Business Leaders’ Family – Manifesto
“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford
Being an entrepreneur can be quite a lonely and challenging journey.
Even when we’ve got employees and business partners there are moments of high pressure, stress and self-doubt when we feel completely alone.
And even when we succeed and achieve our big goals we might realise that we don’t have people to celebrate it with who would truly get what it took to get there.
Often our families and close friends are not entrepreneurs themselves so they don’t quite get the challenges we face.
But there are people who are going through the exact same journey… our fellow entrepreneurs.
I believe that every entrepreneur should have their Business Leaders’ Family (BLF) – a close-knit community of fellow business owners to share the journey with and support one another.
There is a lot of amazing organisations out there that bring entrepreneurs together such as Entrepreneurs’ Organization, YPO or Vistage but they require a minimal turnover £1M+ for members to join.
But the journey to the first million is even harder than from £1M onwards – that’s where we lose the most potential!
There are many great business coaches and accelerators (e.g. Dent) out there but the costs to a small business can be very high or the accelerators take you through a programme and the implementation is up to you.
There is BNI which is fairly affordable but I feel with its focus on referrals it’s very transactional, salesy and rigid. It’s great if you provide a service everyone needs (Accounting, IT services, Website Building) but businesses that are more niche or sell to bigger organisations won’t see as many incoming referrals.
The ultimate role model for the BLF is an organisation that’s not primarily about entrepreneurs – Toastmasters. A global network of self-running local clubs where members support each other in improving their public speaking and leadership skills.
As a member for many years I saw again and again how the structure of Toastmasters predictably helped members grow their skills regardless of where exactly they were on their journey. And through sharing our stories and our ups and downs we became a family.
Plus the cost of Toastmasters membership is very affordable (membership in our club in the middle of Mayfair only cost around £200 per year).
I believe we need a version of Toastmasters for Entrepreneurs.
And that’s what the Business Leaders’ Family is.
It is a place where we: Connect, Learn and Do.
- Connect: BLF is a curated network of business owners – if you come to one of our meeting you know that you will meet committed and ambitious entrepreneurs who love to share, learn and give to others. You know you won’t be pitched and preached at. Our door is too small for big egos.
- Learn: There is a lot of knowledge, experience and value in every entrepreneurs’ mind. At BLF we share these insights, why having to learn everything through trial and error when we can just listen to someone else who has just walked the same path?
- Do: Working together is one of the best ways to connect with others. Break the sweat, share the experience, help each other become more effective. We come together to work on our businesses – be it Linkedin posting, online co-working or goal setting. By doing that we provide each other with accountability to do the important work.
At BLF we focus on building strong relationships because we know those strong relationships will lead to business success. It can be in form of a game changing advice, an introduction, a partnership or maybe an investment.
But the greatest value is the relationships themselves – the feeling of belonging to your tribe that gets you.
The vision is to make BLF available to as many business owners as possible.
Do you want to help make it happen?
