Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of stories looking back at significant progress in Moultrie and Colquitt County during 2016.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — It’s been said that the best way to learn how to do something is just to do it.

But the person who coined that phrase probably never contemplated performing a tune-up on a modern car that’s as much software as horsepower.

A similarly daunting scenario exists for the person contemplating starting a business of his or her own.

The U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that as many as one-third or more small businesses launched will fail within two years.

For the budding entrepreneur, especially one with no experience, having someone with decades of business experience to give guidance through the entire process can make a world of difference.

That’s where SCORE — Service Corporation of Retired Executives — comes into play.

SCORE Moultrie is part of a national non-profit corporation set up to mentor budding business owners  through the process of planning, starting and successfully running a small business.

Headed by Director Bob Montgomery, a retired banker, the organization is finishing 2016 activities and gearing to start its 2017 offerings in the spring after mapping out the year’s strategy. It officially kicked off in June 2015.

In 2016 Score held workshops that taught participants, who paid $15 per session to cover costs, how to formulate a business plan and recently finished up 2016 with a Moultrie attorney discussing legal issues that businesses may face. The group held sessions at Southern Regional Technical College, which allowed the use of one of its conference spaces.

The number one reason businesses fail, Montgomery said, is a lack of resources and lack of the necessary expertise.

“A lot of them don’t do a business plan,” he said. “That’s the first thing we do. It gets you to think about everything to do with that business.”

In its first year, Montgomery said, some business failures may have been prevented by dent of not being launched.

“The thing about SCORE is that there are a lot of people coming in thinking about starting a small business,” he said. “After we met two or three times, some of them may decide now’s not the right time to start a business. We’ve just saved someone a lot of money.”

For Moultrie resident DeAndre Grant, SCORE helped make his dream of opening a painting business possible.

Grant had for several years been doing auto detailing as a side enterprise. When he heard about SCORE he was on his way to starting his own commercial and residential painting company, Grant’s Painting.

“They basically taught me how to put everything together step by step,” said Grant, who started his painting operation in March.

In working with a mentor and attending workshops Grant was able to learn all he needed to know from financing to how to interact with customers.

The information he gained included “things I would never have thought about,” he said. “SCORE is great, especially with having a mentor. My mentor, any time I need him he calls. With the help of SCORE I was able to land some jobs.”

Grant plans to continue with the organization next year and attend workshops, which he said offers useful information.

“It’s definitely worth it, even for someone who has been in business for years,” he said. “It takes out a lot of the guessing and not knowing.”

With a shoestring budget of $5,000, the 10 retired executives on board as mentors, and experts in various workshops, worked with some 110 clients over the year. This included one-on-one mentoring and the workshops. The four fall and winter workshops averaged about 24 for the first three sessions.

With the holiday season in full swing, the December final session had10 in attendance, Mongtomery said, but that small group was able to form their chairs in a semicircle around attorney Ken Turnipseed for a more intimate meeting environment where audience members felt more comfortable asking questions.

“That was one of our best sessions,” he said. “With the smaller numbers we had a lot more interaction.”

As the only SCORE branch in the area, it has even drawn participants from Thomasville, Tifton and Valdosta.

Looking to the future, Montgomery would like to upgrade the branch title to a SCORE chapter. To do so it will need another five certified mentors in addition to the 10 already in place.

“I’ve (also) got to have administrative help, because we’ve grown bigger than me,” Mongtomery said. “We feel we’ve created something of value. We need grants that would help s offer bigger workshops. We feel now we are a marketable commodity because we have a track record.

SCORE Moultrie is the name of the organization’s Facebook page, and the email address is scoremoultrie@gmail.com.