SCORE Southern Maryland Empowers Entrepreneurs To Grow Their Business

While working in the intelligence community, Aimee Merchant found her passion in building emotional intelligence.

“I thought I was a pretty emotionally intelligent person,” Merchant said. “And then I did training, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow! There are so many tools out there that can help you be the best version of yourself and get unstuck.’”

Merchant considers herself a “proud recovering conflict avoider,” and enjoys using what she’s learned to help other people improve how they relate to other people and themselves.

“It’s really empowering to be able to connect with individuals who are feeling stuck, or they’re overwhelmed by conflict,” Merchant said.

For about 10 years, Merchant has been working with Keri Wise, another certified coach in the federal government.

Early in 2025, they decided to start a small business.

“At the beginning of the year, there were so many changes to how the federal government and the intelligence community (was) going to conduct a training that Keri and I really felt like we were going to try to do this on our own,” Merchant said. “We had thought about doing it in retirement, but then we were like, ‘No, maybe now it’s time to plant the seed and see if not just the intelligence community but other businesses could benefit,’ because everyone struggles with conflict in some form or fashion.”

They named their new business Two Truths Solutions LLC, referring to the fact that each side of a conflict believes that their perspective is the correct one.

Wise took early retirement from the federal government. Merchant still works full-time.

Around May, Merchant and Wise looked at resources to help them grow their business and discovered SCORE Southern Maryland. She reached out to the organization, and Michael Gallagher immediately initiated a conversation.

Gallagher has been a SCORE mentor for a little over 10 years after using their services in his own small business.

“I like to pay it forward, and I have a lot of experience, mostly in sales and marketing,” Gallagher said. “I ran my own business for a while, and I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I just get a lot of pleasure from helping people.”

Clients can request SCORE mentors specifically for their experience, and others are assigned. In either case, prospective clients fill out an online form so that mentors can get a sense of what clients need.

“I found that pretty much 100% of the time, whatever they write down on the request form is just a smidgen of what they really want,” Gallagher said. “The more you talk, the more you get to know them, the more they open up.”

Gallagher takes somewhat of a hands-off style, preferring to send relevant information to clients when he finds it and leave the door open for clients to ask for help.

“It’s a matter of style. I don’t like to impose my will on people,” Gallagher said. “I can say, ‘Hey, I’m here for you whenever you need me, but I’m not going to give you homework or an assignment.’”

Gallagher also tells clients about events and platforms for small businesses to find resources and customers.

“I talk to all my clients about the chambers of commerce, not just one in particular, a couple,” Gallagher said. “Last year, the SCORE people, we went to a couple of them, and they were really amazing ways to network and (do) speed dating for business.”

Merchant appreciates Gallagher’s network and his experience.

“He has made himself available at any time that we wanted to meet or have another conversation or bounce an idea off him. He would be there to support us and give his perspective as somebody who has his own small business,” Merchant said.

As she gets deeper into getting her business off the ground, Merchant has also started using SCORE’s other resources more.

“We’ve slowly been going back through and looking at different things … some of their online workshops on certain topics, now that they’re more relevant,” Merchant said. “There’s so much coming at you right at the beginning, you don’t really know where to start.”

Over the past two years, Gallagher has noticed a significant increase in requests, from one per month to at least one per week.

“I don’t know why there’s the net increase, or if it’s just me,” Gallagher said. “It might have something to do with our locality and the fact that I’m on the website.”

SCORE is always looking for new mentors.

“We have young, old, different demographics,” Gallagher said. “I’m still working. So, it’s not like you need to have a lot of free time. Just have something to offer and like giving back. When we get together at our meetings, you can see that everybody’s style is different.”

To learn more about SCORE Southern Maryland, go to www.score.org/somd.