How SCORE Mentorships are Helping Small Businesses Navigate AI, the Labor Market, and More

Bridget Weston (00:00):

Well, one of the things we think is critical is being proactive and responding to what is out there so that we can help…

 

Gene Marks (00:05):

Yes.

 

Bridget Weston (00:06):

…clients understand. And AI is one of those things that I think everyone, including the creators of AI, are still learning how it works and how it can be used. And like anything in technology, there are pros and cons. So some of the things that we've seen are, small business owners can say, "Help me with a competitive analysis for a restaurant "in this neighborhood. "What would that look like?" And ChatGPT or whatever AI tool you're using would spit that out and that's great. Or "Write me a marketing plan," "Write me a blog post for this "so I can put it in my newsletter." Those are all very valid ways, if you are also validating the data that it spits out. You cannot just use it blindly and take it at face value. And that's where the value of a SCORE mentor comes in. It's someone who can look it over with you and say, "This 95% is great, "this 5% we're not

 

Gene Marks (01:04):

So true.

 

Bridget Weston (01:05):

so sure about.

 

Speaker 3 (01:09):

Welcome to Paychex THRIVE, a Business Podcast, where you'll hear timely insights to help you navigate marketplace dynamics and propel your business forward. Here's your host, Gene Marks.

 

Gene Marks (01:26):

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Paychex THRIVE podcast. Very, very happy to have you here. Also, very, very happy to have Bridget Weston. Bridget is the CEO of SCORE, and I hope that, if you're listening to this, you have heard of SCORE. Bridget, I have to tell you something. I've known of SCORE for a long, long time, not enough people know about SCORE. And I think that's a huge challenge that SCORE has. I think that the SBA, Small Business Administration has similar challenge getting the word out, like awareness for business owners. So, for our audience that's listening, let's start first of all with SCORE. Tell us a little bit about the organization and how it works.

 

Bridget Weston (02:07):

Sure. Well, Gene, it's great to be here with you, and I know you have been a fan and a supporter of SCORE for many, many years, so we appreciate all that you do for SCORE and for small businesses, and the opportunity to amplify the message about SCORE.

 

Gene Marks (02:22):

Sure.

 

Bridget Weston (02:22):

We do wish every person in the country knew about SCORE and used SCORE services. We are a nationwide network of volunteer business mentors who provide free business advice, counseling and guidance to anyone looking to start or grow a small business. We have educational opportunities as well, both in person and available virtually online. And really our goal is to help small business owners succeed, whatever their goals are, whether it is financing, or marketing or HR issues. We have experts in our network that have that "been there, done that" experience to help overcome those challenges and achieve the goals that they have.

 

Gene Marks (03:06):

That's great. So, you mentioned starting, but starting or running a small business, I think you said, right? So, this is for existing business owners as well as people that are starting things up. So let me, I've had many clients that have worked with SCORE, most successfully, a few unsuccessfully, and I wanted to kind of address that. To me, the people that you talk about are volunteers are mostly retired individuals, correct? Or not?

 

Bridget Weston (03:37):

Not anymore, Gene. No, that is the SCORE of the past. So we really are... One of our goals is to reflect the communities that we serve. We do, of course, have a number of people who are retired because they have that experience and the knowledge and they're looking to give back. We also have volunteers that are currently still working, and we have people that have used our services as entrepreneurs themselves and then become SCORE volunteers. And one of the things about SCORE that we're really focused on is to make sure that you get paired with a mentor that is best for you. With 10,000 volunteers across the country, not everyone's gonna be the best fit. We compare it to finding like a doctor, or a therapist, or even dating, right? Like you have different personalities, you have different preferences and characteristics. So it may not always be the best person for you off the bat, come back, let us know, we'll make sure we find the right person for you that doesn't just meet your business needs, but that's a good fit for you as a business owner.

 

Gene Marks (04:44):

Say, I wanted to become a SCORE consultant, tell me what would you require of me?

 

Bridget Weston (04:52):

Sure. So, we have a fairly robust onboarding program for anyone who wants to be a SCORE volunteer. There is a strict code of ethics that everyone must review, take, and adhere to, and sign annually, that makes sure that our mentors are following all of our guidance, which keeps the mentoring sessions confidential. We cannot sell anything or charge anything for those mentoring services. We also have a mentoring certification. So, the people that become a SCORE mentor have that experience, whether it is as an accountant, or a lawyer or a marketing professional. What our mentoring certification does is help everyone that wants to help our small business owners to be the best mentor they can be, to be able to stop and suspend judgment, listen and learn, test, and help assess and analyze ideas. So that certification must be something that everyone completes before meeting with a small business owner as well. And there are other things, there's various learning modules. There are at least three co-mentoring sessions that any provisional person would have to sit in before they are allowed to go and meet with a client by themselves.

