Anyone who knows me personally is probably sick of hearing me harping on about how amazingly wonderful my business mastermind group is. It started as an idea from the Flying Solo Forums and grew from there with me asking a few people I knew who ran businesses in my area if they were interested in giving it a go. We all run small enterprises and meet once a month to have a yarn about our month in business.

I know this is a fairly popular concept. Valerie Khoo has spoken about it in her enewsletter and refers to the support she gets from her group often. I am such a supporter of this idea as a business tool that I thought I’d share my top 5 reasons as to why you need to have a business mastermind group too.

1. Get real-life solutions to your business problems. Sometimes in business you come across the curly ones. Situations you just don’t know how to approach or you’re not sure what direction to go in next. When you raise these questions with your business mastermind group you invariably get several options to choose from along with a general consensus of what might be the best direction. Case in point, at our last meeting I raised the issue of my new business name and branding. The group members immediately took it on board, set to work on the napkins and threw a few ideas around. I now have my new name ready to go when I am!
2. Get honest feedback on your ideas. When you’re working solo in a business, or you’re the boss and the only decision-maker in your organisation, it’s sometimes hard to know whether an idea you have is likely to be a good one or a fizzer. Because your mastermind group members are all ‘at your level’ you can rely on an honest opinion about your ideas, usually backed up by personal experience or similar situations.
3. Develop a strong bond with other business owners. Although the primary aim of a business mastermind group isn’t to get business, it’s inevitable that the people in your group will become strong promoters of all of the group members. And, because of your regular monthly (or whatever time-frame you set) meeting, they will know a significant amount about your business so that anyone who receives a recommendation about you from them will be more than likely totally sold on you by the time they first contact you. You can’t buy that kind of promotion!
4. Accountability. When you run your own business, whether as a solo operation or as a business owner with staff, you are the only one who sets personal deadlines for your own business. Of course, when we are delivering products or services to clients, we are accountable to their needs and deadlines. But, what about when it comes to propelling your own business forward? You know what I’m talking about, that new website you need, the signage for your shop in a strategic place that will bring more customers in. Your mastermind group allows you to table a task that you’re going to attack between meetings and then makes you accountable for it. And, watch out, they can be pretty tough if you don’t meet your promises!
5. Good old human interaction. This applies equally to solo business operators and those with staff. My group meets once a month at a local pub for lunch on a Thursday. By making the meetings off-site for lunch it forces us to take a social break and just spend time talking with other business owners about business, life, the footy or whatever happens to come up. If you achieve nothing else, at least it forces you to take some time out, reflect, relax and come back renewed.

Getting your business mastermind group together really comes down to your locality, interests and people you click with. Our group has both men and women but you may prefer to have a group of just business women, or business women who are also Mums. It just depends on what works for you. I would recommend limiting the numbers to around 10 though, otherwise you lose the intimacy and value that the group can give you.

A great place to start looking is the Working Womens Network ning site. Hop on there and start a group of your own. List your interests and see who thinks the way that you do.

Alternatively, you could post something on the Flying Solo Forums to see if there are like-minded business owners you can connect with. Or, you could contact several business owners you know already and see if they would like to form a group, along with some people they may know. There isn’t really a set formula, the main aim of the game is to connect with people for the long-term benefit of everyone involved.

Until next time.

Karen

Karen Morris is the Working Womens Network media officer. She runs Inscriptions, a copywriting and PR Consultancy, is a contributor to Flying Solo and is a wife and mother to three active boys. She loves life and work and has an insatiable appetite to learn all things new, especially all things 2.0.

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