Orange County Register

The recession has small-business owners scrambling for ideas about surviving, solving specific problems and improving their own skills.

They can get all that from their fellow business owners says Richard Franzi, president for Renaissance Executive Forums for north Orange County and author of Critical Mass: The 10 Explosive Powers of CEO Peer Groups.

Groups like Renaissance, Vistage (formerly TEC) and Convene (formerly BBL Forums) are CEO peer groups in which 10 to 15 top managers and owners in noncompeting businesses meet regularly to share ideas and insights.

CEO peer groups prove the axiom: the sum is greater than the parts, Franzi says.

In recent studies, peer group members said these groups:

• Improve company profitability, 64%
• Increase sales 19% to 43%, 56%
• Increase in productivity, 60%
• Are relevant to all businesses regardless of industry, 80%

In addition, an MIT Sloan Management Review surveyed members of CEO peer groups and found:

• 100% agreed membership improved their company’s performance
• 100% obtained new knowledge
• 90% were able to improve organization in their professional life
• 88% developed clearer performance benchmarks

If you have a tip, resource or strategy to help small businesses, send it to me at jnorman@ocregister.com. If I use it, I’ll give you credit and link to your web site.

Other small-business tips…

• Which businesses continue to thrive?
• Do greeting cards build business?
• Join social network, plant a tree
• O.C.’s first Innovative Showcase today
• New business guide has advice for tough economy
• How to bulletproof your success
• Active listening a business must
• O.C. shines despite venture capital downturn
• Nine secrets your business banker doesn’t want you to know
• Learn business strategies at your desk

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.