Business Advice Alternatives

Can Collective Wisdom
Transform Your Business?
Business Advisory Alternatives

If you are a business owner or CEO,
How would you respond to the following statements?
I am confident that I consistently make the right
decisions for my company.
IknowexactlywhereIwanttotakemycompany;
and achieving this vision will help me achieve my
personal vision of success.
The advice I receive from my current business
advisor(s) is objective, diverse, experienced-
based and in my best interest.
When I develop plans for my business, I stay
focused, I am accountable and I consistently
achieve my goals.
Having worked with over
15,000 small- and mid-sized
businesses (SMB), our experience
is that most business owners get
a bit uncomfortable when these
questions are asked.

As a business owner or CEO, you probably want to:
®® Increase your income and improve equity in the business.
®® Focus your time on strategic initiatives you enjoy and have
quality time for family and friends.
®® Know where to find employees, how to make sure you make a
“good” hire and how to keep your top talent.
®® Resolve partnership or family business issues objectively.
®® Know how and where to invest your dollars so that you can
drive growth and profitability.
®® Increasethevalueofyourbusinesssoyoucanexitthebusiness
when you are ready.

Yet, most business owners do not know how to go
about pursuing these aspirations. Or, if they have
a vision and strategy, they get caught up in the
day-to-day of the business and cannot break through
to accomplish their vision of success.
There are two types of business owners
1. Those who go it alone
2. Those who leverage the experience of others
If you fit the latter mold, whose experience do you rely
on to take you business to the next level?
Decisions don’t happen in a vacuum; the best ones
rarely come from deep pondering in isolation. They
happen when people learn from and draw on the
experiences of others.
Harvard Business Review
Beyond the Echo Chamber
“TAB has helped me to
developmystrategicplanning
‘muscle’ which has led to the
implementation of several
successful strategies to grow
my business. I’m happy to
reportthatTABhashelpedme
to improve my small business
tenfold!”
Mike Greene
Greene Moving and Storage, LLC
Manchester, CT

Board of Directors
Chamber of Commerce
Online Resources
Family & Friends
Business Consultants
One option will be to hire your own board of directors. Can
you interest a strong group of business experts to advise your
business—and afford to pay them?
Another option is your local Chamber of Commerce.
Chambers of Commerce are a great resource for networking,
but you’re not going to get serious advice to improve your
business from the chamber.
Therearesomegreatonlineresources,blogsandforumsthat
you can participate in. But it takes in-depth discussions to get
to the heart of your issues. This can’t be achieved through an
impersonal resource.
Many business owners turn to family & friends to advise
on key decisions. Will your family & friends offer objective,
experience-based advice that is in your very best interest?
Business consultants are an option as well. They can be
pricey. But most importantly, once a solution is identified,
who is going to hold you accountable for executing it?
Where do YOU turn for good business advice?

What the BIG Dogs Do
Larger and more successful businesses have substantial advisory
resources to tap into. Not just financing resources but, more
importantly, knowledge resources. Large corporations have boards
of business advisors to help them make better business decisions.
A BusinessWeek article elaborates on these resources:
Entrepreneurs often find themselves so engaged in the daily details of
running their businesses that it can be difficult to look at the big picture,
let alone plan for it. Large corporations often benefit from having an
outside board of directors that can work with the company on a range of issues to take it to the
next level. However, small business owners rarely have the time or financial resources to hire a
board that can give them thoughtful and objective views on tackling problems and coming up with
practical strategies.
If they can have a board of advisors, why can’t you?
The good news is that you can.

Your Own Business Owner Advisory Board
SMB owners can now have access to the same kind of
business advisory boards as larger businesses, at an
affordable price point. The concept is called Business
Owner Advisory Boards.
Business Owner Advisory Boards are groups of non-
competitive business owners who meet regularly
to help each other improve profitability and build a
more valuable company. Members of Business Owner
Advisory Boards apply their collective experience to
offer objective, quality advice to each other.
The BusinessWeek article continues:
“The emergence of business owner advisory boards has become an affordable
option for small companies to sharpen their focus and allocate their assets and
time to improve their businesses.”

