Turner (42:37.966)
So SCORE.org, SCORE.org, and you can request a mentor by location, or you can request one by expertise. So if you request one by expertise, just keep in mind, you could be matched with someone in a completely different state. Some people prefer to meet, some clients prefer to meet in person. Some do phone calls, some do emails. I do probably 99.9 % of my mentoring over Zoom.

Because again, we're in a rural area in New Hampshire, so some of my nearest clients are over an hour away. So, and then I have got clients that I work with out in California too, and I definitely can't drive over for a cup of coffee.

Kaila Sachse (43:15.56)
you

Heather K Turner (43:18.126)
Thank

Kaila Sachse (43:18.812)
Beautiful. Thank you so much for your time today. We greatly appreciate you. Thank you.

Heather K Turner (43:23.416)
Thank you so much for the invitation. I had a blast talking to you and it was a pleasure. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week.

Kaila Sachse (43:29.32)
Thank you.