CONWAY Drew Basilicato says he’s good at the dreaming part of starting a business, but when it comes to the practical part, he turns to SCORE, a group of retired business men and women who mentor people running new and existing small businesses.
Basilicato operates a mobile fitness business, LGFGF (Look Good Feel Good Fitness), and began talking with the retired executives who make up the SCORE team in late 2009 and early 2010 to get ready for the April 2011 launch of his company.
He said the advice he got allowed him to be profitable and should be required for people starting their own ventures.
Now SCORE has teamed up with the Conway Chamber of Commerce, where Ray Binis – the chamber’s current president – is also a SCORE volunteer.
Representatives of the volunteer organization will be at the chamber from 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 14 and March 13, and from 2 to 5 p.m. Feb. 23 to offer their help. Sessions may be scheduled either through SCORE at 918-1079 at info@mbscore.org or by calling the chamber at 248-2273.
There will be sessions beyond March 13, but Binis said the dates have not been finalized.
“Right now,” Binis said, “because of the economy, probably the main thing we’re looking at is that businesses need a little (financial) help.”
With its contacts with the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as what it knows about banks and private funding sources, Binis said, SCORE may be able to help.
Binis said SCORE volunteers also can help existing businesses with new marketing approaches and ways to get old customers through the door once again. After that, he said, the old customers will help to bring in new customers.
The sessions at the Conway Chamber will be one-on-one, confidential and at no cost, as are all SCORE mentoring services, Binis said. And the advice given to a start-up fitness business probably isn’t all that different from what’s offered to a five-year-old haberdashery.
“Business is business,” Binis said.
Basilicato said the most valuable pre-startup advice he got from his SCORE sessions was on the importance of realistic, practical and professional planning.
“Everything is about proper planning,” he said.
Basilicato still seeks SCORE advice and doesn’t yet envision the time when he won’t want its input.
Winterfest moving
Despite more than doubling the amount of money it donated area charities this year versus last, Conway’s St. Nicholas Winterfest is moving to a new date for 2012.
The four-day-event will be compressed to three days when it is staged the weekend before Thanksgiving, said Winterfest spokesman Scott Dilliard.
Last year’s fest was held the same weekend as the Conway Christmas parade, but Dilliard said parade crowds didn’t translate into Winterfest crowds and the vendors – the source for most of the donations – wondered what could be amiss.
Until two years ago, the annual event was staged on the grounds of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Main Street, but was moved when organizers felt they could raise more for charity with a bigger event that would attract thousands. In 2010 – despite dismal, dreary, rainy, chilly weather – the church was able to distribute $11,000 to charities. The amount given charities from last December’s Winterfest was $23,000, Dilliard said.
That’s a good thing for the charities, but not necessarily for the vendors because the attendance wasn’t as high as hoped.
Dilliard said he estimated 14,000 attendees at the four days of fun, with 4,000 to 5,000 showing up on each weekend day, and more of those on Saturday rather than Sunday.
This year, Dilliard said, organizers have decided there will be no Sunday for Winterfest. Thursday evening will still be devoted to a taste of the best from Conway-area restaurants. On Friday, it will be food again – a good thing for those in training for Thanksgiving – as entrants in Saturday’s barbecue cook-off offer an Anything Butt Pork cook-off to prove that their culinary skills aren’t just porcine.
Saturday will be the barbecue cooking contest which will again be the season’s final event to decide the annual champ for the S.C. Barbecue Association.
Saturday will also be the vendors’ day to reap a profit from the gathered crowds.
Dilliard wasn’t warm to the suggestion that maybe this year’s event should be called Autumnfest or Almost-Winterfest or even Thank Goodness It’s Not Summer Anymore-fest.
After all, St. Nicholas – you might know him as Santa Claus – might think the date change OK but the name change naughty, not nice.
Hymn festival
Area residents and visitors rarely have to look much beyond Conway if they want something different to do – although there is a world of possibilities throughout the Grand Strand – and Feb. 12 may be unique among the unique.
At 4 p.m. that Sunday, First United Methodist Church on Fifth Avenue will host a Hymn Festival to be led by Emory University music professor and organist Timothy Albrecht.
Hymns and reading of Psalms and other scripture and texts will celebrate Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Reformation, Christ the King and Thanksgiving. First United’s Chancel Choir as will as choristers from Main Street United Methodist Church, Dillon and Wampee United Methodist Church and Little River will lend their voices to the celebration.
Albrecht will perform three organ solos on First United’s Schantz Pipe Organ.
There is no charge for the event.
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