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Join a support group
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January 1, 2000: 1:12 p.m. ET
Smart owners seek advice, like an entrepreneurs support group
By Jane Applegate
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Entrepreneurs have a very tough time admitting they need help. But the smartest entrepreneurs aren't too proud to seek outside counsel and objective perspective.
There are many groups set up to function as self-help or peer counseling groups for troubled business owners. San Diego-based The Executive Committee or TEC, as it is known, has been around since 1975. Until recently, it focused mainly on big business, but now the group has a program for smaller companies -- organizations that have been in business for three years or more with at least $3 million in revenues and 25 employees.
The by-invitation-only organization created the "TEC for Emerging Entrepreneurs" program with more than 200 members in 13 states. There is a one-time enrollment fee of $400 and dues of $450 a month, billed quarterly.
Each group includes no more than 14 CEOs from noncompeting industries who can afford to spend $5,400 a year on peer support. For more information on TEC, phone (800) 274-2367.
Ray Silverstein, a Chicago-based management consultant and former business owner, runs an affordable alternative to TEC called the President's Resource Organization, or PRO.
He manages and counsels nine groups around the region. Ten to 15 business owners each pay a one-time initiation fee of $750, plus $3,000 a year to meet one morning a month with Silverstein and each other.
Subjects range from sex discrimination to cash bonuses and incentives. They also share their current problems and solicit suggestions from each other. These entrepreneurial groups comprise an amazing cross section of Midwestern small businesses.
For example, PRO 1997 members included a real estate attorney who owns a bathroom accessories business, a general contractor, a T-shirt silk-screener, an auto body shop owner, a printer and a man who audits the cleanliness of restrooms at franchises.
They're all doing something completely different, but they face the same challenges -- managing people, products, marketing and money. Silverstein said their revenues average between $2 million and $5 million a year.
"The biggest concern of our members is managing time," said Silverstein, who owned two companies before selling them and devoting himself to helping others succeed.
Beyond time management looms the issue of managing business growth.
For more information on joining PRO, call (773) 244-1585.
(Excerpted from 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business, Copyright 1998 by Jane Applegate. Published by arrangement with Bloomberg Press. Excerpts appear each Saturday on CNNfn.com.) 
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