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Many of our clients achieve great success and are willing to share their stories to inspire others. Their success fuels our passion for what we do.
Our counseling clients are encouraged to share their perceptions of the value of our services as a follow up to every scheduled counseling appointment. We proudly feature their most recent comments on the front page of this website. Following are postings concerning our most recent clients who have made substantial progress in growing their businesses.
 When Natalie came to meet me at the SCORE office for the first time, she told me about her dream to open a bakery shop selling only cupcakes. I responded incredulously, “ Only cupcakes!” and she calmly replied, “Yes, only cupcakes.” I did some research and found cupcake boutiques to be big business in other large cities and thought, “Wow, this is something that’s going!” So begins the story told by Martin Townsend, a SCORE volunteer counselor about his association with Natalie Jensen and her new Salt Lake City business, So Cupcake, which opened in February at 3939 S. Highland Drive.
So Cupcake actually traces its roots to Natalie’s daughter Celina, who lives with cerebral palsy and is fascinated with cooking and food. Celina loves the cable food shows and through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Celina and her Mom traveled to New York City and met Food Network star Emeril Lagasse. Soon after this trip, Natalie literally had a dream, a dream about opening a cupcake store that her daughter could participate in.
Natalie heard about SCORE from a friend whose husband owns a restaurant and suggested they might help. She called the Salt Lake City SCORE office and scheduled a counseling appointment, where she met Martin. “Martin was so helpful,” says Natalie. “He was supportive and gave me ideas to think about and articles to read.”
As Natalie’s business dream moved from idea to reality, Martin provided continuing counseling and support all along the way. “I had owned restaurants and opened them for other people in the past, so I knew something about the Food industry,” says Martin. “I was able to help her with food cost and sourcing and provide ideas about site location and real estate, advertising and marketing.”
“Martin was always available and easy to get hold of,” says Natalie. “I’d ask him how do I figure this out? One question was how to do wholesale sales, and Martin helped me develop a pricing strategy to make wholesale a possibility.”
Since So Cupcake's grand opening February 22, there’s been no looking back. Sales of So Cupcake's unique, artistic and tasty cupcakes have been brisk since day one. Eat-in, take-out and catering sales are all doing well.
Natalie says, “Everything was more expensive and complicated than I imagined it could be, but we did it right and pulled everything together. I was lucky to have SCORE and other support groups to help along the way. I don’t think I would do anything differently!”
For more information about So Cupcake, visit the website www.socupcake.com, call 801-274-8300 or, best of all, stop by for a cupcake at 3939 S. Highland Drive. If you are inspired by the success of So Cupcake and are ready to reach for success in your own business, set up a SCORE counseling appointment today, online or call Michelle at 801-746-2269.
Pete Suazo Business Center
 SCORE is well known as “America’s Counselor to Small Business”. Less well known is that the Salt Lake City SCORE chapter has also participated in the formation and counseling of nonprofit organizations, and has special resources available to the Latino business community. One particularly successful story is the Pete Suazo Business Center, a Utah nonprofit organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs in the Latino and other underserved communities.
In 2002, Gonzalo Palza was a retired business executive volunteering his time as a Counselor at the Salt Lake City SCORE office. Due to SCORE’s close association with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Gonzalo was invited to attend a meeting, sponsored by U.S Senator Bob Bennett’s office, to explore outreach opportunities promoting entrepreneurship in the Latino community. As an experienced Latino businessman and SCORE entrepreneurship counselor, Gonzalo assumed a leading role in this initiative.
Marshalling various community business and education resources, Gonzalo organized focus groups to define the mission and vision of the initiative, which became the Pete Suazo Business Center. “We created a business plan, acquired support from several BYU MBA interns and obtained financial support from the local business community”, says Gonzalo. A big kick-start was a federal grant arranged by Senator Bennett. As the business center became a reality, Gonzalo went on to become the first volunteer Chair of the organization and oversaw development of several business and financial workshops, including a contract to offer FastTracÒ entrepreneurship seminars, all provided in Spanish.
As a result of these efforts, the Pete Suazo Business Center exists today with a two-pronged mission to serve Utah's Latino/Hispanic and other underserved populations: First, provide education on what is needed to start and run a successful business in the United States; and secondly, serve as an access point for organizations, institutions, and other existing entities that wish to offer their services to the underserved community in this area. The center's services include business management counseling, business plan development, marketing, and procuring of business financing. The Center has helped entrepreneurs create dozens of new businesses and hundreds of new jobs.
Today, Gonzalo Palza is Utah District Director over five SCORE Chapters, but still counsels at the Salt Lake City SCORE office, specializing in working with Latino businesspersons and nonprofit organizations. “The Latino community has a strong entrepreneurial culture”, says Gonzalo. “As a SCORE Counselor, I help people start new businesses and grow existing businesses. In addition to the free one-on-one counseling I provide through SCORE, I can refer Latino clients to the Pete Suazo Business Center for additional business support and educational opportunities.”
For more information about the Pete Suazo Business Center or to obtain a schedule of Spanish-language seminar offerings, visit the website at http://www.petesuazocenter.org or call 801-521-1709. If you are inspired by the success of the Pete Suazo Business Center and are ready to reach for success in business, set up a SCORE counseling appointment today online or call MIchelle at 801-746-2269.
Harmonious Scents
 Tracy Hadley of Harmonious Scents, like so many small business owners, was flying her business by the seat of her pants. Her first visit to SCORE was to get some advice on improving her company’s profitability. Her counselor, Justin Crowley (CFO of World Financial Capital Bank), was able to help Ms. Hadley analyze her financial statements. Together, using cost accounting techniques, they developed a breakeven analysis which allowed Ms. Hadley to understand her business better. Using the analysis, Ms. Hadley realized the margin was much too thin and needed to increase her prices.
Ms. Hadley shared the following regarding her experience with SCORE. “SCORE helped me to understand basic principles of pricing so that I could decide for myself what I could put my prices at. Also basic encouragement to help me feel like I wasn't running a business all by my lonesome…”. Ms. Hadley has returned to SCORE for additional business advice as she introduced new products and expense structures to her business. Most recently she has had a SCORE counselor look over a proposal to become a supplier to a potential business partner
Through the help of SCORE, Harmonious Scents is a more profitable company than it was before and Ms. Hadley does not feel so alone in the business world. If you are inspired by Ms. Hadley's success and are ready to reach for success in business, set up a SCORE counseling appointment today online or call MIchelle at 801-746-2269.
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