 

Gene Marks (06:03):

Tell me about the demographics, if I can ask about these mentors as well, 'cause you just mentioned that whether you're an accountant, or whether you're a marketing person or an attorney. So I'm an accountant, so like big surprise, right? Look at this. Yeah, so does that mean that I would be paired with somebody that's just looking for accounting advice? Is that what you do? Like you pair your mentors with people that have specific needs? I need marketing help, I need operational help, I need social media help or is it more of a general, "No, we're gonna give you a mentor "that can help you with that, "but other facets of running your business." How does that pairing work?

 

Bridget Weston (06:43):

We really do listen to both the small business owner and the mentor. So if you, for example, Gene, only want to talk about accounting and …

 

Gene Marks (06:53):

Right.

 

Bridget Weston (06:53):

…really wanna focus on a particular business type, those would be the types of businesses that we work to pair you with. There are other mentors that love helping those startup businesses and have become experts in business plans and all of those types of things. Also, it matters what the small business owner is looking for. Sometimes what's really important is that that person was in the industry that they're in, not necessarily an expert in the business topic, but someone who owned a retail shop or someone that started a consulting business. Others really want someone in their geographic location and want a jack of all trades, as opposed to a particular industry or business topic. So it really is about making sure that match is what's most important and that a relationship can develop because what's important and what works for mentoring, people who spend three or more hours with a mentor are five times more likely to increase their revenue. And so if you are willing to come back and develop that relationship with a mentor, you are much more likely to be successful.

 

Gene Marks (07:55):

That is great. And you're absolutely right. You mentioned kind of tongue in cheek that it's sort of like dating, when you're trying to be matched or paired with a mentor. Most dating apps use algorithms to match people together. Do you guys do something similar or is it still more of a personal approach or a human process to match mentors and small businesses?

 

Bridget Weston (08:21):

We have what we call our Mentor Matchmaker on the score.org website. And it asks the user a couple of questions, what's your business challenge, where are you located and how do you prefer to connect with a mentor, in-person, virtually? Whatever your preferences are. And that will then lead to surfacing the best mentors that the system says are right for you. There is still such a personal aspect to the business that we do and many service industries. So this is just a part of the whole process for making sure that that business owner gets paired with the right mentor. After every first and fourth mentoring session, we actually send out a net promoter score to ask how it was, we ask and say, "Did this work for you?" "Would you recommend our services?" And that helps us to see was it a good fit or not, and gives the client the opportunity to say, "Eh." Also, if they don't like the top five mentors that were served up to them through the AI tools, they have the option to reach out to us and say, "I don't know what I want, help pair me." And we can do that in a more personalized way, or they can search the profiles online to see if someone else speaks to them and is someone who would be a better fit.

 

Gene Marks (09:34):

Got it. Okay. That's great. The relationship, and by the way, we're gonna get to your study. I've got some other questions to ask you about AI, but I just, only 'cause the organization fascinates me and I feel like not enough of us really know the power of what it can bring to a business. Give me an idea of the typical relationship that you would expect there to be between a mentor and his or her small business owner that they're advising. Meaning like, how many hours are they spending together? How long is this relationship? Am I calling my mentor at three in the morning asking questions? Just gimme an idea of what you think like, successful relationships have been amongst mentors and small business owners.

 

Bridget Weston (10:18):

Sure. So, we just had an all team meeting this morning where we had a small business success story and their mentor on. Garrett and Dakota started ActionGlow, which puts LED lights on snowboards and skateboards. And they have been with SCORE and their mentors for 11 years, depending on where they are on their business journey, sometimes it's a once a month check-in. Other times if they're preparing for another big development in their business, it's more like once a week or even more than that. They actually recently appeared on Shark Tank and were paired with a shark and their mentor helped them prepare that package all the way through. So we have stories like that all the time where SCORE mentors are invited to people's children's weddings, people call them the godfather of their business. We are so fortunate to be able to celebrate in these successes and it really is about how much that small business owner is willing to give to this relationship as well. We do have people that come, ask a question and leave, and that is totally fine. We are here for everyone, in all walks of business. And we know that the more time that the small business owner is willing to put into the relationship, to reach out, to let that mentor hold them accountable, to let that mentor be a sounding board, the more likely they are to be successful and they stick around.