Some History...
Business owner advice dates back to ancient Greece,
Proverbs (“plans fail for lack of counsel but with many
advisors they succeed”) and Benjamin Franklin’s “juntas”.
Inthe1930s,businessguruNapoleonHillcoinedthephrase
‘Master Mind’. A business master mind can be defined as
a group of like-minded individuals who come together
on a regular basis to help and support one another to
grow their respective businesses.
Whenaskedaboutthekeytohissuccess,AndrewCarnegie
replied that it could be traced to the “sum total of the
minds” of his business associates.
Common
Business Owner Advisory Board
Topics
“What businesses should we be in…
…How much should we grow…
…How should we compete…
…Do we have the right financial,
technological, and human resources to
achieve our goals?”
Professor John A. Davis
Harvard Business School
“In business, asking questions may
not save lives, but it can save you a lot
of time and money.”
Sir Richard Branson

Business Owner Advisory Boards work because they ultimately result in better decisions.
Professor Stephan Bainbridge of UCLA School of Law authored a research paper titled
Why a Board? Group Decision Making in Corporate Governance. This study cites group
decision-making research going back as far as the 1930s.
Bainbridge writes “numerous studies have found that
group decisions are not only superior to those of the
average member, but also to those made by the very
best individual decision maker in the group.”
Do Groups Make Better Decisions?

Our own research of business owners backs this up.
Our Business Owner Survey reveals that:
®® 76% of small business owners who are part of an advisory
board are predicting a profit increase over the next 12 months.
®® 65% of Board members reported higher profits, compared
to only 41% of business owners who do not participate in a
Business Owner Advisory Board.
®® 64% of Board members trust their advisory Board the most
to provide overall business advice.

Business Owner Board Success Story:
Tough Business Decisions
Try to put yourself in Curt Hahn’s shoes. Hahn runs Nashville-
based company Film House which had a successful track
recording creating TV commercials and two feature films. He
had a script that he wanted to use to create a new movie, but
was reluctant to go forward.
Hahn came to his TAB board to explain his predicament. He
was willing to put his life savings into the project. But he felt
the timing was not right. Hunter Atkins, CEO of the Bank of
Nashville, is on Hahn’s board. He read the script and became a
50/50 investor in the film.
With the encouragement of the board, Hahn went forward
to direct the movie and enlisted Oscar-nominated actor
Brian Roberts in his film Deadline. In fact, several other board
members participated as extras in the movie, getting a behind
the scene look at how a feature film is made.
“TAB is a learning experience
for everybody there. Not only
do you learn how to make your
own business better, it’s also an
introductory course to every other
business type and style that’s
around the table. That’s what I’ve
enjoyed most about it – looking
behind the curtain at other
businesses. TAB affords curious
people like me the opportunity to
do that.”
Hunter Atkins
TAB Member

Why Facilitation is Better
We’veestablishedthatBusinessOwnerAdvisoryBoards
are the strongest asset for helping business owners &
CEOs improve their business. So why shouldn’t you just
create your own business owner advisory board?
Well, why does an orchestra need a conductor?
All the musicians are professionals. They can all read
the music and play their instruments. Yet, the
conductor orchestrates the individual players
to achieve a result that is so much more than
the sum of the parts.
Facilitators are seasoned business advisors who
have seen it all themselves. But, unlike consultants,
who are always trying to give the answer, facilitators
coachbusinessownerstofindtheanswersthemselves.
They keep them motivated and focused to help them
achieve more than they ever thought possible.
MultipliersMultipliersMultipliersMultipliersMultipliersMultipliers
MultipliersMultipliers
Facilitators play a critical role in
the performance of the Business
Owner Advisory Board. We think
of Facilitators as Multipliers. They
know how to harness the
experience, know-how
and passion
s i t t i n g
around the
board room.

