Close friends Jeffrey Busch and Nancy Jack, who both left the workforce to take care of their families, have been getting together for weekly lunch for years. At lunch after a vacation on Nantucket, Busch lamented how much the horseflies irritated him on the beach, and the two started joking about a “Nantucket spider”: the creature they wished had evolved to keep those annoying flies at bay. 




Nantucket Spider now sells more than 10 DEET-free insect repellant products, lovely aromamatic garden sticks and other product extensions.


My successes. 


Update for 2019 - New sales record for the year and now in over 1500 stores up and growing!

How SCORE helped. 

While they had a good product, neither Busch nor Jack had a business background. After learning that Busch had struggled with a business plan template, mentor Barry Skalka asked the pair to step back from the intricacies of a formal business plan, and had them answer questions about their business. Where did they want to see themselves in a year? How did they plan to get there?


Along with receiving help composing a business plan, Busch and Jack also attended a workshop on customer relationship management (CRM) that helped them evaluate potential systems for Nantucket Spider.


Busch and Jack meet with Skalka every four to six weeks. “By meeting regularly, we have a sense that we are accountable, and work hard to do the things we agreed we would do,” Busch says. 

Nantucket Spider

My Mentors