By Russell Flannery

Though the expression “Brave Little State” traces back to Vermont’s resilience from natural disasters,  “Brave Small Businesses” reasonably describes the start-ups, mom-and-pop companies and other smaller enterprises vital to the state’s economy yet currently up against high taxes, worker shortages, rising costs and a local culture that frowns on profit. Approximately 80,000 small businesses account for a whopping 99% of Vermont companies and about 60% of jobs, according to the Small Business Administration.

One volunteer program aims to help Vermont entrepreneurs overcome business pressures. Those looking for advice can find free support from the Vermont chapter of a national organization known as SCORE. Since it was founded in 1964, SCORE has helped more than 17 million entrepreneurs “start, grow or successfully exit a business,” according to the organization’s website. 

Of its 10,000 volunteers nationally, about 30 businesspeople offer mentoring and education in Vermont at no cost. The Vermont chapter has assisted 133 people during its current fiscal year ending in September, according to former SCORE Vermont chairman Michael Furst. Entrepreneurs seeking help can request mentors with specific skills or industry expertise.

 “It’s lonely to be an entrepreneur and lonely to be a boss, so it’s nice to have someone to talk to who has some knowledge about business,” said Furst, a current volunteer mentor who has helped about two dozen entrepreneurs since he joined the organization in 2017.

The graduate of UVM, the Drucker School of Management and elsewhere is a well-traveled businessman-turned-educator.  He left Vermont and the U.S. in the 1990s for a career in Asia, holding financial industry posts at the likes of the Bank of America; he went on to become executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.  Currently an adjunct professor at Northeastern University’s School of Law in Boston, Furst chairs NG Capital, a formerly Beijing-based private investment company that sold its China investments in 2017 and moved its headquarters to Vermont. NG Capital is currently focused on biotech and related skin care projects. 

SCORE’s effectiveness is lauded by William Lucci, program director at the HUB Co. Works, a start-up hub in downtown Rutland which offers a 10-week program for entrepreneurs hoping to validate their business idea; he has invited SCORE presenters-mentors each week.    

 “They were an invaluable asset to the program. Our starters have the email addresses for each SCORE presenter-mentor, and it was our hope that the relationship might continue if and when the starters move from ideation to launch,” Lucci said via email. One speaker was Furst, who Lucci called a “stellar presenter.”

Furst in an interview described a wide spectrum of ideas and problems brought his way by entrepreneurs in Vermont seeking advice.   “There was a young woman who I worked with for a few months doing van conversions.  She would take a Ford van and make it into a camper,” Furst recalled.   One student had an idea for electronic warnings on stop signs, so drivers would have earlier notice before seeing them.  Another caller was a doctor aiming to succeed with something out of his field of expertise: a marketing plan to sell his three-person practice.   One software industry entrepreneur trying to sort out a relationship with his business partner also turned to SCORE, Furst said. 

 “We take literally everyone who comes to the door. If somebody has an idea with tremendous potential, of course we’ll work with them, and we’re capable of going quite a way with them. If it’s a limited kind of thing, we’ll work with them as well.”   Most contact is virtual, he said.

One Furst success story is Claire Zhu and Hootie Hoo, a Williston-headquartered supplier of winter apparel.  For nearly 20 years Zhu, an immigrant from China, developed outerwear and apparel U.S. businesses before she was let go in 2021 during the pandemic. ”I had this idea about starting a children’s clothing company in 2020 during the pandemic and I knew it was now or never, so I decided this is the time to start Hootie Hoo,” Zhu said in a press release issued by the Small Business Administration.  Zhu, Furst said, is “a great example of resilient entrepreneurship and immigrant grit.” He has been mentoring the businesswoman for four years. 

Another Furst success is The Café HOT in downtown Burlington, founded by Allan Walker and his brother Travis Walker. “I have always wanted to own my own restaurant, Burlington had a great location, and my wife had some connections here,” Allan said via email. “During Covid my professional opportunities in New York City diminished, and my wife was able to work remote, so we went for it.”  

The purveyor of “hot coffee & killer food” employs eight staff in the slow season, and 13-15 in the busy season, Walker said.  “We are about eight months into a new product line that was developed specifically for retail sale,” complementing its presence in seven local markets and supermarkets with plans for expansion this year, he said. 

