How the Mid-Market Goes Global

As told by Experts who Have Done it

 

I have the privilege of serving on the Supplier Network Committee of an Illinois Manufacturer’s Association  www.tmanet.com .  This past week we hosted our Spring Business After Hours event featuring a panel of owners and experts who have successfully grown businesses by tapping in to opportunities around the world including; Asia, Mexico, Canada, and Europe.  Our panel consisted of:

Mark Miller, Prince Industries – Integrated Manufacturing  www.princeind.com

Bill Smith, Termax Corporation – Fasteners  www.termax.com

Michael Carsella, Previsio Partners – Financing  www.previsiopartners.com

Bob Hess, Newmark Knight Frank Epic – Real estate  www.newmarkkfe.com

John L. Rodgers, Business Attorney, former President Midwest U.S. China Association

Together they addressed a range of critical topics from how best to enter a foreign market, where to locate, how to finance, to how will my current customers and workforce react if I do this.  I was impressed by the practical and straight forward advice the panel shared based on their real world experiences.

Our world is getting smaller and global opportunities closer. I am sharing this summary of what we heard in hopes that it will stimulate your thinking about how you might take advantage of international opportunities you may have to grow your business.

 Are we too small to be successful outside the US?

• 87% of global GDP will soon be from countries outside the US.  There are real opportunities for many US companies to participate.
• Currently 55,000 US companies are doing business in China alone
• The internet now connects you with the global economy; you just need to find your opportunity.
• Initially you may only be exporting but that’s a start. Identify where your best opportunities are before you make larger investments in facilities and people.
• We have seen companies be successful with as little as $400k a year in exports
• It is not about your size, but rather a personal choice you make to do it
• In this global economy, we could not afford to ignore it any longer

How should we get started?

• Across the panel, the most effective way to get started is to follow your customer to these new markets.  That way you know you will have a base of business to build on.
• Talk to as many people as you can, both here and in the target country
• Be sure to leverage government programs.  They are out there, waiting to  help you
• Look for English speaking people who are willing to spend the time with you
• Keep asking questions until you  get answers that make sense
• Do not rely on anecdotal evidence, but get objective help

 

How will this impact my current business?

• Bench strength – Initiating an international strategy will take your focus and initiative away from your current business.  Can your leadership team successfully run the day-to-day operations of your domestic business and keep it growing, while you are lunching this new business.
• Employee Reaction – Have a clear plan and strategy for why you are doing this and how it will strengthen the company.  Then take the time to communicate to everyone.  Yes, there will be concerns about people loosing their jobs so; explain that the majority of job loss in the US is from technology and automation; the purpose is to grow the company not reduce it;  a healthy company makes them more secure, not less.  Then you have to go make it work!
• Customer Reactions – Our customers were pleased. In fact, they would be disappointed if were we not growing internationally.  Only one customer didn’t understand and decided to stop buying from us.

 

Top 5 Watch-outs

1. IP Theft – Do your homework and register your trademarks, patents and any other intellectual property before you start shipping or producing overseas
2. Corruption – It’s out there, be aware
3. Infrastructure – be prepared for variability in utilities like power, water and local services
4. Cost of Quality – Differences in culture, education and capabilities will impact the quality of the work that is produced.  Quantify these differences and build it into your cost structure.  Your customers still expect the same quality from you– it’s your job to figure out how.
5. Leadership – It typically takes longer for xpats to come up to speed than for locals.  There are more and more talented local managers and leaders you can work with in country.  Invest the time to know and train them, both here and there.

Increase Your Personal Gross Margin

In a culture obsessed with technology, information and productivity we rarely find anyone who is not looking for more time in their day.  NEWS FLASH – there is no “more time”.  You only get the same 24 hours as everyone else.  It’s a zero sum game.  The key is how we allocate or invest the time we have.

Benjamin Franklin said — “Time lost is never found again”.

The familiar metaphor of money offers several powerful lessons for how we manage our time.  As a commodity, our time is of ultimate value because we have only a limited supply.  Once today is spent we will never have it again.  Also like revenue, there just never seems to be quite enough.  We can budget our time and we can squander it.  We can invest it with modest or great returns.  And if we spend or commit more than we have there will be problems.