 

Gene Marks (11:44):

Wow. 11 years. That's pretty amazing. And that says a lot about both the business owner and the mentor as well. I mean, worst case scenario, what happens if I'm a business owner, I match with a mentor, working with the person for a few months and you're like, this isn't working, don't like the person or not sure it's happening, tell me what happens in that scenario.

 

Bridget Weston (12:05):

Yep. I was recently on a podcast on this app called "Clubhouse," where, just so happens a SCORE client joined the podcast to talk and was there not for any particular reason other than he wanted to learn what was going on. And he had shared that, he was not a good fit with his mentor. He reached out to his local chapter and said, "This isn't really working for me." They then paired him with a woman named Patty Williams and he has been with her all through the pandemic since 2019 and he's looking to grow his business. He now does some workshops for that SCORE chapter. So what we say is just reach out, whether it's to us at the headquarter office or to your local SCORE chapter, we know that it is not a one size fits all. We wanna make sure you get what you need, so just let us know and we'll find someone in those 10,000 volunteers who's right for you.

 

Gene Marks (12:59):

Bridget, is it unreasonable for a business owner to churn through a few mentors? I'm not saying 20 mentors but, I don't know, three or four, until they do find that person that... Again, I keep getting back to the dating app, and people date and they meet people and then they're like, " , this person's not for me "and I wanna date somebody else." 'Cause you do have a quite an intimate financial relationship with your mentor. I think it's just important that it is the right fit. And I can see some of my clients being interested in this, but it would take them a little bit before they find that right person. And they would be hesitant 'cause they don't wanna seem as if they're just discarding people away. Do you know what I mean?

 

Bridget Weston (13:47):

I do. I wanna make sure I understood because I think I heard you say "there's a financial relationship with their mentor" and that is not the case.

 

Gene Marks (13:53):

What I meant financial, yeah, I wanna be clear on that. What I mean financial, I mean that you've got somebody that's, I'm assuming will have somewhat intimate knowledge of your business, what you're doing, including, I'm assuming your financial information. I mean, if you're getting counseling from a mentor, I'm thinking a successful relationship is one where you're sort of bearing it all and you're sharing what you're doing and you're getting advice from this person. Maybe I'm wrong, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong

 

Bridget Weston (14:18):

No.

 

Gene Marks (14:19):

…but I would think

 

Bridget Weston (14:19):

You're not wrong there. I just think it is important to be abundantly clear that SCORE does not cost any money. There is no changing…

 

Gene Marks (14:25):

No. Oh, no, no, no.

 

Bridget Weston (14:26):

…of monetary in any way, shape or form. And in fact,

 

Gene Marks (14:31):

Right.

 

Bridget Weston (14:31):

that is one of the things our code of ethics states that if your mentor does do that, they're violating their code of ethics and you should report that right away.

 

Gene Marks (14:38):

I'm glad you pointed that out.

 

Bridget Weston (14:39):

So, our code of ethics also says that everything is confidential. So we do, and the best relationships work when you are able to share all of your financial information. We saw this in spades, unfortunately or fortunately during the pandemic, we were working with people on their PPP loans and their EIDL loans to make sure that their applications could be as successful as possible. And so we do, we look at all of those things and that's when the best relationships happen. So we do want to make sure that it is the best fit. I can tell you that, I can't speak to how many times people have necessarily decided they need a new mentor. What I do know is that we, again, use these net promoter scores to see how satisfied people are with the relationship and our net promoter scores are over 82, which, I think Apple and Nike have like 70. So we're doing a pretty good job benchmarking against those types of organizations. But also you mentioned AI before, so that makes sure that we get you to the right person faster. And then the other part is, we really do want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable. And so understanding what you're looking for when you come to SCORE and are going into it, really helps to make that the most successful. But just like I was talking about with ActionGlow, like the business needs have changed over time. So Tanya is the main mentor right now, but she has brought in subject-matter experts over the years to make sure that those business owners are getting the exact right advice. It doesn't mean that Tanya has left, it just means that she's working on getting them the other resources, subject-matter experts and co-mentors that the businesses need. And that happens all across SCORE.

 

Gene Marks (16:23):

Final question before I move to AI and finding people and all, 'cause I do wanna talk to you about that, but if I was coming to you, Bridget, and say, "Okay, yeah, "I am interested in working with SCORE, "I'd like to work with a SCORE mentor," what advice would you have for me to make it the most successful relationship? What should I be doing to prepare myself for this relationship?

