Small Business Mastermind

Welcome To My Small Business Mastermind Blog

I'm pleased you've made it to my Small Business Mastermind Blog.

This will be your guide to mastermind groups for small businesses and will also promote the small business mastermind groups I facilitate.

Let me introduce myself, my name is Paul Simister and I am a business coach based in Birmingham in the UK specialising in finance, strategy and marketing in a combination I call profit coaching. I best known as the author of the Business Coaching Blog - one of the biggest resources for small business on the Internet.

I am a believer in business advice and I spend a small fortune each year increasing my knowledge and skills so I can give my clients what they want.

However I know some small business owners don't want to get advice from so called "experts" - instead they want to exchange ideas with other small business owners who are actually out there doing it.

That's where a professionally facilitated mastermind group comes in.

You get to share ideas, issues and problems with your peers and get their feedback, advice and support.

What is a Mastermind?

It was Napoleon Hill who has popularised the concept of the mastermind group and he learnt of it from his sponsor Andrew Carnegie and the other 500 top entrepreneurs and innovators he interviewed before publishing Think And Grow Rich.

Napoleon Hill defined a Master Mind as:

"The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people who work together toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.

Finance Director Mastermind

A new mastermind group will start in January 2011 for financial management professionals who sell their services to SMEs in the UK and particularly those who act as part time finance directors:

Qualified accountants invited to join will be working as:

• part time Finance Directors
• part time interim finance professionals (it's a huge mistake to think interim means full time)
• management accountants in practice
• financial management consultants
• finance coaches working with business owners
• finance trainers
  
• particularly commercial chartered and certified accountants in practice i.e. the focus on their work is on added value services and not the compliance work of routine accounts preparation and tax filing.

The group is limited to just seven members so places will fill up fast.

For more details of the Finance Directors Mastermind please see:

Part Time Finance Directors Mastermind on my part time FD blog.

Mastermind With Jeff Walker & Frank Kern

Mastermind groups are big news.

In the last few days, two of the biggest names in Internet marketing have announced that they are starting new mastermind groups to work with a small number of successful entrepreneurs.

At the moment you have the chance to join either

Frank Kern’s Mastermind

Jeff Walker’s Mastermind

Provided you can afford it.

I am sure either (or both) will be fabulous experiences and give you and your business tremendous energy for improving profits in 2011.

If you are active on the Internet and sell or want to sell information products and you’d love to be in a mastermind but you don’t have the money to join the mastermind groups created by Frank and Jeff, then I will be starting some new groups shortly for a much more affordable price.

Join my email list for details.

Preparing For Your Mastermind Hot Seat

In the virtual masterminds I run, each mastermind member has their own few minutes in the spotlight each week to get feedback from the group.

However I also offer the opportunity to have an extended mastermind hot seat (or is it hotseat) where the spotlight is shone on the member’s business for much longer.

Normally these would be scheduled for an hour but when things get hot… and everyone is happy to continue, then they can.

I found this nice article by Lara Fabans on what to cover in your hotseat.

1. Your achievements
2. Your stumbling blocks
3. Your opportunities
4. Your commitments

You can read the article at EzineArticles if you’d like to know more about preparing for your mastermind hotseat.

Why Join A MasterMind Video

Michelle Scism, known as “The Results Lady” is CEO of DecisiveMinds.com.

She has put together this short video explaining the mastermind and references The Magic Ladder To Success by Napoleon Hill (this book was written 7 years before his more famous Think & Grow Rich).

Masterminding For Business Video

I found this video from Laura Waage talking about the benefits of joining a mastermind group.

Small Business Mastermind with Dinner

On my main Business Coaching blog, I have written about a new mastermind group which meets over dinner called the Executive Village.

See The Executive Village

I think this is a great idea for anyone in the UK who wants to give the mastermind principle a try.

New venues will be opening during the next few months but at the moment, the Executive Village meets in Bedford, Glasgow, Sheffield and Reading.

And did I mention that as well as the chance to get ideas and feedbacks on your issue, you get dinner.

Have You Tried Executive Village?

If you’ve been to an Executive Village meeting, then I’d be very interested to hear what you think so please leave a comment.

Mastermind With Sir Richard Branson

If you could mastermind with anyone, who would it be?

If you said Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, you are in luck.

In 2008, 2009 and again in 2010 Richard Branson has joined Joe Polish in a mastermind on Richard Branson's private island in the Caribbean.

How cool would that be?

It does come at a price - $40,000 although there are discounts for partners. MOney raised after covering the costs of Nectar Island go to Virgin Unite, Sir Richard Branson's charitable trust.

For more details see the Centurion Mastermind 

Business Owners Are Great Learners

I was reading an article about leadership coaching and development in the Belfast Telegraph (it came up in a Google Alert) and I found this quote and thought to myself how true.

“Owner-mangers and entrepreneurs lead very busy lives but they are great learners and are often astounded by the improved performance that can be achieved by taking time out of their businesses, with other business owners and immersing themselves in a learning environment for a short period of time."

It was said by Mervyn Nelson, Managing Director of EXCELUS Leadership Development Programme of the Queens University Management School and while it is intended to promote leadership training, I thought it was a great quote to sum up the small business mastermind experience.

Mastermind Groups Good For Start Up Businesses

Interesting article in USA Today on the 4 start-up mistakes you must avoid.

It includes not having a great team.

It seems there are 20 million one person businesses in the US and if you are too independent, you don't have anyone to give you feedback and share ideas.

There are different solutions but a mastermind group is one of the ways to build a "board of advisers" for your business.

Networking Is Not Masterminding

I talk to some entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses who think that masterminding and networking are the same.

I can understand the confusion because there is some overlap.

When you mastermind, you are networking because you strengthen the relationship and bond with your mastermind partners.