Taking this metaphor a step further, let’s look at margin.  Margin enables a business to move forward.  Without margin a business will fail.  Maybe not right away, but after it has robbed all the resources of the owners, friends, family and creditors it will cease to exist.

We also know that when a factory operates above 85% capacity forgoing maintenance, repairs or improvements, things will start to break down or worse.  If we over schedule ourselves or take on too many obligations there will be consequences.  When we are too busy:

• The quality of our work drops
• We miss commitments – creating collateral damage to relationships, and our reputation
• We miss opportunities because we have nothing left to apply to them
• We get frustrated and burnout.

Definition:   Burnout is not working too hard, but working hard without the results to show for your efforts.  Futility.

We cannot get more time, but if we create or expand our personal margin, not only will we be more effective with our current activities, but we can then selectively focus on new opportunities.  So how do we create more margin in our lives?

Here are four practical steps; two that will create personal margin and two that will enable you to maintain it.    

• Eliminate - Peter Drucker stated that we can eliminate or delegate 25% of what we do and it will not be missed.  Planning, goal setting and prioritization, with regular reviews will identify those activities that can be eliminated or delegated to others.
• Efficiency – Take advantage of tools, technology and best practices to be more efficient.  Calendars, written agendas for meetings, and metrics to evaluate progress against specific goals.  Block time for meetings with yourself to accomplish your highest priority tasks.

 Once you’ve created some margin in your life you want to make sure it’s not eroded by things that will encroach back into your schedule.

• Learn to say No – Set boundaries for what you will invest yourself in and what you will respectfully decline.  Having a personal mission statement will facilitate this.  Manage interruptions.  For example turn off your auto-receive email for a couple of hours so you can complete a task.  If it’s an emergency, they will call your cell phone.
• Get Help – This can take several forms depending on who is available and their level of involvement.  Several options include developing accountability partners; an inner circle of friends or colleagues; or a personal board of directors.  These are people who are mutually committed to each other, will ask hard questions and watch your back.  To get the maximum benefit you must: 
  1. Listen to what they say
  2. Understand it, ask questions if you don’t
  3. Apply what you’ve heard – take action

I hope this has given you a new perspective on working smarter, and the confidence to make the tough decisions so that you can focus your most valuable resource – your time – on what will give you the greatest return.  But here is where the money metaphor breaks down.  Not every return on investment is measured in dollars.  In fact the greatest rewards and the most lasting impact we can make are in the people who are part of our lives. I encourage you to make sure you have enough margin left for them.



Superior Customer Service is no Accident

By Clark neuhoff

We all know it is easier (read “less expensive”) to retain a current customer than to find a new one.  And in today’s uncertain economy no one can afford to lose their good customers.  To illustrate how important this is, consider that as volume declines your top customers represent an even greater share of your business.  If you are struggling to generate new business this year, as many are, ask yourself how would I make up an additional 5% to 15% if we lost some of our key customers?  Now consider that repeat customers are typically more profitable, you can see how devastating it is to lose one of them.

This current weak economy also puts pressure on pricing, but dropping price in an attempt to retain business is a short-term strategy, and is easily preempted by your competition. Plus it creates a host of other problems for your P&L. Before going that route, we suggest taking a hard look at how else you can increase value, and in the long run differentiate yourself from competition.

One way to deliver more value, without cutting into your margin is through better… no excellent, no… superior customer service.  This was made clear to me this summer through the worst customer service experience I can remember followed immediately by four examples of the best customer service.  I was shocked why this company was not more concerned about keeping my business, especially in this weak economy.  I won’t dwell on the mistakes they made because they are so obvious:

• Repeated errors
• Slow to respond
• Never owned the problem – excuses
• Over promised and under delivered – did not manage my expectations

 

Rather I will share the four positive examples because each one demonstrates a specific Customer Service Strategy that can be learned and repeated by any organization.  I trust they will help you survive this difficult economic season and emerge stronger. 

#1 Anticipate the Customer’s Needs This seems so simple but it does take time and attention to the details.  We can anticipate our customers’ needs by watching them, paying attention to their issues, and when we see a need, bring the solution before they even ask for it.  Here’s what happened.  We ordered breakfast in a pancake house and once again our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.  I looked around for our waitress, and as I caught her eye she was walking towards our table. I thought great, I can ask her for a to-go box.  But before I could ask, I saw to my surprise she already had one with her.  A small thing? Yes, but it blew me away because she thought about our needs before we did.  Of course she got a good tip but I also went up to her manager and told him in front of her how powerful that small gesture can be.

