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Start A Business Roundtable And Offer Free Small Business Advice

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Get Out And Participate In A Business Roundtable

Do you ever feel like you spend all of your time working; and much of that time completely alone? Do you wish you had someone to run a few ideas by? Think about putting together a business roundtable.

Of course you have heard that the more you give the more you receive. A well run business roundtable is a great example of this. It is a gathering of small business owners where issues pertinent to each person in the group are discussed, providing each of them with great input.

As the facilitator, you can choose the topic to be discussed each time or something that we have found works even better is to ask a few people at the meeting what issues they are currently having and discuss them. This ensures that your discussions are geared toward exactly what your attendee's issues are right NOW! You should be able to address the current concerns of three or four people at each meeting and as a group, come up with solutions that are valuable to everyone present.

Many small business owners work crazy hours and often don't know where to turn for help and advice when they need it.

Times are tough. You can't afford to pay for advice each time you run into a problem. Why not put together your own group of small business owners. Who better to offer advice than someone experiencing similar issues? Read on to learn more about how this works.

When Is A Business Roundtable A Good Choice?

With all of the various types of groups set up to assist small businesses, you first have to understand what your needs are.

  • Are you looking for people to market your product or service to?
  • Are you looking for a venue to share your experiences and learn from others?
  • Are you looking for someone to tell you step by step what to do?

There are networking groups popping up all over the place but you are wasting your time going to everything out there if it is not really going to give you what you need.

Let's look at what each of these different opportunities offer you. Let's say that you need some help closing a sale. Let's see what forum might offer the best help with this problem.

  • Networking Opportunities - BNI or a similar types of spin offs
    There definitely is a benefit for practicing your elevator pitch and networking with other small businesses in order to let everyone understand the product or service that you are offering but this is not the setting to present an issue that you are having. (If networking does present a value to you, beware of the range in costs to join some of these groups.) Networking very well may lead you to some customers, depending who your market is but it may reach a point where you are seeing the same people each time you attend and you haven't solved your problem.


  • Online Forums
    Do you ever really know who you are talking to or even what makes them an expert? You enter a question and then wait for people to find your question and offer their opinion. It is great if you have a question on a procedure and someone is able to offer line by line directions for you but learning how to close a sale cries out for a discussion which is difficult in a situation where the discussion starts and stops continuously.


  • Membership Organizations
    What is their goal really? Is it to help you or are they more concerned about the membership dues being generated? After all, they are businesses themselves. I joined a large national group with thousands of members because I was convinced that there was a great forum used by everyone and that I would have a great opportunity to offer GoldLatch.com. I joined and quickly learned that their forum was horrible; no one used it at all. I very quickly ended my membership loosing money and time in the process. They may offer seminars and workshops designed to offer you help in different areas but the topic will be the luck of the draw. Even if there happens to be something offered on a subject that you have interest in, a speaker will likely be doing all of the talking., It certainly will not be designed to specifically help your need.


  • Chambers and Similar Groups
    Their events are getting more and more to be an employee benefit. At times, it is a challenge to find an actual owner of a business in attendence. Employers send their employees to business after hours functions for the free food and the great perks. A seminar similar to what might be offered at the membership organizatons above might occur but is it really going to be geared to exactly what YOU need? In general, the dues for sole proprietor companies are close to the same as they are for the largest companies in your town. They are not really doing much to welcome you in, are they?


  • A Business Coach
    I know that they are out there but how do you know if you have found a great coach unless you spend lots of money and time first to find out? If you are lucky enough to find a coach that can help you it will cost you, and quite possibly a lot. Does your coach have actual experience in the area that you need help? Have they first hand experienced a situation similar to yours? Especially in a one on one setting, you will most likely be able to discuss exactly what you need help with but does the coach have the best answer for you? A coach can be great to keep you on target to reach goals that you have set if you have a difficult time doing this yourself.


  • SBA, SCORE And Related Organizations
    These groups do have some great opportunities to obtain excellent information. They offer free one on one help from both business owners and retirees with business experience. It is crazy not to completely take advantage of this great service. If you are in need of legal, accounting, marketing or whatever kind of help, they can put you together with people that have great knowledge and very likely have gone through what you are currently experiencing. If there is a downside, you can imagine that this is so popular that it is difficult to schedule an appointment. The hours they are available are during the day and times are changing so quickly that they may not be as up to date with technology, social networking etc. as you may require for the best help.


  • Master Mind Groups
    There is a great possibility that you will find the answers that you need from a Master Mind group. If you are not familiar with these, they are extremely organized with strick rules to follow. They are made up of a group of 7 - 11 small business owners and they meet at least 1 time for each of the members in the group, usually once a week. Each meeting, 1 person is singled out to present all of their issues and everyone concentrates on just that one member's issues. Everyone must commit to be at every meeting in order to be fair to everyone.

    But, what if an issue that you would like help with comes up after you've had your turn? Or what is you are unable to commit to every meeting? It's a great idea but still not perfect.


If none of these are the right forum to find answers to what you are experiencing, then where can you turn?

What Makes This Such A Great Option For Small Businesses?

Recently, in our business roundtable, someone actually asked for the group's help to figure out how to close a sale. Following is the basis of what we discussed as well as another issue presented during the same meeting.

