3 Ways Mastermind Groups Can Help You Grow Your Business Mastermind groups aren't for everyone, but if you're looking to grow and network, they can be a powerful asset to your business. Here's how.
By Trevor Cowley Edited by Chelsea Brown
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Masterminds have become increasingly popular in the online entrepreneurship space over the last decade. The seeds of mastermind groups can be traced back to Napoleon Hill's book, The Laws of Success, in which he talks about it as "a coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose."
Any business can be considered a mastermind group; they have different departments with different sets of knowledge that, when applied together, lead to the coordination of knowledge and effort. This is why businesses spend so much time on their mission statements and talk about why they're building the business in the first place.
Recently, the idea of mastermind groups has taken a different shape. Successful entrepreneurs will host mastermind groups where they teach their methods to entrepreneurs with less success and experience. Often, they'll bring in other successful entrepreneurs with big names who also have knowledge and expertise to share.
These types of groups can be an excellent way to surround yourself with like-minded people, learn more about aspects of business that you're weak in and allow you to grow your business alongside other entrepreneurs.
Here are three ways a mastermind can help you grow your business and help you reach success as an entrepreneur:
Related: 4 Advantages of Mastermind Groups for Founders
1. Networking
At these masterminds, you're able to form deep relationships with the other members and the hosts. Oftentimes, these events become a place where you can share more about your business and the strengths and weaknesses that you're finding in that business.
When you share more about your business and your struggles, other members can share their experiences with those struggles, and you can often find other people who have been through similar struggles or even whose business solves the problem you're looking to solve.
You don't know what you don't know, and if you're unable to solve the problem, it could lead to stagnation or even affect your personal life because of the stress it puts you under. Networking with other people in these groups can help you solve those problems and potentially even save you from issues outside of your business caused by problems inside of it.
2. Education
Many of these mastermind groups are heavily focused on education. When you're scaling from six to seven figures, you'll run into different problems than when you're scaling from seven to eight figures.
These groups can help you learn the differences in scaling. Sometimes it's about attracting managerial talent over customer-facing talent. Sometimes it's about different types of advertising and how to utilize new social networks to reach your ideal clients.
It might even be about how you can increase your revenue per new customer by slightly changing the way your offer is formulated. These are just a few examples of the types of education I've seen at mastermind events and from the masterminds we've hosted.
Related: Why a Mastermind Group Can Offer You That Push When You Most Need It
3. Personal development
When you get around other entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their businesses, it offers you an opportunity to improve yourself. This is one of the biggest assets that I've gained from attending and hosting mastermind events.
The others in these groups have invested in themselves to be in these groups. The type of people that will invest in themselves do so in several ways. They're often the people that you'll see in the gym before an event and the type of people who will be reading books outside of work.
As you see and surround yourself with these types of people, you'll see that you're also motivated and inspired to do better for yourself and your family. I've noticed that by putting myself around people like Ed Mylett and Andy Friscella, my life has completely changed because I've been inspired to do the inner work and become a stronger man for my family and my business.
Through association, these mentors and friends have helped me to become a better person. They say that your business is a direct result of how much work you've done on yourself, and I wholeheartedly believe that. As I've built myself as a person, my business has also thrived and become much more successful as a direct result.
Related: 4 Things To Consider Before Joining A Mastermind Group
Masterminds aren't for everyone; they're often expensive, not just because of the initial investment but also because of the time and energy that you must put in to see the results that you desire. Not every mastermind group is founded by people with great intentions or with the experience that you need to grow your business, but if you do some research and find the right place for you and your business, you'll find that surrounding yourself with these groups helps you grow personally and professionally by leaps and bounds.
