So you’ve weighed the risks and rewards, considered the benefits and seriously thought about your ability to work with a group to manage your investments, and you come to the conclusion that a proshare investment club is right for you. Now you need business advice about recruiting for your investment club. This is exactly what you should do when there are no investment clubs around that are just right for you to join. Consider it an opportunity!  With a few like-minded people, you can start your own investment club. Here are a few ways to find those people.

Standard business advice is not to mix family and funds, but if you have friends who have expressed an interest in the stock market, or in investing, you can approach them about joining your club. You can also place advertisements in newspapers or on community bulletin boards letting people know that a new investment club is forming. However, once the proshare investment club has formed you will need to be cautious about placing advertisements again. In the United States, those can be seen as solicitations and are illegal.

The important thing, as business advice goes, is to remember is that you want to attract people who have an interest in learning about the stock market while they invest small amounts of money - people who are prepared to be flexible. Don’t be concerned if the majority of the people who have expressed an interest in joining your club are new to the stock market.  It can be a good thing that your club is composed novices, since people who have prior experience with the stock market may quickly become frustrated dealing with others who are amateurs. There are also many resources available to help you, and your proshare investment club members, learn about investing and the stock market.

Before you set your first meeting, you should give your members some information about the proshare investment club, explaining its investment goals, how it will be run (one member, one vote, or proportional voting), how often it will meet, etc. Many of these aspects will be fine-tuned in the first meeting.