South Carolina Entrepreneur John Walton, Co-owner of O.K. Golf, Wins the 2010 SCORE Award for Outstanding Minority-owned Business

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Aug 17, 2010, 09:09 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" honors John Walton, co-owner of O.K. Golf in Charleston, S.C., with the SCORE Award for Outstanding Minority-owned Business. He earned this honor for his contributions to his community, exemplary achievements in his field, and overall business success. Walton will accept this award, which is sponsored by The Coulter Companies, at the 2nd Annual SCORE Awards and black-tie gala.

Walton and other SCORE Awards winners will be recognized during a September 16 event at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.score.org/score_awards.html.

John Walton saw an opportunity to bring his experience mentoring and teaching golf to young people in the community. With the help of a Coastal SCORE mentor, John and his business partner, Steve Conrad, are now engaging elementary school children in an after-school enrichment program centered on the lessons of golf.

SCORE helped O.K. Golf develop a marketing strategy, target recruitment of instructors for the program, and develop contracts for the instructors, who are all independent contractors.

"When Steve and I decided we were going to do this, we decided we didn't know enough about LLCs and partnerships," John says. "We asked around and SCORE came up as a reference point to help start up a new business. We went to seminars on start-ups, marketing and business plans."

Volunteer mentor George Giles "has been particularly helpful from the word go," John says, noting that with his 30 years business management experience with Sears Roebuck & Co., "I understood P&Ls, business plans, the operational aspects, but had not run my own business. SCORE gave me a realistic look at what's needed. They were very helpful—and continue to be."

Learn more at www.score.org/score_awards.html.

About The SCORE Foundation: The mission of The SCORE Foundation is to support and leverage the work of SCORE by soliciting, investing and managing resources for the benefit of SCORE. Learn more about The SCORE Foundation at www.scorefoundation.org.

About SCORE: Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 8.5 million aspiring entrepreneurs. Each year, SCORE provides small business mentoring and workshops to more than 375,000 new and growing small businesses. More than 12,400 business experts volunteer as mentors in 364 chapters serving local communities with entrepreneur education to help grow 1 million small businesses.

For more information about starting or operating a small business, call 1-800/634-0245 for the SCORE chapter nearest you. Visit SCORE at www.score.org and www.score.org/women. Connect with SCORE at www.facebook.com/SCOREFans, http://twitter.com/SCOREMentors and www.scorecommunity.org.

For more information, contact Christine Banning at 800/634-0245 or [email protected]. To attend the SCORE Awards, contact Mark Dobosz at 941/371-3107 or [email protected].

Contact: Christine Banning of the SCORE Association

800-634-0245

[email protected]

SOURCE SCORE Association