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Support group for small business
The Gnostic mana café in Woy Woy is the host of a growing monthly support group for small business owners.
"The Spare Room Tycoon" is run by Susan Leith-Miller of Davistown and meets in Sydney, Chatswood and on the Central Coast.
Susan Leith-Miller started up "The Spare Room Tycoon" in 2000 and has since been featured in the business sections of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Manly Daily.
She started her business after it became obvious to her that people starting a business needed help.
"They need to be able to see themselves as a business person," she said.
Ms Leith-Miller got the idea for her group from the book "Spare Room Tycoon" by American author James Chan.
Ms Leith-Miller was previously a partner in a market research company, before she retrained and drew on her experience in small business to form "The Spare Room Tycoon".
"The Spare Room Tycoon" group provides an opportunity for small business owners to discuss their ideas, problems and progress and to provide each other with help when they run into trouble.
The group helps its member acquire the basics of starting a business from business cards to brochures, giving them the confidence to go out into the market place.
The first hour of the group is discussion with members sharing the problems and solutions.
In the second hour, Leith Miller presents a paper on some aspect of business from selling to product promotion.
The Woy Woy group currently has six members and meets the third Wednesday of every month in the Gnostic Mana café Woy Woy.
Ms Leith Miller said that she hopes more Peninsula business people will be encouraged to join.
Participants in the group have run businesses ranging from wedding video production, lotto syndicates and massage therapy to interior decorating, garbage bin cleaning and a nursery
Ms Mary Holstein, owner of the Gnostic Mana Café in Woy Woy, has been a member of the Spare Room Tycoon support group for six months since it first held its meetings in her cafe.
"It is helpful because you listen to other people's solution to their business situation and you can adapt that to your own," she said.
"We're working through a program, each topic is different.
"The latest one is on selling and how to make sales.
"We have done ones on presentation and how to present yourself in business and others on promotion and products."
Ms Holstein said everyone who participates in the group should benefit.
"There's been some connections within the group, people helping each other out with problems," she said.
Ms Holstein also said that she had enjoyed participating in the group, learning important lessons.
"If you admire someone in another business, the qualities you admire in them are qualities you have as well. Otherwise, you wouldn't have noticed them.
"You see that someone else has the ability and we forget that we have that too," she said.
Sessions are $35 each.
Alison Branley, August 16