Rarely does a day go by as an entrepreneur where no advice is required, obtained or given.  In day-to-day operations, we struggle with the right decisions for employees, for customers, for ourselves.  To help along the way, we use advisors.  Some are family and required to listen to our questions, stories and rants.  Others are professional service providers who are paid to listen to our questions, stories and rants.  Finally, we have our advisors who often are colleagues, industry experts, or other knowledgeable resources who offer their time at no charge.  Each group provides a business owner with a different and valuable perspective on the issues faced and the business owner then pulls together these perspectives to help in planning or in managing a particular problem in the business.  Every business has these advisors; and every business owner uses them, to a greater or lesser extent, as go-to people to advise on key decisions.  Rarely, though, are the advisors brought together as a group to offer their insights. 

An Advisory Board offers the business owner the opportunity to gather insights from multiple perspectives all at one time.  An Advisory Board takes the adage "Two heads are better than one" and multiples the effect, not only bringing multiple brains to the table but also bringing varied education and experience to the table.  The discussion generated by the advisory group brings forth ideas that the entrepreneur could not fathom in one-on-one discussions with each advisor.  In addition, one longer meeting with the group is a more efficient use of the entrepreneur's time than one-on-one discussions with each advisor - and we all know that "Time is money."

 

No one really needs to be convinced that this is a good idea.  The question really is:  "How do I do it?"  There are three key steps to setting up an Advisory Board:  Selecting the members, compensating the members, and managing the meetings.