Joining a Peer Advisory Group has been very beneficial to many business owners. Its lonely at the top, I can’t share certain confidential details with my employees, or my banker without scaring the hell out of them. My husband is very supportive but not being involved in the business and does not understand the full extent of problems I face.
Having a confidential group of other business owners to meet and talk with is a great way for the business owner to get support and knowledge for their business. Sometimes I know the questions and sometimes as a friend of mine who also owns a contracting company likes to say: “I don’t know what I don’t know”. He also once told me “it’s a lot of pressure to be right, if I know everything”. I had never thought of that before.
Successful business owners have a desire to keep learning and keep improving their companies. We don’t have time to go back to school, but we should make time to join a few groups like our trade association. While trade associations focus on the specific industry and its details, they often present business speakers we can learn from.
Also consider joining a Peer Advisory Group that just focuses on the business of business. Peer Advisory Groups are groups of business owners of managers and business consultants who get together on a regular basis to learn from each other on various business topics.
From my group that I have been a member of for over 12 years now; I have learned many things such as: how to setup my accounting systems better; how to do employee reviews; how to hire the right employee the first time; and how develop training programs for my employees. This only begins to scratch the surface of what I have gotten from these other business owners.
Peer advisory groups you could consider joining include: Constructus Mastermind; Crankset Group or Vistage.
Consider joining your professional organization for your trade and though typically most topics relate to the to industry