Counselors from the SCORE Association will visit the Los Gatos Chamber site the first Tuesday of each month starting in September and conduct one-on-one sessions to answer questions about running a small business. These sessions are free to anyone, including non-Chamber members, and available by appointment only.

"This sounds like an exceptional resource," said Ronee Nassi, executive director of the Los Gatos Chamber. "The chambers that have it speak very highly of it."

The national SCORE Association was established in 1964 to help small-business development. The Silicon Valley branch, which serves more than 2,000 clients annually, operates with a staff of 70 working and retired professionals who volunteer as counselors in areas such as accounting, business planning, financing, government contracting, human resources, marketing, operations, publishing, retailing, technology and nonprofit management.

"They've had their careers, they've done their thing, and now they want to share it with people," Kristin Davis, executive director of the Saratoga Chamber, said about the counselors. The fact that the counselors want to help other businesses do well rather than hold onto what they've learned for themselves is "very honorable," she said.

Former SCORE chairman Bill Klein, who spent half his career working in top management positions and the other half in electrical engineering, said the work is rewarding for volunteers as well.

"It's a win-win. The clients win, and we win by feeling good about it," he said.

When a new business owner signs up for a free counseling session, SCORE attempts to pair the person up with a counselor whose background matches the area of expertise that the client is seeking. Clients may attend as many follow-up sessions as they wish.

"Those are some of the best counselors, because they can talk from personal experience about what it takes to run a business," Klein said. "It makes a world of difference if you're just getting started."

Business owners looking for ways to promote their company while on a limited budget might learn from counselors' success stories, Davis said.

"When you're in a down economy, you have to advertise yourself more, but you have less money to do it with. So people are looking for creative solutions," she said.

In addition to the one-on-one counseling sessions, business professionals may choose to attend full-day workshops or evening seminars on topics such as business planning, franchising and rules for starting and building one's business. The monthly workshops cost $50 and seminars are $30.

SCORE also provides email counseling and a free business library and information center that carries more than 600 books and journals on small businesses.

Silicon Valley SCORE is headquartered in San Jose, but volunteers also travel to chamber of commerce offices in nearby cities, including Campbell, Cupertino and Sunnyvale, to provide counseling services. Clients do not have to come from the city in which the service is offered.

Sherri Caraccilo, program manager for Cupertino's Chamber of Commerce, sees people from all over the peninsula who come to the Cupertino site. The program has become so successful that all available counseling sessions have been filled nearly every time since the beginning of the year, and Caraccilo has had to redirect clients to other sites.

"Most of them seem to be real happy with the sessions when they leave," she said, adding that some return for additional counseling.

For more information about SCORE, visit http://www.svscore.org. To make an appointment at the Los Gatos Chamber site, call 408.354.9300.