In the eye of Katrina, SCORE chapters make all the difference for Gulf Coast entrepreneurs.

By Jackie Larson

As businesses continue to rebuild in the year since Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, SCORE volunteers in the Atlanta; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Gulf Coast; and New Orleans chapters are finding there’s still much work to be done.

Many affected entrepreneurs have already received valuable assistance from volunteers. Case in point: Carling Dinkler III of New Orleans. When his city’s hospitality industry went from being the top employer, with some 50,000 employees, to having all meetings cancelled through March 2006, Dinkler’s destination management and event planning firm, Custom Conventions, was just one of many businesses caught in the crossfire. “I’ve dodged a lot of bullets in my business career, but no cash flow? That was impossible,” says Dinkler, 60.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, Dinkler’s company was pulling in more than $1.5 million in business a year, most of that dependent on New Orleans tourism. After Katrina, an SBA counselor referred him to SCORE for advice. At New Orleans’ Canal Place, he met with John Ryan, one of 10 members of a SCORE task force volunteer team from Baton Rouge.

“I got the info I needed from him,” Dinkler says. “These were all seasoned businesspeople, and they were very supportive. They provided a mentorship to guide me through the process of applying for SBA loans, as well as tips and hints. They walked [me] through it; they did everything in their power to help [me].” Dinkler’s business is getting back on its feet: The office in New Orleans is back up and running, a major convention for the American Library Association was his first big gig, and he’s hoping for a large national convention in 2007 or 2008.

Baton Rouge chapter membership chair Len Sedlin says Ryan and the Katrina task force did an amazing job helping entrepreneurs like Dinkler. “Until you actually went down to look at it, you couldn’t imagine the scale of the destruction and the tremendous impact on life in general. It was extremely important to get business up and running, because without business, nothing else happens,” Sedlin says. “The SCORE volunteers made a combined effort to assist displaced businesses and get the word out that we were there and ready to serve.”

In Atlanta, 17 SCORE volunteers worked six and seven days a week to counsel evacuees at four rescue centers. Baton Rouge SCORE volunteers counseled at SBA disaster recovery centers, forming their Hurricane Katrina task force to meet local needs. Volunteers were trained in disaster loan programs by Lousiana State University’s Small Business Development Center. Relocation from damaged Gulfport to Biloxi didn’t keep the Mississippi chapter’s 13 volunteers from providing counseling by e-mail, phone and in person, says Gulf Coast chapter chair Dave Philo.

“Just about everybody in our group suffered some kind of damage in the storm—we’re struggling to get our own lives together while continuing to help others. I’m proud of our guys doing that while they’ve got so much on their plates at home,” Philo says, noting that when given the chance to scale back their annual goal of seeing 410 clients by fiscal year-end in October, the chapter chose a full court press instead. “By May, we already had 411 clients,” Philo says.

Bring it on, adds Philo, a financial manager retired from the shipbuilding industry. “We feel we have something to share with those who are still in business, and it’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life,” he says. “[The entrepreneurs] do all the work; we’re there to provide support.”

Jackie Larson is a nationally published, award-winning writer and author. Her work has been featured in many publications, including Entrepreneur magazine.