Mentoring

Buiness Advice and Mentoring

SCORE’s more than 13,000 business experts provide you with free, confidential, ongoing mentoring, counsel, advice and business guidance by sharing real-world advice and know-how. Our mentors come from every business sector and have substantial skills. The 50+ business volunteers in the Buffalo Niagara chapter live and work in the 8 Western New York counties that we serve. We have many decades of real business experience to share with you. For example we can:

• Help you start a business
• Advise on writing a business plan
• Answer a business question
• Solve a business problem
• Advise on how to obtain business funding
• Help you grow your business
• Be a part of your business advisory group
• Assist you in being a successful entrepreneur

Meet with us in person:
• Main Buffalo office (typically Monday – Friday 10, 11 and Noon by appointment only):
540 Niagara Center
130 South Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14202

Use this link to book a Buffalo appointment online using our SCORE-cast Client Appointment system

The "New Client Sign-up for Counseling" button will take you to the registration form. Once registered, you will see the calendar and you can choose any open date and time. You will receive an email confirmation.

• For Allegany, telephone Belmont (585-268-7605) or Wellsville (585-593-5080) or Houghton (585-567-9200)
• For Cattaraugus (Olean, 716-372-6607)
• For Genesee (Batavia, 585-343-9550)
• For Orleans (Albion, 585-589-5335)

Please notify us promptly if you are unable to make an appointment or may be late. Our volunteers are on-site only by appointment. Please allow extra time to find parking and pass through building security at the Main Buffalo office.

Get answers by email:
We can answer your questions by email and Skype as well as in-person. Use the “Find An Email Mentor” box at the lower right corner of this page to gain access to local and national SCORE experts.
1. Enter the keywords, question or areas of expertise you are looking for and use the “Find An Email Mentor” button to start your search.
2. This will bring up a list of experts that may match your need. If you don’t find an exact match try changing your keywords in the search.
3. Look through the lists and choose the one you wish to contact.

Call us:
Use our 716-253-1130 Voicemail number that you can call any time of the day or night with a question.
• Be sure to tell us what you want
• Give us your contact information
• It helps if you speak slowly and clearly
• Our volunteers will get back to you as soon as possible

We look forward to working with you! SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All counseling is free, neutral and confidential. Volunteer counselors are experienced owners or managers of businesses that volunteer their time to help small businesses succeed. SCORE has mentored more than 9 million entrepreneurs and small businesses since 1964.

In fiscal year 2011 alone SCORE:
• 568,885 total services delivered
• 436,635 total clients worked with
• 87,701 online clients worked with
• 9,861 face-to-face workshops delivered with 209,453 attendees

“What I learned from SCORE continues to help me make it through the recession. With the help of SCORE, I am positioning my business to triple my earnings from last year.”
Laura Dessauer, owner of Creativity Queen, Sarasota, Fla.

Meet Face to Face

We'll connect with you local SCORE chapter and get you connected with right mentor.

Find An Email Mentor

"You can search for SCORE email mentors by Area of Business, Industry or skill and then browse their profiles by to find the one that's right for your business."

Browse our mentors profile and choose one thats right for you.

Browse email mentors' profiles by:
Mentoring Skills
Industry Experience