Before Charleston resident Jeanne Davis opened her new bakery shop on the square, she sought help from the Southeastern Illinois SCORE Chapter – a consulting firm located on Eastern’s campus.

The bakery, called Sweet Tooth Specialties, is located at 605 Monroe Ave. in Charleston and opened its doors in late December. It has seen a great deal of business in that time, Davis said.

“We’ve become very popular, very fast,” she said.

Sweet Tooth Specialties offers a variety of pastries and breads to customers. These include homemade cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, cakes, pies and cookies.

Davis said she hopes to soon add a selection of European breads to the menu as a result of consumer interest.

Because of the location of the bakery – near a college shuttle bus stop – and the menu, Davis believes Eastern students will frequent the shop.

“If they know about us, they’ll be here,” she said.

Davis also pointed to the large concentration of students living in the area as reason why students will stop in.

Though Sweet Tooth Specialties is her first venture into the world of baking business outside her home, Davis provided baked goods for the Charleston community for the past 25 years.

Two years ago, she started a bakery business from her home. With a large amount of regular business, Davis was making more than $30,000 during the time it was open. She eventually decided to move into her own store.

“It was getting to the point when I was going to have to turn away customers or get bigger,” Davis said.

With help from the Charleston chapter of the consulting firm SCORE, based out of Lumpkin Hall at Eastern, Davis was able to procure funding to lease a vacant store on the square and buy the materials necessary to run a bakery.

Davis said the consultants helped her learn how to run a business effectively and how best to bring in customers.

Guy Loucks, SCORE operations coordinator, was the consultant who helped Davis get her business off the ground.

Loucks, who served as a telecommunications consultant for the Charleston community before joining SCORE, said Davis’s enthusiasm and drive to expand her business helped the organization create a business plan for her.

“(Davis) was the kind of client we like to have,” he said.

The business plan included a forecast of revenue and cost analysis of her competitors in the area, the bakeries at Wal-Mart and County Market. The plan also looked at her business’ strengths and weaknesses.

Loucks said the strengths of Sweet Tooth Specialties, compared to its competitors, were homemade baked goods and its proximity to city employees.

He said helping business owners like Davis expand or create new avenues of commerce is the goal of SCORE.

“We’re interested in helping all sorts of entrepreneurs,” Loucks said.

The Charleston chapter of SCORE was created three years ago as a result of a meeting between the dean of the Lumpkin College of business and applied science and Cindy Titus, executive director of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce.

They decided it would be beneficial to Charleston businesses to have a consulting firm like SCORE available to the community.

Loucks said the Charleston chapter of SCORE is a subsidiary of the Millikin University in Decatur; it is, however, a largely independent organization.

Jordan Crook can be reached at 581-7945 or jscrook@eiu.edu.