Franchise Friday – Episode 216 with Jeffrey Polino from The Alternative Board

This Franchise Friday – Episode 216 with Jeffrey Polino from The Alternative Board, Melissa Pang interviews Jeffrey on what has made The Alternative Board a success.

From Jeffrey Polino: I have a very interesting position and role at The Alternative Board: I am charged with the responsibility for innovation and all that it brings. Here at TAB, we bring together business owners, presidents, and CEOs of non-competing businesses to overcome challenges, seize new opportunities, and optimize their businesses through a combination of peer-advisory boards and business coaching.

TAB Members meet monthly – led by a highly trained facilitator/coach – to share their business expertise and address each other’s challenges confidentially. Members learn from one another’s successes and mistakes, empowering them to overcome challenges and grow their businesses.

Have you ever dreamed of operating a professional service, or consulting practice with no overnight travel and consistent predictable monthly income? I can help you explore becoming part of the international TAB community of facilitators/coaches and make a real difference to the businesses in your community.

Helping business owners and their leadership teams improve their businesses and change their lives.

Are you a business owner who could benefit from business coaching and from the strategic advantage of being a member of a TAB advisory Board of Directors? If so, TAB board membership may be right for you. TAB helps forward-thinking business owners grow their businesses, increase profitability and improve their lives by leveraging local business advisory boards, private business coaching, and proprietary strategic services. If you are you a distinguished executive or consultant who would be interested in helping business owners in your community achieve their company and personal vision, a TAB franchise may be the right choice for you. You can achieve a consistent and predictable income while serving your TAB members in their own business objectives. You may be a successful entrepreneur located in a locale that could benefit from the advisory services TAB provides. If so, a TAB Master Franchisee may be right for you.

• Advisory Boards
  The big decisions have been on your shoulders. Until now. Monthly, facilitated half-day sessions with a close-knit community of CEOs and business owners who’ve faced similar situations.
• Business Coaching
  Live the life you’ve been working for. One-on-one executive coaching to help you develop your skills, meet your goals and become an even more successful leader.
• Strategic Tools
  Make better, faster decisions. TAB’s powerful Business Builder’s Blueprint™ makes it easy to create business plans, track KPIs and get your business exactly where you want it to go.
• Leadership Transformation
  Turn ideas into reality — and get things done. Designed for busy leaders and their teams, StratPro combines strategy and productivity to deliver long-term results.

A Peer Network for Business Owners with a Diversity of Members

From professional and service firms to manufacturing and distribution companies, contractors and construction companies, TAB’s peer network for business owners represents the perspective, insights and ideas of 3,000 business owners to drive your business to the next level. TAB members improve business results by sharing business ideas, strategies, tactics and business experiences in unique business groups – all to achieve greater success.

As Jeffrey Polino points out:

“I’m a former business owner, I own a franchise that was not in TAB space. I had some challenges but overall things were going great. And then all of a sudden, the economy turned. This was extremely challenging on a Brokerage Business even with the support of my partner and spouse. Anyone who’s interested in investing in a business, if you happen to be in a relationship, it is very, very important to make sure that you have those very candid and frank discussions about investing in a business.  Mt wife and I dotted all the i’s and cross all the t’s. When the challenges happen, because of my education and corporate background with all the training that I received, and the support from my family, we were able to turn it around.  But not without a lot of sleepless nights staring at the ceiling at three o’clock in the morning, working 12–14-hour days, but when we turned around, we were then eventually able to sell the business. And I did very well, thanks to my lovely brides help. So once that happened, I have to say that I was kind of ruined. I couldn’t go back into corporate America again, Melissa, because I had a taste of freedom. And even though it was challenging I realized I’m just not cut out for a corporate job anymore. In 2005, I got a phone call from a recruiter. And this recruiter was telling me about a company that was looking for a global business developer for The Alternative Board. I met with the founder and chairman and the president CEO. And for me, one of the most important things about investing in a business is what’s the vision of the of the company? What’s the vision of management? Well, interviewing with the founder and chairman I got it straight from the creator.  I’m happy to report that 17 years later that when I started in 2005, we were in the US and Canada and then rapidly expanded to 24 other countries. We have built upon those years and years of experience that each franchisee brings to the community. And here we are today in 24 countries and just ready to make it 25.  We have an awesome relationship with what TES because of the quality of the candidates you send our way.”

As Mellisa observes:

“So much good information there. And I’ll I do want to talk about your experience with TES and working with the clients and the coaches. These individuals are looking at business ownership, maybe for the first time. They are coming from that “Corporate America” job. And often they think they don’t have experience in a specific industry,  whether it is TAB, or whether it’s owning a restaurant, or running a handyman, painting cars But to your point, it’s like no, the transferable skills that you’ve learned in those 15-20 -30 years in a corporate job, they’ve picked up a great deal of skills and abilities that then actually transfer beautifully over to something else, even though they never would have thought they could apply this to a b2b coaching and consulting company. That’s why I love franchising. And that’s also why I love what we get to do. And what our coaches do is actually introduce people to the idea that they can use all the skills that they’ve spent years honing and they can take those and use them in business ownership of any kind.”