 

Bridget Weston (16:45):

So, it's a great question. One thing that I did just mention is, coming to it with that willingness, and openness and an understanding of what you think your goals are, the more you can be clear on what you're looking to achieve, the better we can do at getting you there. The other thing is to try to be open to who you are as an entrepreneur. Not everyone wants to be the next Meta or IBM, sometimes you just want to sell your craft through an Etsy store or whatever that would be. And we are not here to judge what success looks like to you, but you may not be willing to work until 3:00 AM, or give up nights and weekends or even be willing and able to give up your nine-to-five job. So knowing that will help the SCORE mentor craft the best business journey for you, given those parameters.

 

Gene Marks (17:39):

And what about you? You're the CEO of SCORE, I'm sure you've mentored businesses in the past, do you still keep a toe in the water or do you just not have the time to do that?

 

Bridget Weston (17:49):

I think it is so important for us to make sure that we, at every level, are connecting with small business owners and anyone who's looking to do that. So I will regularly get questions from friends, colleagues, I'll be on the sidelines at my son's baseball game

 

Gene Marks (18:03):

I'm sure you do.

 

Bridget Weston (18:05):

…and people ask me what I think.

 

Gene Marks (18:08):

Yeah.

 

Bridget Weston (18:08):

So, I will definitely do it. But I will tell you, just like we were talking about, I may not be the best fit for people. So I will regularly say, "Hey, you know who might be really good "for this government contracting talk, "this person, not me." So, I do do a lot

 

Gene Marks (18:21):

Yeah.

 

Bridget Weston (18:22):

of handoffs like that.

 

Gene Marks (18:24):

Which I think actually is a real, I mean that's really want your consultant to be, like my sister, she's a doctor, a family doctor in Philadelphia where I live and I wouldn't really let her cut my fingernails 'cause she's my sister. But I am her patient and she just constantly refers me, you know what I mean? Like, "Oh, you should go and get a checkup from this doctor "or visit this doc," whatever.

 

Gene Marks (18:43):

Mm-hmm. So, your relationship with, I'm sure your friends and other people that you know in your community, same way, it'd be great to know you because I'm sure you know everybody and can easily forward people to people that know what they're talking about. All right, let's talk, there was a couple of announcements from SCORE recently that I just wanted to get some of your thoughts on, one has to do with attracting and retaining employees. SCORE released a study about this. Gimme some of your thoughts. It's only the biggest issue that we all, and we've all had it since before the pandemic, it was going on. So, tell me what the study found and I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are on those findings.

 

Bridget Weston (19:24):

Sure. Well, I do think that the COVID pandemic shone a brighter spotlight on these challenges and also opened up more opportunities for employees. So, it has become a bigger problem for employer firms, and that is retaining and recruiting employees. So, with the pandemic we saw, obviously, remote work options became a much bigger deal. We've heard now, the term quiet quitting. But what we're seeing is, for employers, the small business owners, hiring the right talent, and retaining and motivating employees has become, like I said, a much bigger issue. And it's not just about wages. We know that inflation has gone up, we know that wages and salaries are still number one and important to employees, but now they are looking for benefits, professional development. Some of them have other side hustles. And so, it's that balance for those business owners to find out, "How do I find the right people "but how do I deliver this package "that will retain the right people too?" And it's not really something that has been as prevalent of an issue because really the predominant factor were wages.

 

Gene Marks (20:35):

It's funny that you mentioned side hustles, there was once a time where an employee would have a side hustle or a part-time job somewhere and it was really frowned upon by their full-time employer. 'Cause they're saying, "No, this is your job "and we need you dedicated to this." That has absolutely changed over the past 10 years or so, particularly when we've got millions of people starting up businesses every year at an unprecedented rate. The other thing that's changed, of course, is overall, and you mentioned this a little bit about remote working flexibility. I mean it's become one of the top three benefits, is offering those types of things. I'm curious to hear like, just in your experience, how long have you been involved with SCORE now? I know you've been CEO for three years, you say but probably a while.

 

Bridget Weston (21:20):

Yeah, I've been with SCORE for 13 years now.

 

Gene Marks (21:21):

Okay. How have you seen the labor market change for small businesses? And as a second part of that question, if you were running a small business, what would you be doing to attract and retain people based on all that you have learned that's out there?

