What to Expect
The Peer to Peer Collaborative is a not-for-profit initiative which seeks to support the growth and development of Vermont 's small business sector. We work with businesses located throughout the state in major industries such as biofuels, agricultural products, forest products, and manufacturing.
You can expect a professional, confidential and supportive relationship between you and your Peer Advisor Team. While your Team won't always tell you what you want to hear and obviously can't make the tough decisions for you, they will ask you thoughtful questions, provide useful tools for making key decisions, help you to further define and develop your role as CEO, and give you honest feedback stemming from their years of experience of being in business.
The first step in engaging the Collaborative is to contact Executive Director, Ellen Kahler, to schedule an initial face to face meeting to learn more about your company and its needs.
After mutually deciding to work together, we will conduct an organizational audit to determine the unique and critical issues facing your company. Then we will assign a high quality Peer Advisor Team to fit your needs.
Your Team will meet with you over a nine to twelve month time period and will help you to address the critical issues facing your company as you manage anticipated sales and/or job changes. Work sessions with your Team generally last 3-4 hours, once a month. Sometimes the full Team meets with you, and other times a Team member may meet one-on-one with you or with another key person on your staff.
At the completion of the scope of work, we will conduct an evaluation of the process with you to ascertain lessons learned and to identify next steps for you and your company. If you want support beyond the six to twelve month period, we can assist you in creating a permanent Board of Advisors.
The staff of the Collaborative provides essential support--scheduling meetings and taking care of other special needs--so that work sessions are efficient and maximize the time spent with your Peer Advisor Team.
What does it cost?
Clients are charged a $8,000 fee for engaging the Collaborative, paid in installments after elements of the work have been performed. This fee typically covers 24 person sessions with your Peer Advisor Team. A person session usually lasts 3-4 hours. To keep our fees affordable to small businesses, we raise additional funds to underwrite the cost of our services from the Vermont Training Program, individuals, corporations, private foundations, and in-kind resources. To further understand our fee structure, please contact us.
Note: Our fee structure can be modified -- providing fewer or more person sessions as dictated by your needs. Most Peer Advisors spend 6-10 hours per month focusing on the needs of their Client business. Thus, our rates are actually well below market cost.
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