2009 Progress Report
November 2009
In FY '09 we conducted over 1,600 confidential face-to-face client counseling sessions at our locations throughout the City of Rochester, Monroe and surrounding counties. We also conducted 545 Email counseling sessions with clients both in the Rochester area and throughout the nation. Client quality feedback has been consistently very positive.
We held seminars and workshops, which were attended by over 1,000 people during the year. Additional workshops are being well attended at the Rochester Business Library and other new venues. Attendees continue to highly rate our workshops. We have acquired another laptop computer, software and a computer projector for use at our suburban workshops. We also acquired a replacement computer for our downtown workshops. These upgrades are appreciated by our attendees and our presenters.
A new “Ten Key Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail” brochure has been produced and will be available shortly. Additional improvements have been made to our workshop brochures. Also, we continue to reach out to many more potential workshop attendees through additional mailings and distributions, particularly in the City of Rochester. Additional improvements in our other brochures are underway.
We have continued to improve the content and quality of our web site at www.scorerochester.org and are providing additional tools that our small business clients can use to improve their overall business planning, marketing planning, etc. Our Email Newsletter, with enriched content, continues to be well received by recipients.
In addition to exhibiting at the SOHO Trade Show at the Rochester Convention Center, which we have been doing for the past few years, we participated in many others, including the City of Rochester and the Black Business Association. Our four-color rollup banner stand is being effectively used at these trade shows. Our new digital picture frame is also available for slide shows at trade shows, without requiring a computer, projector, and screen.
Paid advertising, in addition to complimentary community bulletin board listings for workshops, is being selectively utilized to reinforce our brand and to attract clients. We continue to monitor this carefully to assess its effectiveness and hope to expand this thrust in 2010.
Our highly successful outreach in Wayne County and our expansion in Ontario County continue to gather momentum. Seven new counselors have already been trained and certified. We have four new locations actively counseling clients, and we have already held two workshops at two locations.
Thank you for your support in 2009. We look forward to even more accomplishments on behalf of our clients in 2010 and beyond, as SCORE reinvents itself to positively impact the American economy.