Mom and pop businesses can get help from new advice network

Jim Schell is no dummy when it comes to business, but he writes for them.

Schell, who is co-author with Eric Tyson of Small Business for Dummies (IDG Books, 1998, $19.99), has street smarts when it comes to running small businesses. He's started six of his own, and all of them have been successful.

He sold his last business, a sportswear company with $25 million in sales and 200 employees, in 1990 because it got too big for his taste. He likes the small part of small business, the upstart part of running a start-up. And now he's trying to make sure others succeed in small-business enterprises as well. Schell's latest venture is an operation he calls Opportunity Knocks. Headquartered in Bend, Ore., it's a problem-solving organization for small-business owners. He's hoping to export the concept to other cities if he can find people to champion it the way he has in Bend. Modeled after the successful TEC executive committees pioneered by San Diego-based TEC Worldwide, Opportunity Knocks provides a way for small businesses to come together and brainstorm solutions to common problems. TEC runs groups for chief executive officers and presidents of companies with more than $3 million in sales and 25 or more employees. It also has an emerging entrepreneurs group for people running businesses with $750,000 to $3 million in sales and five to 25 employees. The groups gather to give each other feedback and help with problems. Opportunity Knocks is going after much smaller organizations, Schell said. "This is for mom-and-pops." The groups serve as ad-hoc advisory teams for small-business owners, he said. Each circle has about a dozen small-business owners and one professional facilitator. "Trial and error is the No. 1 management tool for most small- business owners," he said. But it doesn't have to be. "Someone is bound to have had the problem before," he said. Bend, a relatively small community with 40,000 people, already has 200 businesses organized into 16 different teams, he said. The teams meet once a month. Participation costs $99 a year. Home business owners are linked together, since their problems are somewhat different than those operating outside the home. Altogether, the 200 businesses employ about 4,500 people. Although they represent a wide variety of types of businesses, the problems they face aren't that different, he said. "The overriding problem in small business is that nobody knows how to get a product to market," he said. Marketing, which includes strategic product development, pricing, advertising and distribution, is always a problem, whether a company is making widgets or selling services. The second major problem facing almost all small businesses is how to deal with employees. Making the transition from a lone eagle to a manager is particularly troublesome for many entrepreneurs. "I tell people employees are from Mars and owners are from Venus," he said. What motivates owners isn't the same as what motivates employees. Employees typically need appreciation, recognition, the ability to feel part of a team and some degree of security, he said. "Those are not the same things that motivate owners." But when entrepreneurs get together, they can help each other troubleshoot and identify their blind spots.

Copyright 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.