How Many Members In A Mastermind Group?

I've found that the ideal number of members for a group is 8 members. It makes sure that you have enough members with different backgrounds to bring value to the discussion. Usually when someone is explaining a challenge with their business, in a group of 8 members, 2 or 3 of them have already been through that challenge and have ideas and suggestions to help. If you don't have enough members to bring different experiences to the table it's not as valuable an experience. The idea is to leverage the expertise, knowledge, and connections of the members in the group so you need a good number of members to pull from.

Why we stop the groups at 8 is because with the intro brainstorming session and then everyone having 15-20 minutes to talk about their businesses, the meetings will go on for too long. After a 2.5 hours of intense discussion people begin to get tired and stop focusing. You also lose the intimacy of the group as it builds beyond 8.

I ran across a meetup event for women entrepreneurs that has Mastermind Group meetings open to the public. Events are $20 (you get what you pay for) and from the pictures attract over 20 members. With so many people you can't really get the value of a Mastermind Group - it could be an effective networking group, which carries a different purpose from a Mastermind Group.

Try to keep your groups large enough so that you get a variety of opinions and expertise but small enough so you can keep people focused and the intimate environment. For these reasons I've found 8 to be the perfect number.