407. Entrepreneur support groups — pt. 2

Yesterday I discussed the existence of entrepreneur support groups, these a organisations created for entrepreneurs to share their troubles and gain advice and support from one another.

I’ve had a glimpse at two different levels of these groups. The first type is open to pretty much anyone who wants to pay to be a member; the second is for larger entrepreneurs, such as those who have a turn over of at least $1 million per year.

I must admit that there are some stark difference between the two. For simplicity I’m going to label them Upstarts (the one open to anybody) and Big Players(the group for larger revenue entrepreneurs).

The Upstarts are brave folk. They fight everyday to keep their business afloat and they are always striving for new business. Part of the purpose of the group is to introduce your other group members to you customers/clients if they happen to be looking for a particular service.

The Big Players are already pretty successful. They want to take their businesses from the tens of millions to the hundreds of millions. They are a lot more relaxed as they already have a stable business and they enjoy the perks of this. They are their to support one another as opposed to help generate business for one another.

The Upstarts are from a wide variety of ages and seem to lack the refinement of the Big Players, who in contrast tend to be more towards the older end of the age spectrum and have the confidence and charisma you’d expect from a successful entrepreneur.

I’m not sure where the Upstarts stand on self-development but learning plays a very big role in the Big Players community. The meetings of the Big Players are also a lot more structured, there are a lot of roles within the support group that they take up voluntarily, and there is a strong focus on social events. I haven’t seen this in the Upstarts groups that I’ve interacted with.

It’s quite inspiring to spend time among the Big Players. It certainly raised my awareness of where I need to improve if I want to get to that level, as opposed to being an Upstart (I’m not actually a member of any of these kinds of groups). I definitely want to level-up and seeing the Big Players has given me additional motivation to do so.