Score!

Although PopUP CleanUP services sporting events and sporting event-adjacent events (we've serviced the Los Angeles Marathon, been in the NFL Business Connect program, and did a Nike Branding Event for the 2018 NBA All-Star Game), we're not talking about actually scoring here. We're talking about the non-profit organization that helps small businesses survive and thrive through education and mentorship.

As a female, black-owned small business that was succeeding through a rise and grind mentality before 2020 and then found itself suspended in thin air Wile E. Coyote-style during the pandemic, with commercial entities closed and events shuttered, we used that fallow time to restructure, rethink and rebuild. Score was a critical part of that journey.

Score's mentorship program is flexible and varied, helping startups with everything from learning how to write and stick to a budget, understanding the importance of profit-to-expense margins, how to build an emergency fund to withstand economic downturns and natural disasters, and seasoned advice from retired professionals.

The organization offers live workshops as well as online courses from pricing, sales, and distribution to staffing to marketing to accounting, insurance and legal considerations. While Michael E. Gerber's classic book The E-Myth Revisited gives a broad overview of the importance of systems and highlights the importance of working on the business instead of in it for fledgling entrepreneurs, Score actually gives nuts and bolts instructions for how to establish these structures, practical expertise to optimize your small business, and detailed information on pitfalls and how to prevent them.

Our mentor, Joy, has been a godsend to us (and has brought us a lot of Joy!) and the SCORE program has helped us transform our hustle into an infrastructure that we can build upon. PopUP CleanUP is an event and commercial cleaning company serving the Greater Los Angeles Area.