By Keith Ogata | <\/I>SCORE National Director and Secretary<\/B><\/p>\n
What makes entrepreneurs special is the passion they have to pursue an idea and the courage to take enormous risks to turn that idea into a successful business.<\/p>\n
But passion and courage alone do not translate into success. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs lack the experience and skills to successfully launch a new business or take over management of an existing one. Ask anyone who has started a business on their own and they will tell you it was the toughest thing they have ever done.<\/p>\n
Grit and determination are great, but to start or run a business, you also need to know something about strategy, marketing, finance, operations, management and leadership.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
And that’s not all. You need life skills and certain attributes as well.<\/p>\n
Do you listen well? Can you collaborate with others? Can you prioritize and focus well? Are you well organized? Do you have tenacity? Can you rationally weigh risks? These are some of the skills every entrepreneur must have to succeed. The good news is you don’t have to develop these skills entirely on your own. SCORE is a national nonprofit organization known for being counselors to America’s small businesses. There are 13,000 former and current business owners and executives whose mission is to counsel and mentor entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
SCORE Hawaii has more than 50 business counselors who donate hundreds of hours mentoring island entrepreneurs in areas such as marketing, turnarounds, business planning and strategy, finance, accounting, retailing and manufacturing. They provide these needed services through confidential counseling sessions tailored to meet each entrepreneur’s needs.<\/p>\n
And they do it for free. So if you need help getting your business up and running, reach out to SCORE Hawaii. Along with the free counseling services, SCORE Hawaii also offers – for a small fee – workshops on various subjects.<\/p>\n
Entrepreneurs who work with SCORE’s business experts typically have one regret: “I wish I had heard about SCORE sooner.”<\/p>\n