SCORE Grand Strand and Chapter Chair Jim Hefglott share their regular commitment to promoting the success of clients and mentors in their area. See below for a few amazing highlights, and attached for the full email bulletin they send out regularly. Right now the focus is on email and website content, highlighting the client's business, the SCORE mentor, and the mentoring relationship. These success stories are being shared and promoted across the district, which helps the clients with more exposure as well. Jim shared that more PR uses are in the works as their stories being compiled. 

S2 Golf Cars Solutions - Promoted by SCORE Grand Strand and SCORE Charleston

Golf Cart Dealership, Service, and Rental Fleet Services

While shopping for a new golf cart in 2016, Rod Shilling and Jason Smart, Owners and Operators of S2 Golf Cars Solutions in Surfside Beach, SC, had a less than stellar shopping experience. As they left the dealership disappointed, Rod and Jason discussed their experience and what they would have done differently motivating them to research the possibility of launching their own golf cart business. In 2017, S2 Golf Cars Solutions was formed with "S2" inferring the combination of the two owners' last names.

The cornerstone of S2 Golf Cars is customer experience. Jason and Rod explain more, "We are dedicated to making sure that every customer has a great experience with us. Whether you are buying a new, reconditioned, or customized vehicle we want to make sure that you feel good about your purchase. We also service all brands and varieties of golf carts and specialize in LSV [Low Speed Vehicle] sales and service." S2 Golf Cars is an Authorized Dealer for most major cart brands including Tomberlin, EVolution, ICON Electric Vehicles, and many others.

Rod elaborates on how they differentiate their customer experience, "We offer to swing by your place and do the work there or we can pick up your vehicle and complete the repairs or provide maintenance at our shop. Our service area is vast and extends from Little River to Georgetown. Our crew of technicians are top-notch. Regardless of where we work on your cart, we can complete a 12-point pre-season service. With access to the very best parts at fair pricing and strong dealer relationships with all the major manufacturers, we will ensure your experience is nothing short of stellar."

Rod and Jason first contacted SCORE Greater Seattle where they were living at the time seeking assistance with starting the business planning process. SCORE, with over 10,000 volunteer mentors, operates 384 chapters around the United States providing free mentoring to small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Once Rod and Jason decided to relocate their families and launch their business in Surfside Beach, SC, the Greater Seattle chapter referred them to their SCORE colleagues in Grand Stand where they were introduced to Jim Helfgott, SCORE Grand Strand Mentor and Vice Chair.

Jim began volunteering for SCORE Grand Strand in 2017. As a business leader with over 35 years' experience in telecommunications and international business, Jim has tremendous experience in business planning particularly with sales and marketing. Jim's expertise has proven to help his SCORE clients grow their businesses by establishing realistic stretch goals and focusing on how to achieve the desired results.

"With the hard work of SCORE, and our Mentor Jim Helfgott, we were able to successfully open our business, built from the ground up. We owe much of our success to all the team members at SCORE. We appreciate the time they dedicated to helping us build our plan and supporting us and our dream still to this day."

Jim, Rod, and Jason meet virtually each week until Rod and Jason relocated their families to Surfside, SC. Jason explains more about their experience during the mentoring sessions, "Jim helped by asking the hard questions. Some of those questions were scenario-based meaning Jim would ask us how we would react if certain business conditions existed preparing us for any potential future challenges. This thought process would later help us to adapt to the pandemic and enable us to continue grow our business." Rod continues, "Each meeting was highly informative. If there were questions Jim could not answer, he would engage his team and conduct research on our behalf. We worked on our forecasts and projection worksheets every waking moment to be certain we were prepared for the next meeting with Jim. SCORE developed a working document ensuring we would be fully prepared when we approached funding providers."