How To Save Time, Money, and Frustration While Solving Problems and Developing Skills With Your Peers
In this article, I'd like to share the benefits from the experience of someone who has seen real measurable benefits that far exceed the cost in time and money for being part of a facilitated peer group.For many people, the ideal way to get the most out of their Strategic Conversations peer group is to have us manage it for them!

"Don't Look Toward the House!"
At a recent trade association annual meeting, I was asked to do an afternoon "breakout" session with a group of fifty business owners and their spouses. The subject matter, "Creating Shared Goals" among the owners of a family business, with a particular emphasis on "how do nice people like us get in a situation like this?"

Profile: John Jowers, www.AntiqueAppliances.com
When John Jowers went to work at his fatherīs appliance company, he never thought it would lead to a sideline business restoring antique refrigerators. But at www.antiqueappliances.com, these "cool" appliances are doing a hot business on the web. A Strategic Conversations allows a yourger business owner to 'hook up' with more senior successful business owners - since none of us have the time, energy, or money to make all the mistakes ourselved.

Developing Effectiveness in Business
Being the owner, successor, or manager of a business is, of course, rewarding. But it is also an overwhelming and often isolating experience. This is particularly true in small to mid-size businesses: Owners can become more and more isolated with every new challenge, lacking an impartial and confidential place to frankly discuss the issues and concerns of his or her company. One of the best ways to handle that isolation is through peer groups.

A Synergy of Business Strengths
Often two organizations produce a sum much greater than the efforts that either organization can accomplish on its own. This case study shows that careful business decisions, based on Strategic Conversations can result in a synergy, if you will. A blending of complementary companies with diverse strengths, into a dynamic, rapidly growing organization.

www.NathanKimmel.com and Carol Kimmel Schary, Los Angeles CA
Nathan Kimmelīs business began in his garage and grew through hard work and a reputation for quality. His spirit of entrepreneurship, and his simple philosophy of how to do business, live on in his daughter Carol, who has taken this family business out of the garage and into cyberspace.

Profile: Alexander & Hornung
Bernie Polen is guiding a fifty-year-old family business through many changes: The incorporation of Internet technology, balancing inovation with tradition, and encouraging company growth at a time when the role of small family businesses in the meat industry is uncertain.

"We Can't Talk Here!"
Uncertainty is the most devastating stress that people face. If you hold it in - it will erode you physically, emotionally and/or spiritually. This leads people to just get "fed up" one day and blurt something out in a desperate attempt to ease the pressure. These off the cuff conversations are usually emotional, often confrontational and they often lack the groundwork to be truly productive.

Building Powerful Family Brands
This in depth article written by Dr. Dan Elash describes the opportunities, possibilities, and the steps for building and/or extending your brand on Main Street. Branding is not just for the household names - it is what will keep your organization vital as today's customers are replaced by their successors and your leaders are replaced by those whose objective in to continue the company into the future. Branding is your insurance for the continued success over the very long run.