In 2019, a small group of MPI members came together as the Independent and Small Business Owners Advisory Board and set out to lay the foundation of the ISBO Community.
Now in year two, active community members are serving not only the ISBO community but the entire MPI community as well.
What is ISBO?
The Independent and Small Business Owners community is comprised of MPI members who identify themselves as independents and/or small business owners, regardless of their planner or supplier designation by MPI. Unlike the old Special Interest Groups (SIGs), ISBO welcomes all MPI members, supplier and planner alike.
Prior to the onset of COVID-19, the ISBO Advisory Board set out with a plan to provide ideas, best practices and cutting-edge references to the community’s members. Our focus was to be on how to successfully run a small business, not deal with meeting planning issues. With the onset of COVID-19, we quickly switched gears to focus on ‘survival’ scenarios and resources, noting our long-range planning now had the short range of about one minute. Visitors to the community will find four areas: Discussions, Libraries, and Members. Discussions contain all posts organized by thread. Libraries contains valuable resources available free of charge. Members is a list of all members of the community.
ISBO has also organized an initial five sessions, the first was held on April 20, 2020 (also available on demand) and the others took place each Monday thereafter starting at 9:00 AM Central Time in order to accommodate all community members, including those in countries other than North America. Session topics included an introduction to the ISBO community and its many offerings, virtual conferencing, COVID-19 and insurance, re-skilling following COVID-19 and a town hall with legal experts.
What’s Next?
The ISBO team believes we will not experience a ‘new normal’ but instead will enter a new reality where changes in the way we do business will occur. As the world begins to open, we will once again look to long-range planning and focus on quality education, development of new best practices and how to build a new risk management plan built on timelines we currently are experiencing as a result of the pandemic. Will we end there – no! There will be more but for now, we must focus on the next day, hour, and minute and bring our community the information it needs now. Please consider joining our community of MPI members!
To learn more about MPI's Independent Small Business Owners (ISBO) Community go here, get in on the convo by checking out the forum or checking out its Covid Response Webinar Series. And, a special shout-out to Happily, MPI's ISBO sponsor.
