I recently became a licensed facilitator of the PeerSpectives® Roundtable System, an Edward Lowe Foundation peer-learning initiative for second-stage entrepreneurs. The foundation defines second-stage entrepreneurs as having between 10-99 employees and between $1 million and $50 million in annual revenue. These second stage businesses represent 33% of US jobs. The PeerSpectives® Roundtable System provides many benefits to participating members including objective and relevant input, accelerated learning in a peer environment, improved decision making, and risk reduction resulting in increased profitability. In fact, research has shown that participating members experience an 8% average growth in revenue over their non-participating competitors.

Roundtables consist of 8-12 second stage business owners and executives from non-competing industries who meet 10-11 times during the course of a year to share challenges and experiences involving significant growth issues unique to businesses in this stage. This peer-learning construct is based on the premise that entrepreneurs learn best from other entrepreneurs who have encountered similar challenges and can speak from real life experiences. Each meeting lasts 3-4 hours and consists of members identifying and prioritizing their most pressing challenges and then sharing their experiences and best practices in addressing those challenges. Through peer sharing, members gain insight and learning that helps them improve decision making, performance, and productivity which can take them to the next level of business growth.

My role as the facilitator is to manage the process so that members get the most out of the experience. Each roundtable is governed by a set of ground rules and guidelines to establish an environment where members feel free to share openly with the group, build camaraderie and ensure that confidentiality is upheld. Watch this video for more information on the roundtable process. To join a roundtable, please call 586-588-9815 or send an email to [email protected]. Click here for the PeerSpectives® Roundtable brochure.

 “A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.” – John Dewey

 “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” – Albert Einstein