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Archive for the ‘Peer Groups’ Category
Peer Groups for Business Owners
Where can a small business owner turn when they need advice or help in making critical business decisions? Many financial institutions offer help in the form of small business solutions packages and many communities have small business or merchant associations that meet periodically.
Another way a small business can grow and learn is to create or join a Peer Advisory Group. This is a group of small business owners from diverse fields who get together on a regular basis to solve problems, share ideas and best practices and offer support to each other.
Being small business owners is the common denominator that constitutes the label of a peer group.
It’s important to have a diverse group of business owners so as to be able to foster openness without fear of competition. Similar businesses can participate if there is plenty of geography between and they are not in direct competition with each other. Ideally though, a diverse field of merchants will bring the most variety of input to everyone.
Here are some of the ways a Business Peer Advisory Group can help:
- Handle Personal Issues: Small business owners are limited in sharing personal issues. With a peer advisory group your peers are in the same situation and have a high degree of empathy
- Sounding Board: A peer group acts as an informal board of directors and an opportunity for real-world experience sharing.
- Overcome Isolation: It can be a very lonely being the owner of a small, growing business. Your friends and family do not understand the issues you face. You cannot confide in your employees. However, every business owner in your peer group has the same sense of isolation and can offer support.
- Improve Odds of Success: Business success takes vision and insight. Your peer group can help you turn your focus away from the day-to-day issues and look at the bigger picture that can have a major impact on your company.
We at No Nonsense Conference can help you put together a solid group to interact with. We can help you with the selection and invitation process and facilitate the interaction. There isn’t anything wrong with being an independent business owner, but there certainly isn’t any reason why you have to do it alone.
Peer Group Participants Exceed Baseline Expectations
Everyone has always heard about a great idea or a great plan to make something better. While these ideas are exciting and look great on paper, often times the excitement fizzles and it turns out the results on paper end up being less than impressive.
Understandably enough, this tends to create a bit of apprehension when it comes to getting someone on board with a great idea. Smart people want proof. Smart people want to see things in action and they want to see results that are going to knock their socks off. This is why they are smart people. It’s a very good thing.
Great ideas and great plans need time to develop and then they need time to prove themselves. To have a great idea and great plan live up to the expectations from the beginning, it takes patience and it takes perseverance. Lucky for you, my friend, we have spent the last 10 years patiently pursuing and fine tuning the art of Peer Group Development. And the results are most impressive on paper and in person.
Here are some documented results of what a successful peer group can do for the baseline numbers in sales expectations. These are results from a specially selected peer group from within a company that worked together to mentor and advise each other on techniques and disciplines within their day to day job responsibilities.
• Member number 1 of the group, an experienced rep, is selling at 133% of their previous performance
• Member number 2 of the group, an experienced rep, is selling at 123% of their previous performance
• Members number 3, 4, 5, and 6,of the group, all fresh new reps with no previous history, are at 170% of their baseline expectations and one went on to receive an astonishing 486% of baseline.
Those are numbers that show we walk the walk AND talk the talk. That’s what you want to be looking for when you hear a great idea or plan; proven results and the documentation to back it up.
photo credit: lumaxart
Peer Group Facts
Benefits of a Peer Group:
Personal interaction
Solid friendships that last beyond the support group
Minimal cost/Maximum results
Minimal participants needed. (6 participants and 1-2 facilitators is ideal)
Works well for people with limited schedules
What a Peer Group Provides:
Opportunity to share ideas and challenges
Opportunity to set and meet goals
Positive reinforcement and encouragement
Brainstorming with others of a like mind or profession
The opportunity to pool resources
Peer Groups are NOT:
A place for competition amongst the members
A place to complain and vent about frustrations
A place to rule or boss others. Everyone is equal.