 

Bridget Weston (21:39):

It really does depend on the type of business that you own and what you're looking for in employees. But I do think that more and more people are interested in being a lifelong learner. So how you can help them grow in a career-type minded way as opposed to just teaching them how to make a widget or how to do this in your particular business. By demonstrating that you are growing them as a person, that seems to be something that is retaining the employees and that's certainly something I would like to do because I also believe that if you develop people, they're going to bring more back to you in that organization. And letting them-

 

Gene Marks (22:17):

By the way, I just have to interrupt you. That is great. That is a great comment. And here I'm putting my accounting hat on. I mean there are tax deductions for employers that provide education or reimburse for education for their employees regardless. I mean they go to cooking school and still get reimbursed for it, won't get taxed and employer can get a deduction for it. That's such a great point.

 

Bridget Weston (22:39):

That's awesome. I mean I think there are other things and obviously not everyone can afford to pay top dollar. I mean, SCOREs certainly can't. And so, the other things that I like to do is figure out what people's skills and strengths are and bring them into that. So, when you're doing strategic planning, does someone like to think big? Let them be a part of it. Does someone like to do community outreach? Let them go to the farmer's market, or the fair or the chamber of commerce meeting and meet people and be an ambassador for you. So those are some ideas that you can do. But there are, we were talking about AI earlier, there are technological advances that business owners can also think about in terms of making their backend operations more efficient too, so that you can spend more time thinking about how do I engage my employees? How do I retain them? How do I make sure that they're happy and sticking around?

 

Gene Marks (23:36):

That's a great point. We're gonna get to AI just in a moment, but just to reiterate some of the things you said are so important. I've also found that getting back to flexibility, I'm just speaking about my clients that I work with, when you run a smaller company, you really can offer not only a lot of flexibility but also a lot of growth opportunities for people. 'Cause you're working with the boss. And if you get sick, or you have an issue or whatever, I mean, you work for larger companies and there's rules that you have to follow, and you work for a smaller business, and yes, of course there are some rules, but there is a lot more flexibility in what you can do. And so as an employee... It's why I see, I mean, I go to client after client that runs small companies, 100 employees or less, and their employees could be working at larger corporations right nearby, but they choose to be where they are, mainly because they have a relationship with the owners, and I don't think that businesses play up that advantage as much as they should.

 

Bridget Weston (24:34):

Yeah, I think it's a really good point. And thinking outside the box, right? It doesn't just have to be, "Here's more money in your paycheck." Although people like that.

 

Gene Marks (24:42):

Yes, of course, of course.

 

Bridget Weston (24:42):

If you can do that, do that. But there could be

 

Gene Marks (24:45):

Of course. other ways too.

 

Gene Marks (24:46):

All right, AI. AI is obviously a big issue and I get questions about it all the time. I write for FORBES six times a month and where I used to be writing about other tech topics, I've just been almost solely focusing on AI. I wrote a piece on Microsoft Copilot just last week. This week I'm gonna write a piece on Google Bard, which is Google's AI offering. I find it absolutely fascinating, and my clients need to know it and clearly SCORE recognizes that businesses need to know more about AI. So tell us a little bit about what you guys are doing to help.

 

Bridget Weston (25:24):

Sure. Well, one of the things we think is critical is being proactive and responding to what is out there so that we can help

 

Gene Marks (25:31):

Yes.

 

Bridget Weston (25:31):

…clients understand. And AI is one of those things that I think everyone, including the creators of AI, are still learning how it works and how it can be used. And like anything, in technology, there are pros and cons. So, some of the things that we've seen are, small business owners can say, "Help me with a competitive analysis "for a restaurant in this neighborhood. "What would that look like? And ChatGPT or whatever AI tool you're using would spit that out and that's great. Or "Write me a marketing plan, "Write me a blog post for this "so I can put it in my newsletter." Those are all very valid ways, if you are also validating the data that it spits out. You cannot just use it blindly and take it at face value. And that's where the value of a SCORE mentor comes in. It's someone who can look it over with you and say, "This 95% is great, this 5% were not

 

Gene Marks (26:29):

So true.

 

Bridget Weston (26:30):

so sure about.

 

Gene Marks (26:30):

So true. Yeah, I mean, I think there was some story of some attorney that was using ChatGPT for a case and it cited the wrong case and the person got in trouble. You have to validate the data that's coming. And to even leverage your point is, you've really gotta take, and hopefully your SCORE consultants are gonna be helping clients to get their data into shape because for AI to really work and automation to really have value, it's gonna be taking my data and my company, my CRM data, my accounting data, whatever, and automating things based on it. But if my data's not very good or incomplete, that's a problem.

