SNOHOMISH — Jeff Fjeld wanted to make dentures with a personal touch. As a denture technician, he didn’t get to meet patients or see the results of his work. So Fjeld earned a denturist’s license from Bates College in Tacoma and opened Daedalus Denture Concepts here.
“I really like my business,” Fjeld said. “I like what we do for people.”
Fjeld sought the help of his local SCORE counselor, Bill Parker, to get his business started.
Parker is one of nine counselors offering free advice for entrepreneurs in libraries and coffee shops across Snohomish County. They’re part of SCORE, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping people start and run small businesses. SCORE stands for Service Corps of Retired Executives.
Parker has regular hours at the Lynnwood and Bothell libraries. He also meets clients on appointment. People can sign up to meet with him at the libraries.
These one-hour counseling sessions usually consist of building business plans, discussing ideas’ viability and looking at funding options, Parker said.
“People come to us for an honest answer, an honest evaluation, and that’s what (we’re) trying to give them,” Parker said.
Fjeld said Parker’s counseling made him realize that his own estimations of cost and profit had been way off.
“Unfortunately, a denturist isn’t a run-of-the-mill business,” he said. “So we had some questions that he wasn’t quite sure on. But as far as the overall concept of a business, he was very informative.”
Parker said the problems of revenue, expenses, marketing and others are present in every venture.
“All these businesses are essentially the same,” he said. “Everybody’s got those same kinds of issues, no matter what service they produce.”
Larry Spelhaug, district director for SCORE, said the greater-Seattle chapter conducted 4,500 one-on-one sessions last year. The counselors are all volunteers, and many offer advice via email.
“We’re growing somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent a year in terms of new clients,” Spelhaug said of the chapter, which was started in 1966. “And that’s held fairly steady.”
SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The organization is able to offer free counseling through its government funding, as well as through sponsorships and profit from workshops and reference materials.
The chapter holds a few workshops every month for a fee, most of them in their office in downtown Seattle.
Parker said he has had hundreds of clients over the years, but he guessed only one in ten ended up starting a business.
“It’s the most work you’ll ever do,” he said. “And I think some of them get scared off.”
For Fjeld, people’s teeth were the family business. His father was also a denture technician, and his sister owns a crown and bridge lab.
“I kind of grew up in a dental office,” he said. “Just kind of grew into it and grew with it, and here I am.”
Parker said the sheer variety of businesses is the reason he volunteers as a counselor.
“It’s just absolutely amazing, the things people come up with,” he said. “I sometimes feel like a priest in a confessional. Boy, I’ve heard a lot of stories.”
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