Peer Group Program
THE JamesCominSolutions PEER GROUP is available only to association management companies in western US states, so if that’s you, listen up.
WHAT IS A PEER GROUP AND WHAT GOOD WILL IT DO ME? The JamesCominSolutions peer group is actually a combination of peer group and consulting services. The consulting part is discussed below. Regarding the peer group, the value is extensive. Peer group value addresses many “old adages” in a very positive way. Here are a few “old adages” and some new adages to boot:
- It’s lonely at the top. Don’t you think. I know I did when I was heading up community association management companies. In this industry it is even lonelier at the top. See, you have a lot of folks to be critical of your decisions and your business practices. You have your own team members (yep, I know, probably many are quite supportive but also probably some are not), your clients, both board members and homeowners, and that is a lot of folks (yep, I know probably many are quite supportive but also probably many are not), you have your competitors (well, maybe a few are supportive, but probably most are not). One of the greatest values of a peer group is that you can see that IT’S NOT YOU, it’s the nature of the game. You have a group of people who share most of the same criticisms as you. They also are, just like you, pounded by the difficulties of running a business. Together you reinvigorate and restore confidence in yourselves!
- A group of people collectively know more than a member of the group, always! That is a mathematical truism, right? Ok, technically if one member of a group knows every single thing that all of the other members know, well, then maybe it isn’t so. If you think you are that person, don’t join a peer group……and get out of the industry.
- Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. Each CEO or executive of a management company has strengths and weaknesses. So what do you do to compensate for your weaknesses? Well, sometimes you hire someone who is good at what you are not. But, that costs money and frankly, can be scary. People generally hire people who are much like themselves. Therefore the hole in your collective skillset may persist. In the peer group, since you do not personally pick the peer group members, this tendency does not plague you. You will have interaction with, and access to, folks who don’t have that same hole in their skillset! Nope, their holes are different!
- Community association management is going “big business.” Yep, big companies are being created by merger, acquisition or investment. Big companies in the hundreds of million of annual revenue make it tougher on the little guy……in many ways. These big companies may have 10 or 20 “quarter million dollar brains” on their payroll as compared to the small or midsized companies’ one or none. They have buying power and economies of scale. The JamesCominSolutions peer group is designed to pull it’s peer group members together for strategic “big company” characteristics.
- There is value in knowing people in your industry. The biggest sales, mergers and acquisitions in the industry are done between people who know each other. Perhaps more importantly, the most successful ones are. I am aware of a lot of these which have occurred over the years, and in fact I have been involved in some pretty large ones. Many of them become life changing debacles for one or both parties, but the ones between folks who know each other generally have fared better, often becoming life changing success stories. Whether you are in the waning career years or the early going, it is never too early to be working on exit strategies and growth strategies.
DURING MY DECADES IN THE ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT BUSINESS, I have been in three different peer groups. Each of these were groups of CEOs of non-competing businesses. We would get together at certain intervals, once a month, twice a year, etc. Generally, we would gather for short retreats of one, two or three days. They were good, but not great. We would feel great for those days, sharing best practices, brainstorming “even better practices” and validating ourselves after being criticized and questioned for everything we were doing by our clients, our own team members and by our competitors.. Then we would shake hands (or elbow bump) and head back to our respective home turfs planning to change the world……well at least our little part of the world.
SOUNDS GOOD, WHAT WENT WRONG? Nothing would change. We would return to the hell of association management and we would be relegated to doing the things we had to do instead of the things that we wanted to do and had planned to do. And before you knew it, it would be almost time for our next peer group meeting and because we hadn’t done what we had promised ourselves and our peer group partners we were going to do…….WE FELT GUILTY! And you know what? I DIDN’T NEED MORE GUILT! I got enough guilt in my daily course of events!
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT THAT? The James Comin Solutions Peer Group will be built differently. When we adjourn our face-to-face group meetings and we go over the follow up tasks from the meeting and we assign a name to the tasks……..that name will be Jim Comin. That is right, I don’t have to go home to “the hell that is association management” with a parade of troubled employees knocking on my door and another parade of angry clients “knocking” on my phone and email. So I can take charge of our collective plans.