 

Gene Marks (27:10):

Right. And yeah, you need to make sure it,

 

Bridget Weston (27:13):

That's another big-

 

Gene Marks (27:13):

again, meets your needs too.

 

Bridget Weston (27:13):

Right. If it's not based, 'cause many of the small business owners don't have as much data as they might want or need to make the best decisions. So you don't just wanna use other people's data either, you wanna take that and say, "Does this really apply to me?" And again, that's where that human component is still really important.

 

Gene Marks (27:32):

Right. Yeah, just as in a side, Microsoft is gonna give, once it's gonna get released by the end of this year. You, Bridget, will be able to attend more than one meeting at the exact same time, with AI.

 

Bridget Weston (27:50):

That's sounds terrible.

 

Gene Marks (27:50):

Sounds like a terrible idea. It is. So, you have a meeting, you have three meetings that you schedule on Teams for the same time. You attend one physically, you tell Microsoft Copilot, go and attend the other two meetings for me on my behalf.

 

Bridget Weston (28:06):

Oh my gosh.

 

Gene Marks (28:06):

It listens. It provides you with a transcript, a summary and if your name is brought up with any actions, like, "Oh, make sure that Bridget email so-and-so by this," you get a task scheduled for you into your Outlook.

 

Bridget Weston (28:18):

Wow. Okay.

 

Gene Marks (28:18):

I know.

 

Bridget Weston (28:20):

Good to know.

 

Gene Marks (28:20):

Yeah.

 

Bridget Weston (28:21):

I can imagine

 

Gene Marks (28:21):

Yeah.

 

Bridget Weston (28:22):

…that that has many benefits and that terrifies me. But we'll see how it goes.

 

Gene Marks (28:25):

It is terrifying. I know. But to your point that you said earlier is that business owners have to be aware of this stuff. It is terrifying. And you are right. Sam Altman, who is the CEO of OpenAI, I heard him. He was interviewed on Lex Fridman's podcast a few months ago. He's terrified of what AI does and this is the guy that makes ChatGPT.

 

Bridget Weston (28:44):

Right.

 

Gene Marks (28:44):

Right. So, we all have reason to be concerned. But to your point, we have to embrace it because it's very important for productivity.

 

Bridget Weston (28:53):

Yeah.

 

Gene Marks (28:53):

And I'm assuming then, your point is that your SCORE consultants are being trained and they're being made aware to help their clients

 

Bridget Weston (29:01):

Yes.

 

Gene Marks (29:01):

take advantage of AI.

 

Bridget Weston (29:03):

Right. So, we have experts in AI that are providing educational workshops. We have experts in technology that are keeping up to date with this and those people are available in the SCORE network, that if questions come up that a mentor isn't as well versed in AI, they're just like me. It's like, "Hey, "that's not me, here you go, "go to this person."

 

Gene Marks (29:24):

Okay, that's great. And one final question before I let you go, just 'cause I didn't ask it, but just wanna be clear. SCORE will help for-profit and non-profit organizations too, right? Just if you're a small business, right?

 

Bridget Weston (29:37):

That's right.

 

Gene Marks (29:38):

It's ….

 

Bridget Weston (29:38):

I mean, our goal is to help foster vibrant small business communities and for-profit businesses

 

Gene Marks (29:43):

Right.

 

Bridget Weston (29:43)

and non-profit businesses both have a very important part in that community.

 

Gene Marks (29:47):

All right, that's great. Bridget, it was a pleasure talking with you. Thank you very much for spending your time. You guys do great work at SCORE and I'm glad you're CEO there. And everybody, now you know who to talk to when you want a good reference for somebody to help you in your business. But, people, if you're watching and listening to this, I mean, SCORE is just an, I recommend to my clients all the time. And the whole purpose of this conversation is to build more awareness for this great organization. So again, thank you.

 

Gene Marks (30:10):

Do you have a topic or a guest that you would like to hear on THRIVE? Please let us know. Visit payx.me/thrivetopics and send us your ideas or matters of interest. Also, if your business is looking to simplify your HR, payroll, benefits, or insurance services, see how Paychex can help. Visit the resource hub at paychex.com/worx. That's W-O-R-X. Paychex can help manage those complexities while you focus on all the ways you want your business to thrive. I'm your host, Gene Marks, and thanks for joining us. Till next time, take care.

 

Speaker 3 (30:48):

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