When selling a business, how can you get guidance from small business owners in the same situation?  Who can a leader turn to?    A leader must always look the part:  confident and knowledgeable.  The fact is, however, that when you market your small business, you are possibly doing it for the first time and facing situations and options that aren’t taught in any classroom.

How can you make certain alloptions have been discovered and thought from end to end?    The impact of your judgements can be dramatic on you, your family, the business and yourstaff, and theanxiety can be huge.  Who can you rely on that has been in these shoes previously?  One way is through Peer Advisory Boards. When we set up Peer Advisory Boards with a curriculum specifically for transitioning business owners, they are embraced wholeheartedly.  The business owners give and receive a wealth of guidance and support both personally and professionally for each other.  It is a safe haven where other selling small business owners faced with similar personal and professional challenges gather to share experiences and consult with each other in absolute confidence. Group members provide one another objective, high quality, relatedprofessional counsel and direct insights. They hold each otheraccountable to theirobjectives, and are committed to supporting each other’s unique visions for their own future and for selling the company.  Generally speaking, a Peer Advisory Board is a small, carefully selected group of persons who come together on a regular basis to help each other. The contributors may be from one or a variety of companies, small company owners, or professionals in any field. We have led them for company owners, for ‘emerging leaders’ or high performing individuals within one company or in another scenario with multiple companies coming together in the same forum.  We have led them with executives from assorted companies in Europe, Asia and Africa.  In every instance, participants support and engageappreciatively the opportunity to learn from their peers in a safe and confidential environment.

The point of each group is unique because it sets its own targets, agenda and time frame.  It does not have to be focused on selling a business.  No matter what the topic, they help members attain particular goals, solve problems, brainstorm opportunities, exchange best methods and enhance company performance.  Valuable at all levels, for those at the top of their organizations, it is especially so.  When selling a company, they can not only be set up for peer business owners, but also internally, within the company being sold for the company’s top executives. There are multiple rewards for involvement in a Peer Advisory Board.  For instance, instead of accessing the knowledge and thinking of only one individual, as in having simply one mentor, a Peer Advisory Board offers the knowledge of many minds and years of experience.

Byestablishing a think tank environment, group brainstorming and sharing best practices and tools can help solve problems and realize options that otherwise may have been overlooked.This logical, simplified, and pocket friendly method is an wasy way to raise the performance of all participants.  In a company sale situation, ideas and solutions can help to raise company valuation.

Accountability is another key benefit.  The group holds its affiliates responsible to the plans they share with each other.

Often the Peer Advisory Board is instrumental in the advancement of those plans.  They recognize accomplishments, and encourage each other’s improvement.  The group catalyzes achievement by helping expand plans and empower their implementation.   Peer Advisory Boards are a self-designed mentoring program to address problems, issues, and possibilities with others in a confidential setting.   They are a customized outlet for self-improvement, encouragement and amity that is enjoyable and worthwhile. 
Never wait for a mentor to present itself to you, most importantly not during the highly demanding route of selling a small business.   As fellow small business owners wanting to enter a new stage of their life when selling their small business, you will have peers sharing their similar experiences, offering options and methods, and celebrating you getting the best deal achievable.  
I invite you to employ these thoughts during your journey to sell a small business.