Bay Area business owner scores big

APOLLO BEACH - While most business owners are struggling to keep their pace, Jennifer Aldrich has found a nice stride.

She's headed straight to the top. She's the founder and president of Power Logics, Inc. based in Apollo Beach hit the $10 million dollar mark last year. They're aiming for $16 million this year.

"It started as a business out of the spare bedroom of my home," Aldrich said.

Power Logics keeps other businesses' power grids from surging in the lightning capital of the world. She's leading in a field dominated by men.

"Completely man-dominated," she said laughing. "Hasn't changed at all, as far as that goes."

Power Logics is a State of Florida-certified, minority, women-owned business enterprise— a tough designation to get.

A local non-profit called SCORE helped her get that designation.

"They're sort of coaches if you will as far as giving us a little bit of knowledge on how to get where we need to go," she told FOX 13. "And that's been very helpful."

And SCORE did one better than that. They helped Power Logics get its federal minority status too, which pretty much makes them the Rolls Royce of small businesses trying to get government contracts.

"The immediate need, and the biggest payoff is in the small to medium sized business arena," said James Gosin, local chairman of the Hillsborough SCORE Chapter.

SCORE National has helped companies like Vera Bradley and Jelly Belly become household names. Small business is big business for America.

"It produces more jobs, also helps our economy more than large businesses," Gosin said.

President Barack Obama recognizes that. He mentions SCORE specifically for funding in his business plan for the country titled "A New Era of Responsibility."

"These have always been the times when small business starts up," Gosin said.

A growing number of women are recognizing that. Almost half of SCORE clients are women, more than any other minority, a statistic that mirrors the trend nationally.

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SBA Impact Study Shows SCORE's Value
Source: www.score.org

Based on the findings of the February 2008 Impact Study of SBA Entrepreneurial Resources, SCORE estimates that our volunteers helped create more than 25,000 new jobs nationwide in 2006, or one for every seven new clients.
SCORE also helped create 19,732 new small businesses in 2007, according to an SBA report sent to Congress.
SCORE's clients are representative of the diversity of business owners in the United States.

A comparison of 2002 U.S. Census data for business owners and the SBA impact study shows the following results:

African-American Business-owned firms 5 percent
SCORE African-American clients 15 percent

Hispanic/Latino-owned firms 7 percent
SCORE Hispanic/Latino clients 7 percent

Asian-American-owned firms 5 percent
SCORE Asian-American clients 4 percent

Women-owned firms 28 percent
Women SCORE clients 46 percent

Veteran SCORE clients 10 percent