I often refer to SCORE mentoring and counseling, and I met a reader of this column last week who wanted me to share how these businesses benefit from this experience. Today, I will give some data that I shared with her about that topic.
The SCORE Foundation engaged Gallup to conduct research into the economic impact of the small business mentoring work that SCORE’s 13,000 volunteers had on the U.S. economy in the past year. This is a longitudinal study that was conducted over the past two years and will continue for the next two years.
The survey had 10,831 responses via telephone and web. The margin of error is 3.5 percent.
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Here is the impact based on the 2010 survey results:
• SCORE clients in Minnesota started 1,299 new businesses (58,637 nationally). Based on SCORE’s current appropriation, the cost to help create one business is $119 and at least 91 percent of SCORE’s 2010 clients remained in business in 2011.
• SCORE clients created 1,617 jobs in Minnesota (71,449 nationally). Based on SCORE’s current appropriation, the cost to help create one job is $98.
• In addition to creating new jobs, SCORE helped 11,045 small businesses save an estimated 17,629 jobs.
• For every dollar appropriated to SCORE, clients paid $548.79 on average in federal taxes. The estimated taxes paid by SCORE clients are $3.8 billion. In Minnesota, businesses mentored by SCORE grossed $414 million in 2010 revenue, with an average of $175,171 per business.
• SCORE helped serve many business owners that are usually underserved. For example, the survey showed that of SCORE’s 2010 clients in Minnesota 46.2 percent are women, 22.1 percent are minorities, and 7.8 percent are veterans.