A group of 5 to 10 non-competing business owners & CEOs are assembled
into each board.
The boards meet once a month for a fast 4-hour facilitated board meeting.
Meetings follow a structured agenda to optimize the time of each member.
Every member gets a time slice to focus on their specific issues and
opportunities.
The Facilitator guides the discussion. Board members ask probing questions
to get to the heart of each issue.
Board members apply their experience in similar matters to provide input
and advice into each topic.
How do Business Owner Advisory Boards Actually Work?

“I believe in never asking just one person but in
gettingasmuchfeedbackaspossible.Opinions
always vary. By asking several people what
they think, you get many angles and can weigh
them all. This way, you are never considering just
one person’s opinion, so no one piece of advice is
ever truly bad.”
Sir Richard Branson
Members take away a number of concrete suggestions
from each board meeting. And, what we tend to find is
that members learn from the challenges of other Board
members...the multiplier effect.

Extraordinary Results
CEO and Owner Terry May started MESA, a producer of
cathodic protection and corrosion control solutions, 35
years ago. His company has been growing ever since.
In 2012, MESA was awarded the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award…for the second time! The
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, managed
by the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
awarded MESA the nation’s highest presidential
honor for performance excellence. It’s a very rare
accomplishment to win this award once, not to mention
twice.
Mr. May has been a member of TAB for the better part
of 20 years. Since joining The Alternative Board, MESA’s
annual revenue has grown from $5 million to over $50
million.
“Theadvice,criticism,anddirection
thatI’vegotteninmyTABgrouphas
really saved me a lot of heartache.
“At first I wasn’t convinced of
the value of TAB, but I made an
operations decision based on one
of my first board meetings that
more than paid for my membership
in The Alternative Board. TAB Tulsa
has been helping me make good
decisions ever since.”
Terry May
TAB Member

Confidentiality is Critical
“...the confidentiality of the
Board meetings allows me to freely
share my concerns with a group of like-
minded individuals. In the small business
world, there is no other forum like this.”
Richard Almes
UniMedia
Charleston, SC
Once we explain Business Owner Advisory Boards to owners & CEOs, they love the idea.
But some of them raise a concern about sharing confidential information at board meetings.
Confidentiality is critically important to successful Business Owner Advisory Boards.
Your Business Owner Advisory Board should be carefully hand-picked so that competitors,
customers and suppliers do NOT sit on the same board. All Board members should be
required to sign confidentiality agreements.

Qualifications to Become a
TAB Member
Owners, Presidents, CEOs, Managing
Partners – that is, the Decision Maker
Willingnessandabilitytogrow,change
and improve their business
Commitment to attending monthly
board meetings and supporting fellow
board members
Approval by other members of
the Board
Groucho Marx once wrote:
“I don’t want to belong to any club that will
accept people like me as a member.”
In the case of a TAB Board,
the opposite is true.
An Exclusive Community
“I came on the TAB
board knowing that I had been
re-inventing the wheel, and that there were
people who have already been down many of the same
roads I’m on. My other resources never were able to go deep enough
with me to give me the perspectives I needed. TAB makes me a better business owner
and makes my company a better company.”
David Emrich, PostModern Company, Denver, CO

The Boards are Only the Start
Let’ssaythatyoujoinaBusinessOwnerAdvisoryBoardandstartattendingyourboardmeetings.
We assure you that the time you spend at the meeting each month will be the most valuable
time you spend on your business. You’ll feel invigorated after the board meeting and you’ve
picked up several great ideas to pursue.
Then, you go back to the office and next thing you know, you’re caught up in the whirlwind.
These are all the day-to-day activities that take up nearly all of your time – and prevent you
from accomplishing your strategic goals.
At TAB we won’t let that happen!
Your Facilitator meets with you between board
meetings for your own private coaching session.
Your Facilitator is skilled at helping you break
through the whirlwind. He or she will never lose
track of your Personal Vision of Success and how
your business will allow you to achieve this vision.

