Masterminding: The Foolproof way of Creating Powerful Startups

This is a guest post from my friend Jaluum Luwiza Herbert. He is an entrepreneur, consultant, speaker and writer who is so passionate about helping people start their businesses. I have known him for a few pretty eventful months where we have clashed on several subjects. There is no question about it: the man is passionate, knowledgeable, and no-nonsense. My kind of guy. In order to wrap up this topic of Master Minding and from the angle of creating businesses, I knew Jaluum would do justice to this message. His credentials are at the bottom of this article. Stay blessed.

“Mastermind Groups”, we have heard of them right!? Some of you are part of one and some of you are asking what they really are. A master mind group is a group of people who share common goals, missions and visions in life that meet regularly to brainstorm, support, encourage and hold each other accountable in their pursuit of their different goals in life. For example it could be a group of start-up C.E.Os, authors, a group of professionals like accounts or bankers and so on.

The idea of mastermind groups first came to the public domain in the 1900s. It first appeared in Napoleon hills book “Think And Grow Rich” where he wrote about the Mastermind principle as:

“The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony”

He continues…

“No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind.”

Personally I have been part of a few mastermind groups as an entrepreneur, writer, business consultant and key note speaker. This has helped me advance in my career and improve myself on both a professional and personal level and most importantly helped me grow my business management and consulting business.

Why Start Up Mastermind Groups?

It is important for us to first examine some of the advantages that accrue from forming a Startup using a Mastermind. Startups are the way to go in Africa and especially in my country Uganda. In 2017 alone, more than 60000 people graduated in one week from just one University. There are more than 20 Universities in Uganda. Where are all these people going? If they do not create Master Minds and start up something constructive in business and entrepreneurship, who will employ them all? No organization I know that has phased out 60000 employees and is looking for fresh blood. None. Not in Uganda, not in Africa and certainly not in the entire world!!

1. One can Chase 1000, 2 can put 10,000 to flight:

This is a Biblical principle that is so obvious to apply in business. We have done this before. We have come together in school and studied for exams and passed them. We have helped our friends get wedded. So what happened after that? It is easier to sustain a startup with a little help from your friends. All we need to do is come together in a spirit of harmony!

2. Combined Resources:

What each person brings to the table in a Master Mind accounts for vast resources that you would have otherwise had to pay for. A good Startup Mastermind brings people who have different skills to coalesce together to create a business. It comes for “free” I insist.

3. Emotional Capital:

We all know that alone, it is easy to give up. United together, one person can lift up another one who feels overwhelmed. I have seen this happen over and over again.

4. Leverage on People’s Strengths:

Alone, you are a jack of all trades…which has it s place. Together though, you release people to do their best in what they are good at. A graphic designer is not bogged down with mind mapping and goal setting…you get the point.

5. Multi Tasking

Alone, you can only do one thing at a time. Together, you can do much, much more simultaneously. This means that you tend to get to your goals faster than when you were alone.

6. No Need to Pay Salaries:

Did I mention that together, you save lots of money that you would have otherwise needed to pay in terms of salaries for the hires you got? In fact, lack of money sometimes can be overcome through master minding. Besides, the combined network of the mastermind group is able to bring up funds to the project than one person could have.

Mastermind groups can be a good way to start up a business as it offers you a resourceful pool of information, real life experiences from other members doing what your trying to do and inexpensive advice that can be of help for a start-up founder.

Starting Up a Business With a Mastermind Group

However for you to be able to get value from a mastermind group or if you want to start a valuable mastermind group, these are some of the things you have to have in mind;

1. Clarify The Vision

Create a mastermind group around a specific topic as this will help you remain focused and objective. It should be some all members of the group relate to and can get value from discussing and contributing

2. Clarify Responsibilities

At times it can be messy to start a business. The key is to start with something that can be improved on. Let each person know what they can. Let the responsibilities be shared. Let the Leadership be defined. Order is the seed for fruitfulness. Take stoke of each person’s strengths. Find out their “buy-in” before allocating responsibilities.

3. Choose your Partners Carefully.

It’s so important to choose your partners of the group so carefully. Make sure all members of the group have some value they add to the group in one way or the other. When it comes to experience, balance the group a little bit by adding some highly experienced in the group to help uplift the other members of the group.

4. Agree on the ground rules:

Make sure there rules that will help keep harmony and objectivity in the group and most importantly help keep the group inline. Things like how many times should a member miss meetings before it raises eyebrows. Who will be doing what ie facilitating,booking meeting venues e.t.c

5. Get Started:

Start by chipping away on little deliverables one day a time. Create some momentum with it.

6. Get A Mentor

You cannot see your own picture when you are in the frame. Get some mentors who can tell you as it is. Do not run your race in vain. Do not think you know it all. Use as many mentors as you can, those who have your best interests at heart.

There you have it.

Jaluum Herberts Luwizza is
Writer,Speaker and Business Consultant with YOUNG TREP East Africa’s No Business Management and Consultancy firm that helps people start and grow profitable businesses.
twitter: @jaluwizza
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