Walker initially contacted the Small Business Association, or SBA, for help with funding but that wasn’t available for restaurants, he said.  SBA recommended SCORE for other kinds of support, and Walker said he has received a long list of help since January 2021. “As our business has evolved it has been helpful to speak with Mike every couple of months. Two businesspeople sitting in a room together can go in a lot of directions.  You can feel the overlap even though we are in different industries,” Walker said.  Furst worked with Ed Mazella, another mentor, on Café HOT.  Walker’s brother Travis has also participated in the meetings, Furst said. 

“I have recommended SCORE to a lot of other startups,” he said. “I think a lot of business owners prefer to ‘go it alone’ and pick up the pieces along the way. It is challenging to talk about your business when you are building it, but it feels like restaurant owners view their business differently and have a hard time defining it as a business in the beginning.”

For mentors, even thriving restaurants can pose tough problems when the owner is seeking help to find a buyer for the business.  “Some businesses like a restaurant are very idiosyncratic.  If you’ve got a good location, that’s probably easier to sell.  A one-restaurant location with specialties is a much harder thing to do,” Furst said.  

One successful restaurant owner in Rutland with that challenge is John Petrone, who with his wife Luanne leads Johnny Boys Pancake House on Route 4.  Though regularly packed with breakfast and lunch customers for its best-in-town omelets, the business has been for sale for more than four years with no takers. 

Taking a break from his kitchen work and speaking in front of the restaurant’s abundant conservative political wall images, 80-year-old Petrone encourages young restaurant entrepreneurs to be open to mentoring.    “It’s very important as a young person entering into this business to have the ability to be mentored by somebody when you’re young. I had that fortunate ability” growing up in New Jersey, he recalled. “I was young and crazy,” and had the chance to work with retired railroad chefs, he said.   “They were the greatest guys I ever worked with. One in particular taught me how to be a human being, how to be effective and how to be a man. It’s as simple as that. Everybody should be gifted by someone like that in their life.”  

Another group of organization leaders that Furst sees comes from non-profits. Individuals with potentially good business ideas sometimes don’t optimize their full economic potential because they set up as a non-profit, cutting themselves off from larger scale and influence.

Sometimes it’s appropriate to start a non-profit and sometimes not.  “One of things we see in SCORE quite often is that people want to start as a non-profit” with a 501 (c) (3) tax designation. It is hard to scale up, however, because “you can’t get investors to put money into that, even if it is something that has potential. There is no way that angel investors and venture capital investors are going to do that.   They’re never going to get their money back. People with that kind of mindset are often asking (SCORE mentors) about what kind of grants are available.”

However, he said, “The basic idea when you have a business is that you start something up, so you have a return on investment. It’s risk capital. Capitalism is what business is all about. That doesn’t mean its abusive.   It can be   — Bernie (Sanders) is right on some of his criticism of big corporations.  But small business is generally not like that.” 

“People that want to do a non-profit organization to make widgets and sell them is almost a contradiction in terms.  Sometimes starting a business that’s there to make a profit is something that’s difficult for people to grasp in Vermont,” Furst said.  “A problem you see particularly in Vermont is there’s an attitude that business is bad, and profits are bad,” he said.  “For some reason, corporations – just a legal way of establishing an entity that can act on its own –are bad.” 

One thing SCORE ensures is that its mentors cannot personally profit from the companies they help.  Notes are taken during meetings and then stored in a networked computer system. “Just like lawyers, we have certain ethical rules.  We have re-certification every year. We cannot take any money. If I go to lunch with one of my clients, it’s a battle not to get them to pay for lunch, but I feel more comfortable if they don’t.” 

Those who receive help shouldn’t expect mentors to lend a hand in the nitty-gritty of actual business operations.  Beyond one-on-one consulting, “We won’t do any of the work.   We can lead them to the water but not to drink,” Furst said. 

SCORE Vermont’s info and email can be found of its website. Also, Brattleboro/Windham County is handled out of New Hampshire and Bennington is handled by Albany.  The organization offices are funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration; Vermont has one full-time administrative employee who is shared with New Hampshire. 

The author, a former long-time editor at Forbes, graduated from Mt. St. Joseph in Rutland and lives in Rutland.