Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Nashville SCORE Chairperson Lisa O’Dell to the newsmaker line to talk about the history and mission of SCORE, her background, and mentoring new entrepreneurs.
Leahy: We are joined on our newsmaker line by Lisa O’Dell, who’s the head of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). SCORE here in Nashville. Good morning, Lisa.
O’Dell: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Leahy: We are delighted to have you on here. Tell us about SCORE, the Service Core of Retired Executives.
O’Dell: That’s sort of an old-fashioned name, isn’t it? But SCORE actually was started in 1964 as the service resource arm for the SBA.
What we do is we provide free mentoring for small businesses and entrepreneurs that want to start a business. Anybody can come to us. We will provide mentorship and help with any issues that the small business is having.
Leahy: What’s the ownership structure of Service Corps of Retired Executives? Is it national? Just Nashville? And how long have you been involved here yourself in Nashville?
O’Dell: It is a national organization. There are over 10,000 mentors in 300 different chapters. Nashville was actually one of the founding chapters, and it was started in 1965.
I have not been involved that long. I started six years ago. We’re a group of volunteers that just has a lot of background in business, and we want to give back.
Leahy: So somebody in our listing audience is thinking of starting a business. What should they do?
O’Dell: The first thing that they ought to do is vet the business. Is it a good idea? Do they have enough people out there that would be interested in buying their product or service? We have some classes, actually, that will help you figure out whether or not it’s a good idea. That’s the first thing.
Carmichael: Do you have curriculum for different subjects or is it mostly pure mentorship?
O’Dell: We offer workshops and we have a set number of workshops that we do, and they repeat basically every couple of months. The best thing to do, actually, is to sign up for a mentor at SCORE.
You can go to nashville.score.org. And you can sign up for one on one mentoring. Just fill out this form where you basically explain what you’re trying to do and where you think you need help, and then we will assign you to the person that’s best suited to help you.
And that person will probably recommend a couple of different workshops that we have, but then really dig in with you and start asking a lot of questions and help you work through the issues that you have.
Carmichael: Where do you do your workshops.
O’Dell: Right now of course, we’re doing them online. It just seems to be the safest thing. When we weren’t doing them online, we were doing them at the federally owned building over near the airport. It’s a gold building on Briley Parkway. You’ve probably seen it.
Carmichael: Oh, yeah.
Leahy: Oh yeah. We know that building.
O’Dell: That’s where the SBA has its offices, and that’s where we were doing our workshops.
Leahy: What is the exact nature between SCORE and the SBA? SBA is the Small Business Administration, correct?
O’Dell: Yes. They provide us with some funding so that we can actually put on these workshops. And if we need to pay for our phones or anything else, the SBA provides us with money to do all that.
Leahy: How much of the funding for SCORE comes from the SBA and how much is raised separately?
O’Dell: All of the money that we use comes from the SBA. Occasionally we will get donations from banks or from other institutions that really appreciate what we’re doing.
Leahy: Tell us a little bit about how you came to be working with Nashville SCORE.
O’Dell: I retired 10 years ago. I was still very young, and I decided that I wanted to give back and had a really good life. I had a lot of work experience, and so I jumped in with both feet and have just been having a blast.
One of the wonderful things about SCORE is it’s a continuous learning thing for mentors. And I’ve met clients from all different areas, and I’ve learned something from each and every one of them. And it’s a true joy to be able to say that we can help.
Leahy: What was your business career in, Lisa?
O’Dell: I actually was the vice president of marketing and new product development for a global manufacturing firm here.
Leahy: Ah! Global manufacturing. Boy, that is an interesting area. Do you have a lot of people here in Nashville that are trying to start manufacturing firms these days?
O’Dell: Not as many as we used to about five or six years ago. But still, there are people that do want to try to do something in the U.S. especially now we’re getting some more because of the global supply chain issues. And nobody really knows what’s going to be happening going forward.
Leahy: If somebody wants to be a volunteer to help advise, what are you looking for? What are the criteria and how do they go about becoming a volunteer working with you?
O’Dell: If somebody does want to become a volunteer again, you go to nashville.score.org, and there is a point on that website where you can actually fill out a questionnaire about becoming a volunteer.
We will take anybody that wants to volunteer to do any kind of administration stuff to help us with our workshops and just to be a part of SCORE. If you want to become a mentor or a subject matter expert, we are hoping that people will have at least some type of background within the business.
And a lot of times we’re just looking for people that have specific subject matter expertise. Whether it be accounting, whether it’s business startups, or whether it’s just a business generalist.
Hey, I’ve been in business for 30 years, and I kind of know what’s going on. I’d love to be able to help people get started. That kind of thing.
Leahy: On the web at nashville.score.org. Lisa O’Dell, the head of the Nashville office of SCORE, thanks so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it.
O’Dell: Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
