The Prosperity Circle

In my own business as an accountant and consultant, I found that I suffered a sense of isolation—and a scarcity of creative ideas.  A breakthrough came when a client invited me to attend a group called “The Executive Committee.” It was a group of business owners that met for community, accountability, and creative ideas.

In time, I formed such a group for myself and for my compatible small business clients.  I called it The Prosperity Circle.  

The format was simple.  Once a month, over a brown-bag lunch in a conference room, the group would first listen to a “resource person” who had a good story or idea to relate. Interestingly, we found success and failure stories to be equally compelling. 

Interestingly, we found success and failure stories to be equally compelling

This was followed by a question-and-answer session, showing where the speaker realized he’d made the right decision or taken a wrong turn.  After an hour or so, the resource person left, and the group would spend the next hour focused on issues facing one of the members. 

Finally, the group revisited issues and goals each member had set at the last meeting.  This brief “report” kept them accountable to themselves and to the other members. 

Many small business owners are proud of their independence, and rightly so. But sometimes such independence can be too much of a good thing.  If you are one of these “proud individualists,” please do yourself a favor and try out a business peer group. You may be pleasantly surprised.