TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2007

Help 101

How to get the business smarts that will help your company grow

Q I am a surgeon and recently opened a medical spa. So far we have done well, but being a physician I don't have the experience to grow the company. I feel I am at a point where this can really fly, or might just flounder. Where can I quickly learn the ins and outs of business? Barry Summers president, Thrive Integrative Medical Spa in Lincoln Park Photo: Steven Karl Metzer

Your symptom is a common one, Dr. Summers: Plenty of other entrepreneurs have an idea that works, but not enough business experience to grow a company beyond the daily grind.

Take Mark Morris. The 39-year-old dentist started his Lincoln Park practice four years ago. With no previous business experience he made lots of initial mistakes, like hiring undependable people and running out of money.

Once he got a handle on hiring, firing and managing inventory, though, he built the Dental Salon to 11 employees, including himself and three other dentists. A year ago, he arrived at the same crossroads: Now that the company was profitable, how could he take it to the next level without formal business education or experience?

Here's what he did.

Step 1: Make time. Dr. Morris cleared his schedule to concentrate on running his business. (For more on how to do that, read our earlier column: How to be a CEO.) Entrusting the daily tasks to someone else — whether it's payroll or seeing patients — is the first step to freeing up the few hours you'll need each day to work on your business chops. Once you've made the time, you can get started.

Step 2: Get help. "Above all, get an adviser," says Tom Long of Oak Brook-based Solid Oak Consulting, who helps small and medium-sized businesses develop growth strategies.

Not a mentor you have lunch with every couple months, he says, but an adviser you can call with any question, any time of the day — someone who will hold your hand through the big decisions involved in growing a business.

What should you look for? Someone with at least a decade of business experience. This person doesn't have to be from your industry. If you manufacture toys, for instance, you can find someone from the general manufacturing industry.

You also want someone who has good contacts, and access to a rich network of resources. "There's no business owner I know who can do everything, so having access to others is key," Mr. Long says.

And finally, find someone who isn't close to you. A friend of a friend is okay, but stay away from friends and family whose judgment can be clouded by hopes of success for you.

Step 3: Find them. Ask fellow business owners in your industry who they use for advising, then ask those advisers for referrals. You can also call trade associations or business organizations such as your local chamber of commerce or the U.S. Small Business Administration, and ask if any of their members are willing to become and adviser. Or you could also go the more costly route and hire an executive search or consulting firm.

Once you find one, you'll most likely have to pay for the adviser, because you want them around for one to two years. But Mr. Long says offering an equity stake in the company or bartering — trading your service for theirs — can be cheaper options.

In the meantime, hit the books. Dr. Morris read Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It," which Mr. Long also recommended. "I thought no one would pay for a consultant again after reading that book," Mr. Long says. He also recommends Jay Conrad Levinson's "Guerilla Marketing" book series.

And don't forget the Web: Dr. Morris joined an online forum where he could talk anonymously with other dentists about the ins and outs of running a practice. "I could ask business questions there and get a response fairly quickly from people who had been there before," he says.

Finally, formal business education isn't a bad idea, either. You don't have to sign up for a full MBA to take a business course or two offered by universities such as the University of Illinois-Chicago and DePaul. Now that you have the time, of course.

In the end, Dr. Summers, you'll never feel completely prepared. But that's also a part of entrepreneurship.

"Even after all I've learned," says Dr. Morris, "I still trust my gut more than anything."

Additional reporting by Christina Galoozis

©2007 by Crain Communications Inc.