Thursday was a very special day at SCORE Chester and Delaware Counties when five award winners were recognized.

Five small businesses were honored at the June 16 annual Small Business Achievements Awards luncheon at Concord Country Club in Glen Mills. 

SCORE is the nation’s largest network of volunteer business experts dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground. Celebrating and recognizing client success is an important part of the process.

SCORE Chester and Delaware Counties has been operating since 1985, with 100 volunteers today who provide confidential mentoring at no charge and business training to benefit the local community. 

The five award winners and their SCORE mentors shared their stories at the luncheon. They explained how they worked together to successfully increase sales.

The mentor and client winners talked about how they analyzed and pursued promising market segments, shared customer reviews and attracted new clients. Working together, they created a compelling company pitch, and navigated the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan process to continue operating during the pandemic crisis while keeping their employees on the job.

Mercedes Diaz, SCORE Mentor and Chairperson kicked off the program, sharing the experiences of the five award winners, leaders who came from a mix of established firms and startups.

The 2022 Awards program theme of Surviving and Thriving was highlighted by this year’s award recipients who navigated significant challenges with strong determination, creativity, innovation, collaboration, and pure grit… to achieve success, she said.

SCORE Volunteers

Mercedes explained how volunteers “leverage the full power of the nationwide network – we call it ONE SCORE.”

Local SCORE members can connect with over 10,000 volunteer business experts across the US to help clients make progress on their business plans.

This can be delivered in a variety of ways, for example, by co-mentoring with the local teams, sharing educational workshops and webinars on key business skills, and/or providing relevant tools, templates, articles, blogs, and additional valuable resources.

Over time, SCORE is assisting more and more clients across county and state lines who are developing and growing regional, national and international businesses and nonprofit organizations. The virtual meeting technology has enabled an efficient sharing model to optimize the support for SCORE clients everywhere.

This year’s award-winning businesses are in particularly diverse segments with startups focused in property management safety, a community art studio for all generations, global maritime training, physical therapy innovation, and an expanding digital marketing firm, despite inflation and the economic crisis.

The leadership includes a minority woman, a retired educator, a married couple, a Veteran, and a young physical therapist!

View their personal reflections here:

ASAP Lead Testing and Locksmith 

Chrysalis Art Center

Click Canyon

J. Howell Maritime

Necks Level

These five leaders and their companies were selected from a group of nominations from SCORE mentors. Each business case was reviewed by a diverse volunteer team to understand:

• their mission and unique value proposition
• their path to success
• how SCORE helped them
• how the business is doing today

Read their success stories here and check future posts for detailed features on each winner.

A brief panel discussion among four previous Award winners – two for-profit small businesses and two nonprofits – provided insight on the importance of the long-term view, courage, and patience needed to succeed.

Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan extended her congratulations virtually to the Award winners.  Special recognition was given to loyal sponsor of the awards event, Citadel Credit Union. Citations were presented to the award-winning business owners and particular thanks extended to the Chester County Commissioners and Delaware County Council members for their generous and continuous support.

Yes, today was a good day for the SCORE Chester and Delaware communities.  Congratulations to the 2022 Small Business Achievement Award Winners!

Find a SCORE mentor today.

SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer business experts, is dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals. Since 1964, we have provided education and mentorship to more than 11 million entrepreneurs nationwide. SCORE Chester and Delaware Counties has been operating since 1985, with 100 dedicated volunteers today who provide confidential mentoring at no charge and offer business seminars, workshops and webinars to benefit the local community. 

SCORE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Find out more about SCORE Chester & Delaware Counties.