#2 Teamwork  Again in a restaurant, where food can be a very level playing field, service is the key differentiator.  Many places can serve a great steak, but this one made sure we knew just how important we were to them.  During the course of dinner no less than eight different members of the wait staff came to our table with drinks, appetizers, refills, cleared the plates and so on.  Only one waitress was assigned to us but the whole team stepped up.  We never waited for anything.  And it wasn’t just our table, that’s how they worked the whole room.  Again, talking to the owner he and his team realized that in this resort community the competition was fierce so they had to stand out.  This was the only restaurant we went to more than once.

#3 Lifetime Value of a Customer This time I had an auto repair that began under warranty but a month later re-occurred right after I went over the mileage.  I went to the Service Manager who graciously called the warranty company who completely stone-walled us.  He then looked up my records and saw that I had been a customer for the last 14 years, since we had moved to the area.  He also asked how long I had owned that brand, which went back to 1983. He then did a couple of very smart things.  First he owned the problem.  Rather than blame the warranty company he decided he would do whatever he could to help me out.  Then he leveraged his supply chain and told me he would contact the manufacturer’s regional rep and see what they could do.  Before I got home, he called my cell phone to tell me that he would cover the labor and the manufacturer would also contribute a portion to the repair.  My total out-of-pocket would only be one forth of the original quote.  Do you think I’ll go to any other dealer?

 #4 Go Above and Beyond The most amazing part of this example is that it comes from my credit card bank!  I forgot to mail my payment one month (all this travel I guess) so I called and they said we could pay by phone and the wire cost was much less than the late fee.  They also said if any interest charges do show up on the next statement to just call back and they would remover them.  So we did but, it was two months later before I got around to calling back – she said yes I see the note on your account and I’ll take off that interest… please hold a moment.  When she returned to the phone she said I also took off the interest for this month and pushed your billing date back 10 days giving you more time to get your check in mail, would that be ok?  I have to tell, I look at this bank in a whole new light.

Anticipate – Teamwork – Lifetime Value – Above & Beyond

These strategies can become habits and part of your culture. Being consistent with such a high level of attention to your customers leaves a powerful impression and sets the bar very high for your competition.

If you have more examples or another Customer Service Strategy that your organization practices, please post your comments here on our blog so we can all learn how to provide superior customer service.

What Makes a Truly Great Leader – From my Perspective

 

By Clark Neuhoff

People find themselves in positions of leadership several ways; hard work, get chosen, sometimes circumstance or luck.  You prove yourself and finally get promoted to lead the division, or a company is acquired and you are selected to run it.  Perhaps you inherit the family business, or it was time to leave corporate America and you buy or start your own company.

But landing in a leadership role does not always mean someone has what it takes to BE a great leader.  Knowledge and skills are not always enough.  We have all known people who had deep subject matter knowledge and breadth of experience, but were not the ones to cast the vision, or the people that everyone rallies behind.  One critical element of all great leaders is wisdom.  While most will agree that both leadership and wisdom are important, they can be equally hard to define.  Recently a colleague of mine John Bell shared with me the first operational definition of wisdom that I had heard.

Wisdom is the ability to see and build relationships, not just with people but bringing all the parts together.

Sometimes we call this “connecting the dots”.  It’s one thing to see what is going on, but quite another to understand why, and identify the implications.

NBA Hall-of-Famer Larry Byrd clearly possessed both talent and great wisdom of the game.  While maybe not the physical abilities of a Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan, he was one of the smartest players to step on to the court.  Right away he would mentally match up the players, identify strengths and weaknesses, then develop his strategy for winning. It was said that Larry Byrd played basketball chess, while others played basketball checkers.

Well this is great for those born with natural ability, but what about the rest of us? How can we develop this essential but sometimes elusive ingredient for success?  Armed with this new definition of wisdom – the ability to see and build relationships – I would like to talk about 1) How we can develop more wisdom? and 2) What gets in the way?

How to Develop More Wisdom

As leaders we have the unique vantage point to see across people, functions, organizations and motivations. The first step is to stop for a moment (each day, or several times a day) and observe what is going on. Look at a given process or department within your company and ask:

• Who talks to whom?
• What information is needed, provided, shared, or withheld?
• How does work flow?
• Where are the bottlenecks?
• Where is the value created?

