Short answers, on purpose. If yours isn’t here, send it through the Contact page and I’ll answer it myself.
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 where small business owners get help from other owners: every week, a room full of owners works your problem with you. Owners only, nobody pitching, $19 a month.
The Small Business Owners Community is where small business owners get help from other owners: every week, a room full of owners works your problem with you. Owners only, nobody pitching, $19 a month. Founded June 1, 2020, by Pat Miller. Nationwide, on Zoom.
$19 a month. No setup fee, no contract, no other tiers. Cancel whenever you want.
Sponsors, the conference and the weekly show carry most of the cost, so membership stays at $19 a month for every owner. Sponsors follow the same rule as everyone else: help first, nobody pitching.
If you show up to one Idea Slam a month and bring a real problem once a quarter, you’ll get more than $19 of answers out of it. If you join and never show up, no.
The Idea Slam is the SBOC’s weekly meeting where a room full of small business owners works one owner’s real problem with them, live on Zoom. Every Slam is written up, anonymized, for members only, so the room gets smarter every week. Any member can bring any business owner to one Idea Slam as their guest. No permission needed, and nobody pitches the guest.
Yes. Any SBOC member can bring any business owner to one Idea Slam as their guest. No permission is needed, and nobody pitches the guest. To keep coming after that, the guest joins.
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.
You don’t need to be. The SBOC serves small business owners nationwide, and we’re proud to have members from all over the country, with more joining every day. The Idea Slam meets weekly on Zoom, so you can join from anywhere.
In the SBOC, an owner brings a real problem and other owners work it with them. Nobody pitches, there’s no referral requirement, and the one thing you need to join is a business you own.
It costs $19, 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.
An AI gives you an answer. The SBOC gives you owners who’ve run into the same problem in their own businesses and can tell you what happened when they tried to fix it.
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. Twenty-two years in radio, then a business owner, and the host of Businessing, the weekly 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.
Courtney
SBOC member
The Small Business Owners Community is where small business owners get help from other owners: every week, a room full of owners works your problem with you. Owners only, nobody pitching, $19 a month.