WOMEN OF THE ROUND TABLE - Flying solo no more: Business owners swap advice via Board Forum

By ANDREW LaVALLEE
The Patriot Ledger

For Maggie Melanson, developing menus for her low-fat catering business, Gimme the Skinny Inc., was no problem - after all, she lost 45 pounds following her own healthy eating regimen.

The accounting side of the job, however, posed challenges.

‘‘I knew nothing,’’ she said. ‘‘I couldn’t read a profit and loss (statement), and that’s the absolute truth.’’

In 1999, a year after starting her Norwell-based venture, Melanson began meeting with 11 other women to discuss their businesses. She became more comfortable with bookkeeping. Members pressed her to plan how to double her sales. She learned to keep food costs at no more than a third of her budget.

Who cares that the advice dispensers were an interior design firm president, a wig maker and the owner of an industrial heat-treating company?

‘‘It doesn’t matter if you sell food or widgets,’’ said Melanson, a Hingham resident. ‘‘Business is business.’’

The Board Forum, the flagship program of Growth Strategies for Peak Performance, arose from its beginnings with members of the Commonwealth Institute, a Boston-based CEO mentoring group. Founded by Laurie Kirk, a management consultant based in Plympton and president of Growth Strategies for Peak Performance, The Board Forum has annual membership fees.

‘‘I found that there were common questions asked by CEOs,’’ she said. ‘‘I began to bring groups of CEOs together at round tables, and it expanded from there.’’

The purpose of The Board Forum is to provide a confidential ‘‘board of peer advisors’’ for its members. Entrepreneurs, flying solo by nature, especially benefit from the meetings.

‘‘The smaller the company, the more hats that owner is wearing,’’ Kirk said. ‘‘When you’re an entrepreneur, you can get isolated and really caught up in the fast pace.’’

Board Forum members, she said, benefit from the group’s small size - -and the history they share. This Board Forum, which is on the South Shore, has 10 members. Except for one member who joined the group just over a year ago, all have been part of the group since 1999.

Forum member Marylou Sandry, founder of Hingham-based Marylou’s Coffee, provided signature pink cups of Marylou’s coffee at last week’s November meeting.

In business since 1986, Sandry operates 19 coffee shops. Last week, she talked about the challenge of making sure the coffee tastes the same at each cafe. The Board Forum suggested better training for her staff as a way to meet this challenge and proposed that she work with a training specialist. The Board Forum also suggested that she recognize top employees in her company newsletter, and even invite business school students to analyze and recommend solutions for the chain as a case study.

Sandry said the helpful hints, contacts and general attitude that ‘‘there is an answer to this problem,’’ are what make the group so valuable.

‘‘They listen, they hear what I’m saying, and they direct me,’’ she said. ‘‘I lean on them.’’

In October 2004, Claire Herlihy, owner of the Milton-based Frame-It Studio & Gallery, opened another store in the Pinehills community in Plymouth.

‘‘I wasn’t sure if I could do it, or if I wanted to do it. The group just said ‘go for it,’’’ she said. ‘‘Not in so many words - they would never tell you what to do - but it’s such a supportive group that it happened that way.’’

But it’s not all warm and fuzzy. Members follow up with one another at each meeting to make sure problems are getting resolved.

‘‘Any kind of problem that you may have, you better fix it before the next meeting, because they’ll be all over you if you don’t,’’ Herlihy said. ‘‘It makes each and every one of us grow.’’

Kirk said members try to help their colleagues manage their growth plans.

‘‘You don’t want to grow so fast that you can’t keep up with it,’’ she said. ‘‘But you want to be completely aware of your competition and the need to continually grow and be profitable.’’

To join the original Board Forum group, a person must have a business that takes in a minimum of $500,000 in revenue annually, Kirk said. The range in the group is $500,000 to $13 million.

There are four other Board Forums in Massachusetts and Maine, with a total of 35 members. Although this South Shore group is all women, the other chapters have male and female members. Revenues vary per group. One group has company’s with revenues from $2 to $10 million, one from $5 to $25 million, and one that is about to launch with revenues from $25 to $80 million. Teams made up of two facilitators co-facilitate these groups.

With a chamber of commerce in many South Shore communities, as well as many networking groups based on region, profession and gender, The Board Forum still provides something unique, several members said.

‘‘I don’t tell chamber members my problems,’’ Sandry said. ‘‘These women know my problems. I don’t share that with just anybody.’’

Andrew LaVallee may be reached at alavallee@ledger.com.

Copyright 2005 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Tuesday, November 22, 2005