Then write down what you see, draw pictures with connecting lines if that helps you see the patters.  Set it aside then come back to it.  What else do you see?

These new insights are important but do not make you a great leader.  They show you where and often what should be done.  But the difference between leaders and everyone else is that leaders take action.  Action requires confidence, decisions and the willingness (or desire) to accept a certain level of risk.  A leader knows that not every attempt will result in exactly what you intend – but by not acting you’re dead where you sit.  By taking action you learn either what works or what does not work, and either way you have now gained more wisdom.  With more wisdom you become a stronger leader, your confidence builds as does the trust of your people.  This simple flow diagram may help.

Wisdom → See Connections → Take Action → See Results → More Wisdom

What Gets in the Way of Wisdom

At each step in the process there are several things that can block us from gaining more wisdom.  Here are several blockers that we have found:

Seeing Connections – Not taking the time to look, assuming we already know the answer, looking too deep at the details, missing the forest for the trees

Taking Action – Fear, lack of confidence in ourselves or our people, complacency

Results – Not taking the time to debrief or evaluate what happened

What often blocks all of this from translating into more wisdom are emotional factors.  We already mentioned fear to act, but also the fear to admit we were wrong.  It can be hard for leaders to admit to their people that they don’t have all the answers.  In reality your people already know it, they are just waiting for you to figure it out.  And once you do – and admit it to them – your credibility goes up and their willingness to jump in behind you now takes off.  Closely related to this is our pride.  It takes a certain amount of humility to ask for and accept help, but the only way an organization will grow is for each member to become fully engaged.  It is tremendously motivating to ask your people for their ideas or opinions and then to act on them.  Anger and frustration also get in the way of seeing what is really going on.  Anger focuses our attention and our energy on the problem rather than looking past it to a solution.

Summary

Wisdom is an essential characteristic of successful leaders.  It is demonstrated by the ability to see and build relationships, formulate and take action, then learn from the results, thereby building more wisdom.  What often gets in the way of gaining wisdom is first not taking the time to stop and really look deeply at your business or situation.  Then our pride, fears and anger block our ability learn from what just happened so we can apply it to the next situation.

Here are two things you can do to exercise your wisdom muscles:

1. Practice observing your situation and look for the connections
2. Check you pride and assumptions at the door, and be open to learn

Whether you are a leader in your organization today or aspire to a leadership role, this applies to all of us.  At the very least we are all leaders of ideas and we strive to be market leaders.  For those who carry the further responsibility of leading people, it is our obligation to bring all the wisdom we can muster.

Either Way You Better Be Selling

Earlier this month I attended two very interesting educational events. One was the April meeting of the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC), Chicago Chapter.   As a member of the Chapter board, I assisted in assembling a panel of sale training experts to address “How to adapt your sales effort to be more effective in this tough economy”.  Below are 20 very practical and proven tips that the experts gave. 

The other event was the 2010 Economic Forecast Breakfast hosted each year by my friends and First Merit Bank.  Again we heard from Chief Economist, Brian Wesbury,  deliver his decidedly optimistic perspective on the economy.  His speech shared the same title as his new book It’s Not as Bad as You Think.

We have all come through a very difficult economic time.  This has and will influence how our customers react and buy.  There is a heighten level of fear and stress in the market place, therefore we must be vigilant about building trust and increasing service.  2010 is showing signs of improvement, so there are opportunities to help our customers and in turn grow our businesses.   However we don’t know how long this will last.  So whether you believe we are in recovery, or will continue to struggle in a weak economy you had better be out-selling and out-performing your competition, either to take advantage of the growth or to prepare for the next downturn.  

It’s like the African proverb.  When the lion wakes up she knows that she must outrun all the other lions or she will go to bed hungry again.  When the impala wakes up he knows that if he doesn’t outrun other antelopes, he may not go to sleep at all that night.  So whether you see yourself as a lion or antelope, either way you better be running!!

  

Panel Discussion of Sales Training experts – IMC Chicago April Chapter Meeting

 

How to you adjust your selling approach to this tougher economy?

