‘PeerSpectives’ Network to help new businesses get to the next stage

New business owners are too busy with the daily operations of the company to step back and think about taking the company to the next level.

Becca Mader

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2004/10/04/focus2.html

(Many thanks to Eric Vines – Associate Director of Programs – Edward Lowe Foundation for passing this along.- Russ)

A new peer problem-solving program called the Wisconsin PeerSpectives Network is an attempt to help busy business owners take the time to think about how to boost their companies’ growth.

PeerSpectives, which will start in Wisconsin this fall, is a combined effort of the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s Small Business Development Center, the Bureau of Entrepreneurship in the state Department of Commerce and the Edward Lowe Foundation, a Cassopolis, Mich.-based nonprofit organization that provides information, research and education to second-stage companies. In PeerSpectives, business owners, presidents and chief executives gather monthly for a discussion on issues unique to their companies. The confidential session, led by a facilitator, is designed to serve as peer advisory group.

"(Wisconsin) really has focused on creating a climate where entrepreneurs can do better," said Tony Hozeny, spokesman for the Department of Commerce. "What we’re looking for is that, ultimately, these second-stage entrepreneurs have a resource so they can continue to grow and create jobs. As these businesses succeed, that benefits the economy."

The idea was highlighted in Gov. Jim Doyle’s "Grow Wisconsin" plan as one way to promote high-growth entrepreneurship. The Bureau of Entrepreneurship provided the program with a $101,250 grant, which will be used for scholarships to fund up to 75 percent of the $1,500 cost for participants.

Twenty-seven companies have registered for the first roundtable sessions, which are scheduled to begin in mid-October at the UW-Madison’s Small Business Development Center. The UW-Milwaukee Small Business Development Center also will oversee roundtable sessions and is still accepting applications for businesspeople to attend.
Targeting second stage

The program is geared toward second-stage companies, or those that have passed the start-up stage but have not yet reached the size of a larger business. To be eligible for the PeerSpectives program, companies must be privately held and generate at least $750,000 in annual revenue, or have that amount in working capital. Second-stage companies have the biggest impact on the economy’s growth, said Mark Lange, executive director of the Edward Lowe Foundation, which developed the concept for PeerSpectives and is providing training for the facilitators. However, those companies often are under served in educational resources that will give them tips on how to finance growth, solve conflict with managers and other employees and address other issues of growth.

The PeerSpectives model is based on a philosophy that second-stage companies learn more from their peers than other educational training, Lange said.

"They trust the information they get from their peers more than any other source," he said.

The roundtable groups consist of eight to 12 non-competing businesses that gather 10 times over a 12-month period for the problem-solving sessions. Each session lasts four hours.

Facilitators begin the sessions by calling for a report from each member regarding either their personal or professional lives. Then two members are chosen to give presentations on current business issues they are facing. Other group members are asked to share their similar experiences.

The foundation developed the model a few years ago, but this year decided to formalize it into a program and license it to individual states, after Wisconsin’s Small Business Development Center network contacted the foundation to explore how it might introduce the concept in Wisconsin. The licensing agreement calls for the foundation to provide a software program that creates an online exchange with members and training for facilitators.

The foundation’s board was impressed with Wisconsin’s efforts toward what Lange called "economic gardening," or devoting money and attention toward helping entrepreneurs and second-stage companies grow. The tendency in economic development in general is toward "economic hunting," Lange said, or concentrating more on providing resources to larger corporations.

The PeerSpectives program was not created to compete with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce’s roundtable sessions and other existing groups, but to serve as a feeder group to other roundtables, said Lucy Holifield, director of the UWM Small Business Development Center.
Sharing similar experiences

Similar to other roundtables, PeerSpectives acts as a peer advisory group for business owners and CEOs, Lange said. In the monthly meetings, members typically share experiences with finance, employee relations, marketing, advertising and other business issues.

One cornerstone of the PeerSpectives model is that the roundtable’s members come from noncompeting businesses, Holifield said. Many businesses share the same basic issues, and the roundtable’s diverse kinds of businesses provides members a fresh perspective.

A comfort level is established by each member signing a confidentiality agreement before participating in the discussion, which allows a more open sharing of information, said Wayne Staats, chief executive officer of eSupport Solutions, a marketing analysis and technology consulting company in Milwaukee. Staats participates in the CEOS of Growing Businesses, a roundtable group within the MMAC, that has used the PeerSpectives model. He recently helped in the orientation session for the Wisconsin PeerSpectives Network

"Usually out of eight or nine talkative CEOs, you end up with some darn good experience," Staats said.

That the group is instructed to share experiences rather than advice also is helpful from a business perspective, said Roger Paulson, former part-owner of Master Coating Technologies, a Minneapolis company. Paulson has since moved to Milwaukee, but while in Minneapolis he participated in a group that used the PeerSpectives model.

In PeerSpectives, business owners aren’t pressured to accept advice from the other members; rather they learn from others’ experiences and apply that to their own decision-making, he said.

"The cross pollination of those ideas can help business owners to advance their learning and problem-solving capabilities," said Neil Lerner, director of the UW-Madison Small Business Development Center. "Those (ideas) will help them grow their companies to contribute more to the Wisconsin economy."

© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.