Continued: Score one for the people at SCORE

Kim Koshiel knew she could run an upscale consignment shop. She also understood that she would need more than her extensive background in retail and New York City's fashion scene to get into the business.

So, like many would-be entrepreneurs, Koshiel went to the Minneapolis chapter of SCORE, where experienced business owners and managers volunteer their time to mentor small-business owners.

SCORE counselors helped Koshiel fashion a business plan. That helped persuade Gretchen and Lee Weisman, owners of Fashion Avenue in Edina, to partner with Koshiel to open a new location.

Fashion Avenue 2 opened in March in Wayzata. Koshiel, who oversees the store, had worked at the original location for five years before she pursued the partnership. Merchandise at both stores includes up-to-date designer apparel and accessories for men and women.

"I knew what I wanted to do, I just didn't know how to present it," said Koshiel, who had returned to Minnesota after working as a fashion director at Bloomingdale's in New York.

"I wanted to show how it would work financially; why it meant good business for them. I wanted to put it down on paper. That was probably the biggest part that [SCORE] helped me with."

Would-be entrepreneurs can find out more next week at the organization's annual Women in Business luncheon about how Koshiel and other businesswomen have used SCORE's free counseling services to launch and run companies.

Joining Koshiel in a panel discussion will be SCORE clients Julie Moore Rapacki, founder of Polish Your Star, a coaching firm that specializing in accelerating women's careers through networking and mentoring programs; and Janet Zahn, owner of Camden Music School.

The moderator will be Sid Tincher of SwirlyGig Industries. A musician, Tincher invented the SwirlyGig, a coiled steel gizmo that hangs on a microphone or music stand to hold beverage containers or other items.

This will be the 10th year that the Minneapolis SCORE chapter, part of the SCORE national organization that is affiliated with the U.S. Small Business Administration, has sponsored a Women in Business luncheon, event chairperson Caryl Sharp said.

"It's inspiring to both our clients and to our volunteers," Sharp said. "It's really kind of a showcase of what we do."

Roger Arent was the chapter chairman when he came up with the idea for the Women in Business luncheon in 1999.

Going before the board

The purpose was, and still is, to give attendees, particularly women, an opportunity to interact with panelists and learn how they had overcome challenges, Arent said.

Another aim is to recruit more businesswomen as volunteers. While about half the chapter's clients are women, men have historically greatly outnumbered them as counselors, he said.

Meeting with SCORE counselors, Tincher said, is almost like going before a board of directors.

SCORE's greatest value for her has been as "an open resource for any question I have -- importing, exporting, marketing strategies, in-store display," said Tincher, whose patented product is distributed nationally and used, according to her blog, by music stars such as Melissa Etheridge and Keith Urban. "For almost everything I've dealt with, they've had somebody I could talk to."

Rapacki, an attorney with experience in human resources and close to two decades of experience at Best Buy Co. Inc., had a network of business professionals whose expertise she could tap when she started Polish Your Star two years ago.

"What I really got from SCORE was a reality check in keeping me accountable," Rapacki said. "I needed somebody who is great at business to ask me great business questions. They don't squash your dreams, they don't pipe them up. They give you objective input."

Zahn, who founded Camden Music School in January 2005, said she went to SCORE to find a different, detached perspective about how she was running her business. Her counselor's experience in business and finance also was helpful, as was a reference to a business process consultant who helped Zahn improve her processes to manage growth better.

"They are business consultants with a huge amount of expertise to share, and it's free," Zahn said. "For a small-business person like myself, to get this kind of advice at the level that it's provided at for free, it's priceless."

Fashion Avenue

At Fashion Avenue, a good deal of the merchandise comes from the tons of samples and gifts given to Koshiel's friends in the fashion industry in New York.

"I got them all to send their stuff here," Koshiel said. "It's environmentally sound, it's economically sound. There are many reasons why consignment makes sense."

In helping her make sense of running a store, SCORE's counselors focused on the plan she was developing, not her lack of business experience.

"They challenged me on every decision I was making along the way," Koshiel said. "They were really good about asking questions and making sure I understood everything. It wasn't like somebody telling you what to do, it was more like bringing you along, making sure you were going in the right direction."

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. His e-mail address is todd-nelson@mac.com.