Contact Us
| Business Group mailing address 369-B 3rd Street, #387 San Rafael, CA 94901 415-491-1896 tel 415-459-6472 fax |
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Our Company
The Business Group gives small business owners a resource often reserved for execs of large organizations – problem solving and accountability from savvy independent peers. Since 1984, we’ve worked with way over a thousand business owners.
We combine resources all small business owners need:
— Our tools improve management skills and help you tackle the challenges of running a growing, profitable business.
— Our business owner groups harness the power of a group of peers, and help relieve the isolation of running a small business.
We’ve built up quite a library of exercises, templates, workbooks, and books by tackling the day-to-day problems of business owners for twenty plus years.
Even those who use our tools on their own often take advantage of our forums that bring business owners together—starting with our free monthly teleseminars.
OUR PHILOSOPHY OF BUSINESS
- Growth. Business growth is not an end in itself, but a way to achieve other important personal values: stability, wealth build-up, making a desired contribution to the community.
- Profitability. Profitability is the signal that you are doing a good job, and it is the engine of growth and creativity.
- Ease. Business needn’t be a constant struggle. Your business works best when you work smoothly and without undue stress.
- Balance. Set your business up so that you have the desired balance between business and the rest of your life, and between the various things you do in your business.
- Satisfaction. You are in business to do what you love and what you do best. If you’re not doing this, why put up with the hassle?
- Integrity. Your business is a reflection of your core values. There is no reason at all why your business can’t combine high personal integrity, satisfaction, contribution to your customers, and great prosperity.
- Community. In today’s world, business—and especially small business—is central to our sense of community: the relationship of businesses to each other, businesses to customers, employers to employees, and businesses to the surrounding community.
- Humor. Let’s not take all this too seriously. We’re here to laugh and have fun and enjoy ourselves. We try to convey this in our books, starting with the illustrations.
- Sharing and learning.We believe in the Power of the Group. We don’t know all the answers. We would love to hear from you.
Mike Van Horn, MBA
President, the Business Group
Mike Van Horn is America’s small business expert.”Jim Horan, author of best-selling business planning book,
The One-Page Business Plan.
Mike Van Horn has advised business owners for over twenty years. His company, The Business Group, leads ongoing problem-solving groups for business owners.“My passion is working with small business owners. It is exciting to work with people who pour heart and soul into their endeavors, and to help them reap the rewards,” says Van Horn. “I like problem solving with people who have a direct stake in the outcome; who will say, Yes! or No! and not ‘Well, we’ll bring it up at the next committee meeting.’”
Mike has worked with the owners of well over a thousand companies. Every one of them thinks his or her business is unique, but when it comes to the barriers to growth, profitability, and ease of operation, Mike points out that all businesses are pretty much the same.
“I hear the same laments over and over again, and the advice I give has been boiled down to a handful of ideas. These ideas are the core of my books.”
His results speak for themselves. 80% of the companies he has worked with have achieved their goals of growth, profitability, and ease of operation. This contrasts with the common statistic that 4 out of 5 small businesses go belly up within a few years.
There are many resources that tell you how to launch a business, but very few that address the question, “Okay, I’m up and going. Now what?”
Mike has an MBA from UCLA—with an emphasis on small business management. He has taught in the business schools at University of San Francisco and Golden Gate University.
Over the years, Mike has started and run a handful of small businesses, some quite successful and others not. A restaurant. A motel. An export management firm. Several real estate partnerships. A company that produced technical conferences. And his current company, The Business Group, which started in 1984.
“I’m sure I’ve made every mistake in the book. So I’m definitely speaking from experience.”
Every piece of advice Mike gives has been tested against the toughest of audiences—small business owners.
“I avoid unnecessary jargon and jazzy concepts because I focus on helping you implement simple ideas that can have real results in your business. When I sit across from you, if I start spouting jargon, I can see your eyes glaze over faster than I can say ‘strategic analysis.’ I use practical and plain language, so that you can go back to work and apply it next Monday.”