WHO WILL BE IN THE GROUP? Well in addition to you……there will be a handful of other CEOs or leaders from association management companies in the western states; Washington, Oregon, California, and perhaps Idaho, Nevada and Arizona. I plan for the group to total between 6 and 12, none of whom serve the same market (with possibly some exceptions agreed upon by the affected members of the group).
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST? Not very much. But if you want me to be more specific, a better answer may be, “it depends.” I know that is still not good enough so, the pricing will be geographically specific and will be between $250 and $750 per month. Since we will generally give up a geographic market area (or perhaps more than one) to a member, the fee will vary based on the value of their market areas. For instance, if a company serves Seattle, Bellevue, Everett and other surrounding areas in western Washington, the fee will be at or toward the higher end of the range. While if they serve just Seattle/Bellevue, their fee will be less, probably more toward the high middle of the pricing continuum. If they serve several distinct markets, there may be a fee for each market (i.e greater Seattle and greater Portland). If they serve a small market such as Wenatchee, WA, well they would be at or toward the lower end.
Also, the pricing will be dynamic so if there is a lot of interest from a particular market, the price for that market will rise, while if there is little interest from a market, the price will drop. If there is interest from two companies from the same market or for whom their respective company’s market footprint overlaps, we may all agree to coexist. And, in that case, each will pay a lower price.
WHAT DO YOU GET?
1. One-on-one time. Thirty minutes of on-line or phone consultation per month between you and the JamesCominSolutions principal, Jim Comin, and up to two full day face-to-face meetings per year, at your office. For lower fee clients, their fee may only support one such meeting a year.
2. Discounts on additional service time and JamesCominSolutions products (explained below)
3. Nine on-line group meetings per year of 2 to 3 hour duration.
4. Two Face-to-face two full day group retreats per year. The exact location will depend on the final composition of the group, but they will likely be in Palm Desert California for the winter retreat and in Seattle or central Washington for the summer retreat. Some of the hard costs of the retreat will be borne by James Comin Solutions (right now I am thinking the cost of meeting room, breakfast and lunch). Others will be paid for by the participant (right now, I am thinking these would include travel, lodging and dinners).
5. Follow up from the retreats.
A. Documentation: I would send a summary (i.e. minutes) of the meeting to all members.
B. Group tasks: At the end of each retreat, the group would create a group action item list for my follow up. This list would be simple coordination tasks not detailed projects. So, for instance it may include as one item: “research the outstanding questions related to our discussion about new AR Processing options”.
C. Sub-group tasks: Any major projects that were addressed and which piqued the interest of some members but not others, would be discussed at the end of the retreat. Those that more than one member wished to pursue would be pursued with me taking the lead. This would be things such as, “look into and plan creating an insurance program to sell association insurance to our clients as an ancillary services product.” I would be paid a discounted fee for doing this work which would be further discounted by the fact that each participating peer group member (aka the sub-group for the project) would share in paying my fee. My regular consulting hourly rate is $250 per hour. This fee would be discounted by almost 25%, to $190 per hour for work done for any peer group members. So from that discounted rate, in a sub group, if there are three members in the sub-group, each member’s rate would be only about $63 per hour ($190/3). If there were six members in the subgroup, the hourly rate would reduce to about $32 per hour per member ($190/6). NOW THAT’S A PRETTY GOOD DEAL!
6. Group member discounts. Each peer group member would get a discount on any other James Comin Solutions products or services (in addition to the discount on hourly rates for direct consultative work). This would include 15% off on any product and 10% off on any service type products (while still a member of the group). This would include any of the other products or services currently listed on this website, and others which may be added over time.
If this sounds good enough to explore deeper, first click on the black button to see an availability map. If your region(s) appear to still be available, then click the white button to discuss the details (including pricing) for your inclusion in the JamesCominSolutions peer group!