Nearly 50% of small businesses fail within their first five years according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2021.

The pandemic did nothing to help this statistic, but SCORE, a nonprofit organization with one of the nation’s largest networks of expert business mentors has been dedicated to helping get small businesses off the ground since 1964.

“I help clients that are in search of business advice,” said Russ Hearn, SCORE volunteer mentor. “I get assigned clients based on geographic location. If they’re in Butler County I get them or if they match my area of expertise.”

With the help from Hearn, Jamie and Adam Christy started Mixtape Streets Eats on Harmony Road in Slippery Rock.

“We built the business plan,” Hearn said. “Helped them find a location. They’re a wonderful young couple with a successful business that serves the community, and they started from nothing.”

But more on the Christys later. Hearn has been a mentor for four years and has a background in medical devices direct-to-consumer from his time with Hearing Life, where he was a co-founder.

“My responsibilities were operations marketing, leadership, and mergers and acquisitions,” Hearn said.

“Hearing Life is the largest of its kind,” said Hearn. He has come full circle with SCORE, because 30 years ago he was asked to write a business plan for his company, and he had no clue how to write one, he said. He reached out to SCORE and became a client.

“I was tutored in the art of writing business plans,” Hearn said. “I then became the go-to for my business in business plans and mergers and acquisitions. When I retired, my wife said ‘You need to find something to do,’ so I went back to SCORE.”

As a mentor, Hearn meets with clients over Zoom by phone and asks them everything about their business and their overall goals.

“They could be an existing business that wants to grow through additional marketing, buying competition, or maybe they want to sell,” Hearn said.

SCORE has a pool of 10,000 volunteers across the country and has provided education and mentorship to more than 11 million entrepreneurs, according to its website.

“We have a lot of free resources, and one of those is the SCORE website,” Hearn said. “There’s hundreds of recorded classes, seminars, and some live ones that are scheduled every month.”

SCORE is a resource partner of the Small Business Administration. The SBA funds SCORE, and there are about 40 mentors in Pittsburgh region, including Hearn in Butler.

“I live in Butler and I see mostly Butler clients,” Hearn said. “I do have a few clients across the country that seek me out.

“Just In Butler alone we have spent hundreds of hours the past few years helping the area,” he said. “During COVID we helped local businesses get millions of dollars in COVID relief aid.”

Hearn said they saw a larger number of companies reach out when the pandemic hit compared to new businesses, but it did not take long for that to change.

“The existing businesses were having trouble finding people to work,” Hearn said. “However, we saw folks that were no longer working and decided this was the time to start a business because they had time on their hands.”

Jordan Grady, Butler County Chamber of Commerce executive director, makes many referrals to Hearn when business reach out to the chamber, with one very recently up in Slippery Rock, he said.

“We opened in August of last year,” Jamie said. “Slippery Rock has been amazing to us; I’m an alumni, as well.”

Jamie is a former social worker, and Adam comes from the culinary world, formally at the Treesdale Country Club, she said.

“We both said we were sick and tired of working for other people,” Jamie said.

“Food is Adam’s passion, and I just wanted to own a business. So far, everything is going great, very well received. We’re having fun.”

The menu at Mixtape includes street food, such as chicken and pulled pork sandwiches, along with bowl dishes with five customizable elements, such as protein, vegetables, salsa, and the base layer of rice, noodles and tortilla chips.

“Half our menu is build-your-own,” Jamie said. “We are all music based. We have like 10 seats in our dining room. We do more takeout and now some catering.”

They have booked some events at Big Rail Brewing in Grove City, which has an outdoor music venue that allows food vendors to set up and sell to their guests.

“My husband and I are both huge music people,” Jamie said. “We were working a lot of hours at our previous jobs. We were killing ourselves, and we thought if we are going to kill ourselves we might as well do it for ourselves.”

Their love for music had a great influence on the theme for their business, but there was a lot that needed to be done in the beginning for get things up and running, which is where Hearn comes in.

“When we first started, we did not have a clue how to do anything,” Jamie said. “Russ has helped us as much as he can. He’s very articulate.”

The Christys’ story is just the most-recent business Hearn has helped, with many more on his plate.

“The trouble is we don’t have enough volunteers,” Hearn said. “I’m overloaded. We would train volunteers, give them all the credentials they need, does not cost them anything but their time.

“It’s time well spent. Done all online, and when they are done we start assigning them clients. You can do as much or as little as you want. Most SCORE volunteers are retired business people, such as Hearn, who want to give back with their time and expertise, but that is not the only type of business people for which they are looking, Hearn said.

“If you wanted five new clients a week you could probably get that,” Hearn said.

“It could be a retired business executive or someone currently in business that has some time on their hands with experience in the business world.”

Mentors such as Hearn see a lot of variety with regard to the types of businesses they help. It ranges from construction businesses, trucking, pizza shops and people starting a new wedding venue. “It’s a lot of fun and I learn something new every day because of this,” Hearn said.

“Sometimes I have to ask a lot of dumb questions, and they educate me about their industry. I like to say ‘We teach young dogs old tricks.’”

Hearn said the two main reasons small businesses fail is because they lack capital and a business plan.

“Learn to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run,” Hearn said. “Take it in bites that you can digest. Go with your pace, if that’s fast, go ahead. Educate yourself as much as possible.

“We don’t write their business plans, but we guide them and teach them how to do it. With capital, you might have the best idea in the world, but some people don’t have enough working capital to keep the lights on long enough to start creating a profit.”

A lot of businesses might lose money in the beginning of an operation Hearn said, which is why mentors at SCORE also help businesses acquire loans.

“Sometimes we run into businesses that are just not ready or never will be,” Hearn said. “If you have a day job don’t quit it yet.”

Businesses and those looking to volunteer can sign up by clicking on the “Find a Mentor” and “Become a Mentor” tabs on the SCORE homepage at score.org.

“It’s that easy, or the other way would be to call the Butler County Chamber of Commerce,” Hearn said.

“People really appreciate the time you spend with them. I get something out of it because I’m gonna learn. It’s just a great way to spend time.”