1. Be more collaborative.  Find and work with strategic partner who are targeting your same ideal prospect profile
2. First make sure you know what your ideal prospect looks like
3. Focus on your core customers – those most important to you, and your core competencies.
4. Recognize that buyers are seeking safety.  Increase your services to them – can’t afford to lose your best customers
5. Leverage technology more – CRM, Linked In, Website are all table-stakes
6. Hold yourself accountable.  Be consistent in you prospecting and marketing. Establish daily/weekly disciplines for prospecting.  Track measurable results, not just sales activities.
7. Ask for testimonials and referrals
8. Re-evaluate the networking groups you invest your time with.  Make adjustments if the ROI is not there.

 How to maintain a stream of work / pipeline

1. Keep picking up the phone. Follow up with people. Don’t assume they are thinking about you
2. Move them forward in the buying process
3. Mine additional opportunities for current customers.  In tough times and busy time, people all have needs
4. Bring quicker hits for your customers.  Demonstrate value right away
5. Given increased uncertainty in the marketplace:
   1. Show how to reduce risk in doing business with you
   2. Understand your customer; do your homework and ask relevant questions
   3. Buying = risk, providing service = a promise. Therefore you must increase both trust and belief in you

Ways to Collaborate for Additional Value

1. Be clear about what you are looking for, draw the picture for your potential alliance partner
2. Be clear about what YOU bring to the alliance partner.  The synergy must help all parties
3. Provide “trigger “ words to help your partners identify opportunities
4. Connect to “witnesses”.  Partners who witness or see your prospects pain
5. Walk before you run. Start slowly with simple projects then move to formal agreement.  Have common values and style
6. Discuss how you will handle problems.  Owen the problem, keep the customer out of it
7. Have a pre-planning session for team selling opportunities

 

2010 Economic Forecast Breakfast hosted by FirstMerit Bank

 

Brain Wesbury, Chief Economist – First Trust Advisors

It’s Not as Bad as You Think

Brain made four key points:

1.  The black swan event (high-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations. – Wikipedia) was not that the US economy experienced a recession.  This has happened before and will likely happen again. The high-impact event was the US Constitution that has enabled our economy and culture, to experience unprecedented growth for 80 of the last 100 years, or 40 of the last 50.

2.  10 measures indicate The Ecomonmy is improving:   

• Change in nominal GDP; Federal Reserve Board
• Real GDP Ex-housing; BEA, First Trust Advisors
• Personal consumption –turned up mid 2009; Bureau of Economics
• 6 month annualized percent change in retail sales and manufacturing output; Census Bureau, Federal Reserve Board
• Copper Futures Price; CMX, First Trust Advisors
• IMS Manufacturing index; new orders and production; Institute for Supply Management
• Payroll surveys; Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Household Survey – Jobs; Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Home Price Index; Standard & Poor’s
• Unemployment rate is high but appears to have tipped; Bureau of Labor Statistics

3.   However, government spending is at an all time high (23.7% of GDP; OMB, BLS).  The gap between spending as a % of GDP and Government revenue as a % of GDP has never been wider. Depending on how the Administration decides to address this, will have an impact on continued growth.

4.   For the rest of 2010, make hay while the sun shines!

Getting the most ROI out of your TMA membership

A few months back I had the privilege of spending the afternoon with our TMA Board of Directors to take a close, hard look at our Association, and give the staff strategic guidance as they develop the 2010 operating plan. In these volatile times, a key focus was to identify the most important benefits that the TMA offers to its members – why do people join? As we all know, the TMA provides a wide range of important services to mid-market companies, like workforce benefits, training, marketing support, and government advocacy. Taking advantage of these services can free up the business owner to concentrate on their primary task of generating sales, producing products, and building their team.

While this certainly has significant value, there is an even greater resource here at the TMA that we often overlook. That is the deep knowledge base of the membership. For any business problem or challenge that a manufacturer could face, I am confident that someone of the 1,000 plus member companies and their 8,000 to 10,000 employees have already dealt with it and know the answer. And what is even move valuable is that this community is willing to share and help each other, simply for the asking.

In this tough economy we are all looking closely at every expense and investment we make. Investments are not only dollars but also time, and as a business owner myself, I am even more cautious with my investments of time. You can always get more dollars, but today is only lived once. Uniquely regarding TMA, when you invest even an hour you are investing that time directly in yourself and in your business, and often the return is a multiple.