Achieve Your Goals
“I credit The Alternative Board
formyabilitytosuccessfullypull
offsuchanamazingopportunity
of a lifetime. I am learning so
much about running a business
extremely well. Without a
doubt, TAB involvement is the
best investment I have ever
made as a business owner.”
Ben Allen
TAB Member
Ben Allen of Allen Technology Advising (ATA), had a
Personal Vision. For five years, Allen made it his goal
to find a way to travel to Tanzania for an extended stay
without letting his business suffer in his absence.
In order to do this, he needed to learn how to orient
his business so that it became less dependent on him.
His board helped him re-design his company and the
responsibilities of the staff so he is working on the
business, rather than just in the business.
In 2013, Allen was able to realize his dream of taking a
seven month sabbatical with his family to Tanzania. It
was a rewarding experience of a lifetime, and his return
to the U.S. made it even more so. While Allen was
away, ATA posted the largest profit month in its history.
Additionally, clients raved about the huge improvement
in customer service.

Business Coaching forms an important part of the TAB model and
contributes a strong ROI. An International Coach Federation (ICF)
study on business coaching found a median return on investment
of 3.44 times their investment.
Your monthly private coaching session is the vehicle for achieving
real business improvement. It takes those great ideas coming out
of the board meeting and transforms them into results.
“The TAB Board has helped me stay focused on my real
business issues, not on the day-to-day distractions. As
a sole proprietor, my monthly coaching sessions help
me maintain accountability and focus on setting goals
and meeting them.”
Dave Treadwell, President
Vital Signs
Ho Ho Kus, NJ

In addition to choosing the right advisor, you need the right business improvement tools. Like doctors,
Facilitators need to diagnose before prescribing a fix. Facilitators apply a business diagnostic tool –
think of it as an MRI for your business – to identify gaps and opportunities in your business.
They also have access to strategic planning tools to align your personal and business visions, and
create the strategic plan to achieve them.
Other tools assess the behavioral styles of your organization to improve communication. Training
programs are also available to improve the alignment of your organization; so that the entire company
is working as a team toward your vision.
Strategic Business Tools
“One of the biggest benefits to me has been the strategic business analysis. This
is not something that most of us do regularly or very well. TAB has required me
to continually analyze my business’s strengths, weaknesses, personnel, short-term
and long-term goals. I am able to look at my business from a different perspective.
As a result, I am more comfortable with the direction I am able to provide.”
Bryan Keen
Keen Compressed Gas
Wilmington, DE

Strategic Business Tools
“We’d probably only be about
a third the size if not for TAB, if
we even existed still. I always
tell my TAB facilitator that
he is the reason why we are
where we are now.”
Don Barker
TAB Member
“We didn’t do any planning, we just started doing,” recalls
TAB Member Don Barker. In 2009, Barker joined TAB, which
he says has been a “lifesaver” for his firm BHB Structural
Engineers.
BHB started to participate in TAB’s Strategic Business
Leadership (SBL) process, which helps companies set
strategic goals and put a plan in place to achieve them. At
the end of each year, the BHB executive team meets offsite
where they determine the critical success factors for the
upcoming year. For these, they set goals, strategies, and
action steps to help them reach their objectives.
Barker says that BHB is probably the only engineering firm
in the area that follows a strategic planning process like
SBL. But he also credits it with much of the firm’s success.
“I think we’re the type of company we are because of the
SBL process.”

Having advised over 15,000 businesses over a 20 year period, we have found that Business
Owner Advisory Boards are the most effective for small and medium-sized businesses ...at an
affordable price.
Over time, TAB extended the Business Owner Advisory Board model by complementing Board
Meetings with Business Coaching and Strategic Business Tools.
We are not talking about a silver bullet. Success requires commitment, openness, accountability
and hard work. The most successful owners realize this.
If you are not the owner or CEO but know someone who is, forward this to a friend.
Learn More
Learn more about TAB by visiting
www.TheAlternativeBoard.com

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