Questions About Joining a Small Business Community

A group of people who own small businesses and meet regularly to help each other figure out what to do next. The useful ones are owners only, have a fixed weekly rhythm, and don’t allow pitching. The Small Business Owners Community is one: a $9 a month online group built around a weekly Idea Slam.

An online group for people who own a small business, anywhere in the country. Every Thursday one owner brings a real problem and the group works it live. Founded June 1, 2020, by Pat Miller. $9 a month.

$9 a month. No setup fee, no contract, no other tiers. Cancel whenever you want.

Because the price is a door, not the funding. $9 keeps out people who aren’t serious. Sponsors and events pay for the group, and sponsors follow the same rule as everyone else: help first, no working the group.

If you show up to one Idea Slam a month and bring a real problem once a quarter, you’ll get more than $9 of answers out of it. If you join and never show up, no.

A live, one-hour session on Zoom every Thursday. A business owner puts a real problem on the table, with a real number on it, and owners who share real-world experience work it with them: the mistakes they’ve already made, and what you might be missing. It’s a perspective exercise. You leave with a next step and a name to call.

Business owners. Solo, or a team of twenty. If you sign the checks and it’s yours when it goes wrong, it’s for you.

Employees, people planning to start a business, and anybody whose first move is a pitch. Everyone in the group has something to sell. Help comes first.

Not yet. The group is for people with a business to run, because owners only talk honestly about money and managing people when everyone in the room has done both. Watch the show until you’ve opened the doors, then join.

No. The weekly meetings are on Zoom and members are across the country. The in-person meetups and the September conference are in Wisconsin.

Networking groups are built for referrals, so everyone is selling. This group is built for problems, so everyone is helping.

It costs $9, it’s owners only, and it meets live every week with a fixed rhythm. Free groups have no door, so they fill with people selling to each other.

A mastermind is a small fixed group with one leader. A coaching program is one expert and a curriculum. This is a group of owners a stage ahead of you, working your problem, with no curriculum. Pat runs the room; the owners have the answers.

No. There’s no video library and no modules. If you want a course, there are cheaper places to get one. This is a group, not a shelf.

An hour on Thursday if you come to the Idea Slam, and a few minutes a day if you want to check in. The expectation is to log in at least once per week.

You get a Welcome Buddy, a member who explains how things work and begins making introductions for you. You introduce yourself, and you come to a Thursday. If you bring what you’re stuck on, the group works it.

What you bring to the group stays in the group. The written Idea Slam recap lives inside the community, not on the public site.

Members’ businesses grow by building relationships and earning referrals and new clients. It isn’t done by pitching or trying to sell one another.

There’s a Friday Finish Line, a Wednesday co-working session, a monthly Coffee Club match, and the chat runs all week. Thursday is the heart of it, but it isn’t the only door.

Members who do legal, tech, and bookkeeping for a living, answering the quick question so you don’t sit on it for a month. Not a substitute for hiring them.

Three days every September in Brookfield, Wisconsin, capped at 200 owners. The whole group in one room.

Pat Miller. Over 20 years in radio, then a business owner, and the host of Businessing, the daily show for small business owners. He started the group on June 1, 2020, with fifty founding members.

From your account page in the community, any time. No email, no call.