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One of the hardest management skills to accomplish when you are self employed is to discipline yourself to achieve your business goals. The smaller the organization, such as a business of one, the harder it becomes to accomplish. Small business owners normally lack a higher authority to submit their goals and to follow the progress of those goals. A peer group decidedly is an excellent vehicle to fill that void. Large organizations, that require goals as a policy, normally have systems that follow an employee's achievements and adherence to goals. However, supplementing a large organization's system to assure personal success with your own peer group positively doesn't hurt.
A peer group should be made up of approximately four individuals, serious about success. Members of a peer group can be from a mix of small businesses and large organizations. Members do not have to be in similar businesses.
Each member prepares their business goals and submits them to the peer group, not for approval, but for guidance.
After each member finalizes their goals, a tracking report with appropriate headings must be prepared. This becomes an excellent tool to interact with the peer group. For instance, if one of your goals is to write ten letters each week to your network base, to stay in touch, then a tracking report with weekly headings easily shows if you are achieving that particular goal. Other appropriate headings that allows fair measurement of the progress you are achieving with other goals is agreed upon within your group.
The peer group must meet regularly, monthly as a minimum. Scheduling the meetings at the same time, at the same place adds discipline. Each member presents their progress by reviewing the goals via the tracking report.
Our group, which meets every month, choose to call ourselves "The Goal Diggers." We have found that we work hard on accomplishing our goals as we do not want to be embarrassed in front of the group. Peer pressure works! Accolades, positive feed back, assistance and constructive criticism are all part of our meetings