Hansen: The best business advice often comes from strangers

Imagine a dreamer, a person who desperately wants to start a business.

With passion and hope, everything is on the line for this big idea.

Friends and family, not wanting to burst any bubbles, have been tenderly supportive. Therein lies one problem: The people closest to us sometimes sugarcoat the truth.

Enter SCORE, the national nonprofit association that helps entrepreneurs face reality. And make no mistake, sometimes the truth is less painful if it comes from a stranger.

“Lots of times I find that people just want to bounce ideas off somebody else who’s not involved in their lives and their business,” said Jack Curtis, a volunteer adviser and retired businessman who has been mentoring with the group for about seven years.

The Orange County chapter of SCORE is one of the largest in the country. In an average year, the group will hold more than 4,000 free sessions and educate over 11,000 people. In 2012 alone, the local chapter helped start nearly 300 new businesses and create more than 1,600 jobs.

While it is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration, it is not a proxy for getting a loan. Think of it strictly as a trusted adviser.

“We have more workshops in Orange County than, I think, the rest of the country combined,” said Curtis, who owned an industrial supply company for 30 years.

He also has experience in turnaround work.

He said the most common problem facing new business hopefuls is finances.

“To me, the recurring theme constantly is people that are not financially prepared,” he said. “And what I mean by that is not necessarily that they don’t have enough money. It’s that they have no concept of how much things are going to cost them. How they can forecast sales so that they can forecast cash flow and that sort of thing. To me, that’s the most difficult thing for people starting a business.”

Interestingly, Curtis said small-business people are rarely boring office workers who like to crunch numbers. Quite the contrary, they are laid-off neighbors using the opportunity to change their lives. They are veterans needing advice and help. They are immigrants trying to realize the American dream.

But that doesn’t guarantee success.

“People who are starting a business are usually creative, and creative people aren’t necessarily interested in the details,” he said. “I always compare them to impressionist painters as opposed to photographers. A painter paints the broad swath, whereas the photographer gets all the details. And the details are critical.”

So the way mentoring works is quite simple. Prospective business owners just sign up for an advisor through the local SCORE website, which in Orange County is score114.org. The confidential meetings are held regularly in libraries and chamber of commerce offices.

Then you just show up and tell your story — hopefully having done some basic business preparation.

“I usually just ask them to talk about their business and their problems and their dreams of what they want to do,” Curtis said. “And once they’ve done that, then how they’ve prepared, and that’s almost always the stumbling block. People hate to do business plans.

“So many people come in with these undeveloped plans, and I tell them, you need to be able to tell me exactly what you’re doing in 45 seconds to a minute. Sometimes the way to do that is to write out longhand all the details of this project, and then slowly but surely edit it until you can give the high points.”

Every story is different, but the principles to success are usually similar: financials, location and details, details, details.

Sometimes, people don’t want to hear it, or they believe they can work around the tried-and-true rules. Occasionally, a person won’t take advice then finds himself or herself back in front of Curtis six months later.

“I’ve had a couple people who refuse to follow your advice,” Curtis said. “And then will come back and say, ‘Well, it didn’t work. Nnow what shall I do?’”

Like all the SCORE advisers, Curtis tries to find an answer. He wants to help people succeed. But he will never encourage someone to take a risk if it doesn’t pencil out.

“We want to encourage small business,” he said. “That’s our whole focus. But it’s extremely difficult when someone comes in with an idea that just plain isn’t going to work. And that’s the hard part, because you hate to discourage people in their dreams, but there are times when it’s just practically impossible for them to do what they want to do.”

At “somewhere past 70,” Curtis concedes he’s not an expert in technology, social media hype or gee-whiz gadgets.

If a millennial wants highly specialized advice, he will refer that person to the right colleague.

But having seen trends come and go, Curtis knows that regardless of the generation, good business is good business.

“We can do anything from advertising to web design, but I think the most important thing — and sometimes for some of us the most difficult — is to listen. It’s a rewarding thing for me, and I enjoy it. I get to meet a lot of people and hear a lot of ideas. And I’ve been able to help some, and that’s a nice reward.”

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.