SCOREBergen Starts 293 New Businesses and 181 Jobs

On Apr 21, 2015

SCOREBergen, the Hackensack-based chapter of SCORE, a national organization of business professionals who volunteer their time to provide free mentoring to emerging and established entrepreneurs, helped start 293 new businesses and create 181 jobs in Bergen and Passaic Counties during the 2014 fiscal year, according to a recent survey.

“These are fantastic numbers if we think of them in terms of real people affected and real services now impacting our community,” said SCOREBergen Chairman Lew Marchiona.

Seventy-eight percent of the total number of clients served by SCOREBergen were in business and three-quarters of them increased their revenue. “This is indicative of where we’re seeing real growth in our local economy: in small businesses succeeding, getting bigger and adding tax revenue and local jobs,” Marchiona said.

Nationally, SCORE assisted in starting 56,079 businesses and creating 47,187 jobs. Fifty-six percent of the clients who consulted SCORE IN 2014 were women, 39 percent were minorities and 13 percent were veterans. “We see these groups growing in terms of small business ownership, and it’s important that we’re able to serve every single person interested in pursuing the path of entrepreneurship,” Marchiona said.

SCORE is a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration. It costs SCORE $125 to help create one business and $148 to help create one job. However, SCORE clients return $60 to the Federal Treasury for every federal dollar appropriated to SCORE.

“We exist to help businesses of all shapes, sizes, types and industries succeed, so we’re always looking to add new experts interested in volunteering their time and knowledge to our chapter,” Marchiiona commented.

SCOREBergen is working to accomplish even more in the next fiscal year. “We are celebrating our 50th anniversary, and we look forward to continuing to serve the Northeast New Jersey community as we have for nearly 50 years,” he concluded.

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