We all need our own Board of Advisers.

Bend, Oregon: Meet Jim Schell. He wants you to have an advisory group -- a council of peers -- and he doesn't want you to go broke to be part of it. Some of these groups charge $10K per year. His groups are called, Opportunity Knocks, or OK Groups and they're just $99 for a year. Jim is the thought leader. Instead of retiring -- he is married to a beautiful woman who won't let him age -- Jim decided to give back. He's got his money ... he started and sold several businesses; and though he wrote the book, Small Business for Dummies, he wants to do more to help. He's been our resident entrepreneur since 1995.

Veteran entrepreneur, Jim, says in this show, "No small business owner should feel lonely."  Small business owners join an OK group which meets once a month for three hours. There are groups for business owners in retail, manufacturing, service and home-based business. The owners serve as an advisory board to one another. Meet the participants and see how they work together to solve problems and grow their businesses.

Jim Schell says, "All business problems are generic. You've seen one, you've seen 'em all. Products may be different, services may be different, but they're all generic." He has seen with his own eyes that when he puts a group of small-business people together in the same room, someone else will have had the problem, or the opportunity, that another owner is struggling with now.

The key knowledge gained by every OK member is how to use their financial statements to run their business.  Jim wrote the book on the subject and our episode called, Using Your Financial Statements, is here in our library for you to study.  Let's visit Bend, Oregon and learn what it is that Jim teaches his OK members.