About the Advanced Business Roundtable (ABR)

How ABR is Different

If you've been in the typical business roundtable or business networking circles (BNI, LeTip, Vistage, Successful Thinkers, uLink, chambers of commerce, MeetUps, etc.), you'll discover that they all have excellent characteristics. ABR combines several great aspects of these clubs into a dynamic process.

Here is how we're different than most business networking organizations:

Membership Costs are Far Lower

There's a one-time membership fee of $100 and the quarterly dues are only $50. That's it! No hidden costs, no fines, no pre-purchase of meals.

Most business networking or business roundtables will cost you thousands of dollars a year and the lower-priced groups are at least many hundreds of dollars. Our Return On Investment (ROI) is solid.

Christian Business Owners

We cater to Christian business owners and seekers. 

While we never expect a member to pray, the group always takes prayer requests (business or personal) and someone volunteers to pray for our requests.

It's not forced, it's not awkward or preachy, and it's not denominational. It's one way we love on each other and support each other.

Practice that Elevator Pitch

We always go around the room, introduce ourselves, and give our "elevator pitch," commercial, or state what type of business referrals we're each looking for. This is not only great practice, but it continually reminds the team what each of us does and how we can best serve each other.

Sometimes we'll add a fun twist depending on the mood of the timekeeper (e.g., "Also tell us what you did at your first job").

Lead Generation

We pass leads to each other because we are each other's marketing team. It's not forced or fined, but it's often a natural result of building relationships in the group.

If you're coming "only" to get leads, you will realize that it's not the focus, because it's far more than that.

We have an easy-to-use online lead giving system so we don't have to pass around lead forms or manually track statistics. The total dollars that are brought into the group every year are significant.

Business Presentations

We sign up and take turns (not forced) giving presentations about ourselves and our businesses. This is good practice but the gold is what happens after the presentation.

We listen intently and when the presentation is over, we give gentle and very helpful feedback on the presentation (what went well, ways to improve, other suggestions). And even better, we always offer ideas on how the speaker can grow their business.

Business Improvement and Tips Presentations

We listen to business improvement presentations, tips, hot seat discussions, and techniques that business owners want to learn about. Often, our own members will do the presenting but we'll occasionally bring in an outside speaker. We also have interactive roundtable discussions on selected topics (e.g., most effective marketing strategy in your business).

The Roundtable: What Went Well This Week and What Didn't

We discuss what went well recently and what didn't go well. During the business roundtable, we share in an environment of confidentiality and trust because sometimes we open our hearts to the group. We are among friends. This business roundtable draws us closer as colleagues and friends.

We Socialize!

Besides eating together, we have open networking time during each meeting to get to know each other better. Laughter occurs regularly. 

Occasionally we'll have an optional outside social event, holiday party, client appreciation event, etc.

---

Our History (if you care)

In a Nutshell

Advanced Business Roundtable was born out of the Fellowship Chamber.

The Fellowship Chamber (FC) started an organization called the Fellowship Networking Group (FNG). The FC divested all of FNG chapters. The FNG Roseville Lunch Chapter retained its leadership and membership and became what is now the Advanced Business Roundtable, a subsidiary of Advanced Development Concepts, LLC. All other chapters were given to an FNG director who helped start them.

In More Detail

In 2008, this networking group began as the Fellowship Networking Group (FNG) but didn't have a formal/legal structure governing it. Fellowship Networking, Inc. (FNI) was founded by Scott Smith (CFO & President) and Scott Alvord (CEO & Vice President) to manage the networking chapters as part of their personal ministry. Alvord was also the chapter President and meetings were held in his restaurant, A Dash of Panache, before he sold the restaurant in 2016 and the group moved the meetings to Old Town Pizza (and virtually during the pandemic).

Several years ago, FNI hired Ellen Oberlander as a Director to start and grow new chapters, which she did well. Smith felt lead to also grow the Fellowship Chamber, a sister organization. It grew well.

In 2016, before starting a political campaign, Alvord gifted his shares of the FNI corporation (50%) to Smith, who later dissolved the corporation and rolled it under the Fellowship Chamber structure. Alvord remained the Roseville chapter President.

In late 2017, after a lot of prayer, Smith felt lead to focus solely on the Fellowship Chamber and divest the networking groups. He gave Ellen the FNG networking chapters she started and developed, and gave Alvord the original Roseville FNG chapter, which he had continuously lead since 2008. Each agreed to rename their organization. Ellen later retired.

Thus, the original Roseville FNG has been renamed Advanced Business Roundtable, a subsidiary of Advanced Development Concepts, LLC. Scott Alvord still feels strongly that the Fellowship Chamber is a sister organization with a special ministry that he hopes ABR members join.

"Because of my civic responsibilities, I was worried that the timing wasn't right to take over the networking group but as the cutover approached and my own prayers for the switchover increased, I felt a calmness and growing excitement that God was not only directing Scott Smith to divest the groups, but He was directing me to accept it and let Him grow it. This is still His project." - Scott Alvord