  • A question was posed about how to close a sale by a person that sells a system to help save electrical costs in the buildings of small businesses. He described his sales process which first included the need for an electrician to do quite a bit of measuring in order to know what size system the business would require. The electrician required that the customer sign an agreement promising that if they did not purchase the system within 30 days following the date that the measuring was performed, they would pay him for his time. What was happening was the poor salesperson was trying to close his sale starting with a negative; almost a threat. He was trying to sell a product that would undoubtly save the customer money in the long run but from the beginning was forcing the customer to make a decision within 30 days or else.

    Most people at the meeting, having this described to them for the first time could imediately see the problem from the customer's perspective and the conversation started. The problem was pointed out and the conversation then proceded to, okay, so how do we get around the negative, forcing the customer to purchase or else? The sales person had great input and a few ideas to try out.

    The next meeting, everyone was curious to know if their advice was helpful. In fact, the sales person explained that he was able to bring in another electrician that didn't require a signed guarantee. All he wanted was to be guaranteed the job if the customer decided to make the purchase. Problem solved.The sales person was able to sell 3 new systems before our next meeting.

  • Another problem was presented from a web developer. She felt that she was putting her name, logo and phone number all over the place but was never getting any calls. One person pointed out to her that neither her company name or her logo gave any indication of what her company offered, so why did she think that anyone would call her phone number?
Somethng so obvious, yet when you are so close to the problem, you miss the obvious. No ones feeling were hurt throughout our conversation. Although everyone acts extremely professional, everyone throws out what is on their mind in order to help as much as they can. It becomes a fun challenge to all do our best to provide something that will truly help the issue presented.

Now that I've showed you how well it works, let's talk about how to set it up.

Start Your Own Small Business Roundtable Today

Offer Help To Your Local Small Business Community And You May Find That You Recieve Help In Return

Follow these steps and start your own business roundtable:

  • How can you find participants?
    Get to know other small business owners in your area at the following locations and see if any of them would be interested in attending your meeting.

    • Attend free or low cost networking meetings

    • Volunteer to substitute at BNI meetings. (they are required to either attend meetings every week or send a substitute - you can attend 2 meetings at each location as a guest before you are required to join but you can help the members out by offering to substitute for them if they can't make it. As a substitute, there is no limit to how many meetings you can attend.)

    • Attend free local chamber events - Many chambers of commerce let you attend 2 meetings before requiring you to join. Others welcome all area businesses to their "business after hours" events to bring in as many people as possible as a bonus to their members. Google your local chambers to find their websites and check out their calendar of events.

    • Talk to small business owners that you currently do business with.

    Ask their permision to update them by email as you get the meeting put together. If you find someone with a lot of interest, see if they are willing to partner with you. I have 2 partners and it really helps to share what little work there is in, allows you to miss an occasional meeting if necessary and they are likely to know different people than you do which will help build your list of possible attendees.

  • What is the best way to keep everyone in touch?
    • I subscribe to Constant Contact. (get a FREE 60-Day Trial here) for my business newsletter. The cost is based on the number of contacts that you have so you can send unlimited numbers of messages to different groups of people. I simply created a group made up of the people that requested updates for the roundtable and send out reminders prior to each meeting.

    • We also had a request at one meeting for help in creating a blog so we actually set it up right at one of our meetings and we often do blog posts about what we discuss at our meetings. It helps people that are not really familiar with blogging to get some practice and is a great way to share helpful things that we find pertinant to small business issues.

    • Of course you can create a group email list and send out a simple email to start with. This is fine as long as you do not exceed the number that your email provider allows.

  • Where can you meet?
    We meet at a beautiful inn just a couple of miles from my home. They don't charge us for the use of the great room that they make available to us. The inn is historic so the character of the building is great. The room is set up boardroom style with a historic flair with one large table with 14 chairs and extra chairs located around the perimeter of the room. They provide coffee, tea and ice water and are happy to provide everything for no cost to us. Of course, we gather in their pub many times after the meeting for a late dinner or at least a drink so we have become great customers of theirs. Some other places that you could consider are:

    • Your local library or town hall may be willing to give you a room if the time of your meeting is convenient to them.

    • Local restaurants that have a private room or that may not be open for breakfast may be willing to let you in prior to their opening time. They are probably there getting everything set up anyway. They may assume that many of your attendees will stay for lunch.

    • Senior Housing facilities are a great place to consider. A local networking group near me uses the activity room of a senior housing center and often the seniors pop in and join the meeting. It is the goal of the retirement home to keep their residents as much a part of the community as possible and this is a great way to accomplish that. Also, the seniors can often offer their advice based on their past experiences.

    • Many large grocery stores and your larger chain stores have training rooms for their employees that they are willing to let you use when they are not.

    • Your local bank may have extra meeting rooms available. Again, if the time that you choose to have your meeting is convenient for them, they may welcome having you there.


  • When and how often should you meet?
    Since I work a full time in addition to running GoldLatch.com, I have to meet at night. I also travel some in my full time job. Even though I do my best to avoid missing meetings, sometimes it just can't be avoided. That is where having a couple of partners really helps. We all back each other up.

    We realize how precious everyone's time is so we decided to limit our meetings to no more than 2 times a month. We felt that once a month was just not often enough. Also, no matter what night you choose, it will be bad for some people that would really like to attend. By offering it 2 times a month, if someone has something on the 2nd Tuesday of every single month and that is one of your dates, there is a chance that they will be available on your second date.


I hope that I have given you valuable information to help you start a business roundtable of your own. If you have questions or comments, please leave a comment below or feel free to send me an email. I would love to offer any help that I can to make your business roundtable a complete success.

Let Me Know If You've Tried Something Like This

I'd love to get your thoughts and learn what has worked for your business.

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