But it is only through spending time with other members that you can access our deep collective knowledge base. There are many ways to do this. The simplest is to attend one of the many business networking events, like Marketing Day or the Annual Business Conference that just drew over 300 people. Go on regional lunch and plant tours, or have breakfast with an elected official at a member’s plant. You can volunteer on one of the dozen active TMA committees or attend seminars or training courses. And for those willing to commit to a small group of other owners, you can join one of a number of peer groups to learn best practices, help solve problems and build a tight network of trusted advisors.

So like many things in life, what you get out of TMA is only limited but how much of yourself you put into it. We are the best part of TMA so don’t keep it to yourself!

Clark Neuhoff, President of The Sextant Company is an active TMA member and works with businesses to define and execute their growth strategies. www.sextant-us.com clark.neuhoff@sextant-us.com, (847) 680-6550

TMA News Bulletin November 15, 2009 – Volume 66, Issue No. 22 

---

Copyright © 2001, Tooling & Manufacturing Association

Plans without Execution are Pipedreams

 

 As I talk to business owners and leaders about the challenges and obstacles we face in taking our businesses to the next level, one frustration I hear over and over is “I’m just so busy.  Yes, I know I need to put a plan in place…do a better job of delegating…make my team be more accountable…go after that new business opportunity…the list goes on.  I’ve just got too many things on my plate right now.  In fact my business is running me rather than me running the business.  I’m hoping things will be better in a few months.”  Does any of this sound familiar?  But ask yourself and be honest, what is really going to be different in 90 days?  Unless we make some real changes, we will be in the exact same place three months, or three years from now.  And then we have to ask, of all those things on our plates, are they the right things?  Michael Gerber nailed it in his book The E Myth Revisited.

“Once you realize that the purpose of your life is not to serve your business, but that the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life, you can then go to work on your business, rather than in it, with the full understanding of why it is absolutely necessary for you to do so.”

In the next few minutes I will share with you how to improve the effectiveness of your organization and bring back a sense of control over your business and your life.  But you will have to be willing to make some changes.  Our approach is straight forward; it starts with a clear understanding of your unique assets and your situation, specific goals for where you want to take the business, and the gaps preventing you from getting there.  Then the real power comes from a feedback and accountability process that ensures that the right things actually get done – that you in fact EXECUTE.

Opportunities or Distractions

In this hyper-competitive, and information driven market, there is a constant tension between managing day-to-day operations and planning for a sustainable future.  Innovations create new markets while entire industries pass away – remember the VHS tape??  The acceleration of information and opportunities creates two problems.  First, how do we identify the right new opportunities to go after?  Second, how do we stay focused and not drown in the details and distractions that bombard us?

One answer is a simple and repeatable process to assess your current situation; prioritize the opportunities and gaps; and a feedback system to make the necessary course adjustments to stay on track and take full advantage of new opportunities that come along.

Simple as 1, 2, 3……4

It has been said that “A failure to plan is a plan to fail.”  But with things moving so fast and with leaner organizations, we often don’t feel we have the time to stop and think, let alone write it all down.  Even if we do write out a Plan, how do I know we will be able to execute it?  The short answer is – it takes discipline.  It also helps to have some tools and support along the way.  One tool is a team-base process built around answering four key questions: Where are we now?  Where should we go?  How do we get there?  How are we doing?

Working with your team, the answers to the first three questions form the basis of a Plan that will direct and focus the ongoing operations of the entire company.  Step four, How are we doing? is where the real power comes from.  By including your team in the planning process, you share the responsibility with them and improve productivity as you all become united around a few key objectives.  When priorities are clear and people have had a voice, they can take ownership for the results.  The hardest part of execution is maintaining focus on the big issues while at the same time managing the myriad of daily responsibilities and interruptions that fight for our attention.  By establishing a system of regular and structured communication across your team to review progress and address changes, they will learn to hold each other accountable and succeed as a unit. 

An Army of 1

If you are not ready to take this on alone, don’t worry there are several options.  You can build a board of advisors from the experts and suppliers you are currently working with.  Or you can join a group of other owners/executives who will share insights and constructive feedback as you work together to move your businesses forward.  These are referred to as peer groups.  Either way there is help available.

Start making your dreams a reality and execute!