Cornerstone Advisory Partners, a Wilmington-based business consulting firm, has launched two peer advisory groups to help business professionals in the area.

The groups function under Cornerstone’s franchise of The Alternative Board (TAB), a membership-based organization that helps business owners and managers improve profitability, productivity and personal fulfillment. Members share their own challenges and offer advice to each other, drawing from their own experience and expertise.

Two months into its six-month timeframe is Cornerstone’s Entrepreneurship Board, which consists of seven young entrepreneurs in the early stages of developing a for-profit company or nonprofit organization. No two businesses represented can be in the same field of endeavor.

Each member of this inaugural board pays $250 for six monthly meetings. Each meeting lasts for four hours and is facilitated by Jason Nista, director of franchise operations for Wilmington-based Fuzzy Peach Frozen Yogurt.

“The intent is to get the perspectives of other business owners to help us grow our businesses,” said James Schoonover, who helped start the board. “We’re not afraid to speak our minds.”

Schoonover, a University of North Carolina Wilmington alumnus, runs a landscaping company he started as a senior in high school.

The TAB Entrepreneurship Board meets once a month. Each member reports on what he or she has accomplished in the past month relative to a goal set at the previous meeting. Members ask questions and offer insights from their own experience. The idea is that the group acts like a board of directors for each of its members, and they expect results.

“We hold each other accountable,” Schoonover said.

He said that other young entrepreneurs have expressed interest in joining the board, and Cornerstone hopes to start others.

The second new TAB, the Master Deal Makers Board, will hold its first monthly meeting May 29. It is geared for business professionals who lead their organization’s sales function. Its facilitator, Bill Griffin, has a 42-year career in sales with small business startups and turnarounds.

Griffin said the group would tackle issues related to “everything that has to do with customer orientation.”

That area of focus includes identification of potential customers, helping those potential customers understand a company’s value proposition and closing the sale. A questionnaire completed by each of the 10 board members elicited responses that will drive the meeting agendas, Griffin said. Members of this board, like their entrepreneur counterparts, will set goals for themselves at each meeting and will be held accountable for their monthly progress.

The TAB Master Deal Makers Board will meet for one year. Cost is $300 per session. No two group members can represent the same industry during the session.