Consultant Offers Alternative

Entrepreneurs know it doesn’t have to be lonely at the top.
Large corporations have boards of directors for ideas and advice, but owners of small businesses often don’t have this resource.
Hal Vanatta offers to fix that problem with The Alternative Board, a peer advisory group. He uses group meetings and one-on-one sessions with company executives to develop best business practices.
Vanatta has worked with nearly 100 small businesses in Arkansas. Most of his clients, depending on their industries, have annual revenue from $2.5 million to $20 million.
With sole territorial rights to Arkansas, Vanatta runs two groups of business leaders, one in Little Rock and the other in Northwest Arkansas.
Through his VanCorp Inc., Vanatta is an independent associate and facilitator for TAB — one of about 250 in the U.S. TAB is a nationwide network that comprises about 3,000 business owners.
Most TAB facilitators are franchised, but Vanatta started with the company in 2001 before that trend began and operates as an independent. Franchisees must pay about $50,000 to $110,000 in initial costs to start a group and pay on-going royalties, all of which depend on the size of the territory. Facilitators also have to meet company requirements, such as having a minimum of 10 years of senior-level business experience.
Group membership usually ranges from $350 to $500 in monthly dues, depending on levels of involvement. The groups are comprised of an array of industries, from banking to manufacturing, and are regulated to prevent competing companies from participating in the same group.
Jim Key, president of Key Architecture Inc. in Fayetteville, is a professional architect and a TAB member.
He shares a common thread with most other board members in that he didn’t have much business training. Key had managed offices for other architectural firms, but when he opened his business in 1996, he was on his own.
“For about nine years,” Key said, “I just ran it off intuition and what little I did know about business practices, and advice from my financial adviser and my accountant.”
Then Key learned about the Northwest Arkansas group of business owners who had been working together to better themselves and their practices.
Before he knew it, Vanatta encouraged him to join TAB.

Group Work
Vanatta recently moved to Fayetteville from Hot Springs. An entrepreneur, he had a sense of being alone as a business owner.
His first taste of consulting came while working with Weyerhaeuser Co. In 1999, he was hired to develop a plan for the company’s Y2K preparations.
“I knew that I enjoyed the interchange and dealing with decision makers,” he said.
In 2000, Vanatta moved to California where he would begin working on the certifications needed as a corporate coach. He is now a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst, has a certification in Strategic Business Leadership and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program.
His first contact with a coaching firm was not TAB, but a competitor. Representatives took him to lunch and talked about the group. Vanatta said he enjoyed the concept, but it didn’t quite fit him. Also, the group wasn’t interested in developing Arkansas, where Vanatta wanted to return. Through his studies and through friends, he eventually landed with TAB.
His first client was in Little Rock. Vanatta helped Gary Eubanks who sought advice selling his law firm Gary Eubanks & Associates to Gary Holt.

Coaching Business
Vanatta stresses executive coaching, rather than simply teaching. The difference, he said, is that coaching is seeing an idea through conception and putting it into practice. His goal is to provide street-smart, practical advice.
He meets with one-on-one with members each month. There, he and the owner, CEO, managing partner or even a group of a company’s top executives work on specific needs. It may be a personal issue, such as trying to find more time to be at home or attend children’s ballgames. Or it can pertain to business, creating a company’s vision statement or developing a marketing plan.
He also holds a monthly roundtable meeting, lasting about four hours, for the members of each group.
“These people are busy,” he said. “It is very hard to get someone who is running a business like that to feel the value of being gone for a whole morning. It has to be impactive and something that they can take home on a regular basis to implement in their business and upgrade it.”
Vanatta said the group has helped members on everything from defining the responsibilities of a CEO, and determining what duties should be delegated, to marketing and developing brochures.
Bill Eddy, owner of Bill Eddy’s Motorsports, said the group played a large role in developing new branding for the business.
Eddy started business in 1981 as a Kawasaki dealer, but over the years added more brands. It had become a mouthful to each time he answer the phones “Kawaski, KTM, Suzuki, Yamaha.”
With advice and feedback from the board, Eddy developed his new branding, logo and commercial jingle.
Eddy joined TAB four years ago and said it has been a great investment.
“It turned out to be way more than I expected it to be,” he said.

Getting on Board
The group has few rules. One is confidentiality among members. The other is the group’s consistency.
TAB is invitation-only. Most of the members have joined the group through referrals from existing members. The group also is designed to be non-competitive, for instance two bank presidents would not be allowed to serve in the same group.
Vanatta said there is no predetermined structure for each group, but said it is advantageous to have representation from fields such as accounting, law, construction, insurance and sales. A broad spectrum can better serve the members, he said.
Key said the diversity of the group is one of the best parts of membership.
“It’s refreshing to interface with that type of group on a monthly basis,” he said. “One thing as a small business owner is you can kind of get stagnant circle of friends — the associates you deal with and sometimes your mindset and a way of looking at things, it’s definitely been enlightening and eye-opening to me.”
Vanatta said the average size of TAB groups nationwide is about eight people. Group sizes can range from six to 12. In Little Rock, he keeps the board to about 10 members and about eight members in Northwest Arkansas. He prefers a slightly larger board than most because it allows for more input and discussion.
Greg Anderson, president of Green Anderson Engineers Inc. in Fayetteville, has been a TAB member for five years.
One of the more important aspects Anderson has taken away from the group has been the softer side of business, human resources, hiring and retaining good employees.
“I really feel like that I would not have near the overall quality in my staff and I don’t think as good as reputation as we have now,” he said.
Without TAB, Anderson said he would have a lot of desire and energy to improve the business but would have no sense of direction. He has learned that he has to take time from working in the business to work on the business.
Board members aren’t obligated to stick with the group. Vanatta said members often leave when they feel they have reached critical mass — when they feel they have learned all they need.
It is an investment of time and money. With a startup fee and monthly ongoing fees, some members eventually see a declining return on investment. Other members, though, find an intrinsic value in helping members of the business community.
Vanatta said he has a passion for helping business owners succeed.
“Everyone wants to give back,” he said. “When you get a little older, that becomes more important because you’re not trying to accomplish as many things as when you’re building yourself.”