You're living your dream as the owner of a book, bicycle or cigar shop, when suddenly you run into a snag: You need a good lawyer. But the lawyers' ads in the Yellow Pages blur together, and the analysts at the Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University can't make referrals to any specific business. Where to turn for help?

Enter the Small Business Resource Network (SBRN), which has been in Jacksonville for 14 years, and recently launched in Southwest Florida. Dave Arseneau is the coordinator.

1. What is the SBRN?
It's a network of community leaders who can offer advice to small businesses and make referrals to other professionals, like a one-stop shop. The members are prequalified, so you're getting a higher, definitive level of professional service that has been scrutinized.

2. What's the difference between this and a Rotary Club or chamber of commerce?
This is a professional network that's resource-based to help business clients from a professional standpoint. All the members have to apply and go through a screening process. In a chamber, someone could have been in business for a month and you [might] never know that.

3. What is the screening process?
In Jacksonville, they have subcommittees for, say, accountants, that meet and go over and analyze the applications and each candidate's experience. So the other members are screening potential new members. The minimum is three years' experience in any field; the only one that's a little bit tricky is the consultant network. They have to send testimonial letters, since they're not certified.

Right now the steering committee is made up of 13 people-professionals that fall into one of these categories: law, accounting, insurance, banking or consulting, and there's also a category for nonprofits, like an agency or chamber of commerce. We've got an economic development person, bankers and attorneys. There's one steering committee member who's from the [Lee County Economic Development Office] and we also have a SCORE representative. That's the original nucleus.

4. How much does it cost?
It's free [as a resource] for small businesses. Network members pay $275 to join, which includes $225 annual dues and a $50 application fee. Then they're included in the resource directory; they're on the Web site, and a referral network is being established where people in the network refer each other to small-business clients, either emerging or in business already.

5. What kind of results have you seen?
We're at an embryonic stage and we're just getting acclimated right now. But as we move toward 20 members, I feel that pulse. Members meet every month, and the steering committee meets every month separately. I wanted to attack the general membership meetings from an educational standpoint. The group will discuss ways to help small businesses, with speakers, exercises, leadership training-anything to enhance the professional development of the members and the small business community.