Convention draws 200 small businesses - Westfair Communications

SCORE Conf. (2) — Speakers discuss marketing and financial tactics at the convention.

Representatives of some 200 businesses convened Oct. 4 at the “Small Business High Speed Growth” convention co-hosted by SCORE and American Express OPEN in Tarrytown.

Business owners attended seminars on financial management and marketing, and participated in one-on-one consults with SCORE”™s business advisers.

While small-business owners across the region and the nation have had difficulties securing credit that would enable them to expand, Ken Yancey, chief executive at SCORE, said the bigger issue has been increasing sales by securing new customers.

“Most of them, what they need is not a loan ”“ most of them need new customers,” Yancey said. “They need the cash flow that”™s generated by new sales.”

SCORE Conf. (14) — SCORE advisers meet individually with small-business representatives.

SCORE is a national not-for-profit organization that is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration and comprises more than 13,400 volunteer business professionals who provide free consultation and workshops to small-business owners.

The event”™s organizers said the primary goal of small-business owners is to expand, rather than to merely survive.

“Recently we found out ”¦ that for the first time since 2006, growth has surpassed survival as the number-one priority for entrepreneurs,” said Karen-Michelle Mirko, director of consumer advocacy at American Express OPEN. “So we are, for the first time in a long time, seeing hopefulness about how small businesses can capitalize and grow their businesses.”

The findings were the result of the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, a semi-annual survey of business owners, in which 35 percent of respondents said they plan to hire in the next year.