Leverage your advisory board as a recruiting tool. You can ask board members to suggest people for open management positions and consulting opportunities. As experts in your field, they can offer the best recommendations. Using your advisory board for recruitment, you can expedite the hiring process, improve workflow, and optimize production.
Hold your advisory board accountable with benchmark KPIs. The best advisory boards are ones who are motivated and active in advising and supporting your business. You may be under the impression that a board member is not doing their job to the fullest, but the only way to ensure it is to maintain clear KPI goals, and to replace board members when those goals are not met. Don’t weigh your advisory team down with members who aren’t contributing–always seek the most active and productive participants.
You can utilize your advisory board to expand resource networks for your business, which can come in handy. Since other businesses are tapped into your regional business network, you should be, too. With your advisory board\'s help, you can find resource networks relevant to your field, also connecting you with potential donors and experts in your industry. You can use your advisory board to find and put together the best management team for your organization. Advisors may know of relevant resources you’ve never thought of before to support your expansion.
When you are in a business on a daily basis, it is easy to lose perspective and get into a "you can’t see the forest, for the trees” mode, but a solid advisory board can keep you grounded and growing your business. During initiation, business structure plans are often presented to an advisory board, who discuss and finally approve a strategy. However, unpredictable shifts in the marketplace, unexpected expenses, or overlooked possibilities, can cause difficulties that require fresh eyes and different levels of expertise, which your advisory board can provide. By leaning on your advisory board in these crucial moments, you can gain insightful perspectives, as well as effective strategies to deal with these issues effectively and continue to grow your business.
Head of Marketing & Public Relations | Executive Vice President at AVANA Capital
Answered 4 years ago
As a business owner, you might need a large influx of cash or capital to grow your business, but aren't sure of your options, or which would be the best to pursue. This is the time to use your advisory board. Ask them whether you should go with angel investors, seek out VC funds, or even apply for a traditional bank loan. Those on your advisory board can help you sift through your options and find the best one for your situation.
One of the best ways to utilize your advisory board to grow your business, that most business owners tend to forget, it so simply listen and work on their ideas with them. Everyday life for business owners and leaders can be full of busy projects, reports, meetings, trainings, and everything in between, so remember certain topics and ideas can be nearly impossible. Some owners might just leave decision making completely to their advisory board without listening or taking heed. However, it should always be important to listen and thoughtfully weigh in on your advisory board's ideas as they are there to assist you in making executive decisions. Make sure to not only listen, but avidly work on these ideas with your board to see which one can be a sure fire good choice.
As you look to expand your business, your advisory board can analyze new market opportunities on your behalf. Market research can be incredibly time consuming, but your advisory board hopefully has the resources you lack to handle it quickly and efficiently. Utilize their knowledge and connections to find your target market. They can identify markets or product areas you've overlooked, and also advise you on the best course of action.
Although people relate advisory board activities to items synonymous with their name, not as many understand that they can be used to grow your business as a marketing tool. People often associate the success and strength of business based on the people who are part of it, gravitating to a company that have successful people behind it. Placing well experienced and respected advisory board members on websites, brochures, social media, email advertising, and even as spokespeople, builds confidence in potential investors, community organizations, and customers that can grow your business. Using your board members as ambassadors of your brand and as part of your marketing business model, rather than just as consultants, can add an effective mechanism to enhance your company.
One way to use your advisory board to help grow your business is by having it focus on the competition. As you concentrate on the day-to-day tasks of running your business, your advisory board can evaluate the competition. It can identify both weaknesses in their models, as well as any threats they may pose to your market share or bottom line. Advisors can relay what your competitors are doing to ensure you stay ahead.
Advisory boards can offer more than guidance on following current industry best practices; your business may be leaving money on the table if future-casting isn’t a recurring topic in meetings. Utilizing data tools like consumer behavior trends and predictive analytics can help a business determine which moonshots will be a part of the 1-, 3-, and 5-year plans, as well as how these innovation initiatives will be measured upon launch and stacking-up against the competition. Kodak is a great example of what not to do as it relates to innovation planning; when the market quickly transitioned to digital, they were left in the dust with a clunky, irrelevant product that cost consumers more than emerging offerings. Every advisory board meeting needs time to identify external factors and opportunities that will support a business through strategic innovation to stay competitive, relevant, and profitable in perpetuity.
The best way to utilize an advisory board is to assign them specific tasks that will help the business grow. This could include tasks such as market research, strategy development, networking, and more, depending on their unique experience and expertise. By delegating specific tasks to the advisory board, you can ensure that they are fully utilized and that their expertise is being put to good use.
A Board of Advisors Can Help You Gain a Competitive Advantage: I firmly believe that a Board of Advisors comprised of specialists, generalists, or critical thinkers from diverse backgrounds can shed light on the good and negative elements of significant decisions. This can provide a competitive edge and aid in the growth of a company's visibility, credibility, and revenues.
Hopefully, your board members are influential in their industry and community. Plan social events, and encourage your board to invite friends from their extended circles. You could meet your next business mentor or an expert who can consult you on business planning, business law or even financials (like what you can write off for a tax purpose). Sometimes, who you know can be just as impactful as what you know.
One key benefit of an advisory board is that it compels entrepreneurs to step back and look at the bigger picture and reassess the overall direction of their business. Undoubtedly the process of preparing for a meeting with the advisory board forces you to take stock of the business and consider it from unexplored angles. Knowing that you’re not alone in making decisions offers reassurance, providing a set of fresh eyes on the business.
A Board of Advisors that is made up of specialists, and critical thinkers from diverse backgrounds can uncover the positive or negative aspects of significant decisions. This can be a competitive advantage and help build a company’s visibility, credibility, and revenues. Avoiding mistakes and setting you on a true course to maintain your competitive advantage.
An advisory board is an effective way to gather professional ideas. To best utilize the advisory board to grow your business, you need to work with qualified personnel who have verified expertise in that industry. This is because this board offers final decisions to top business management, such as managers and business owners. Accordingly, this board needs to be accurate with its conclusions to avoid misleading advice. Therefore, businesses should be keen to source specialists to get professional advice to achieve maximum results with an advisory board.
Volunteering puts you and your company out there. Being in the thick of serving your community creates an opportunity for you and your team to expand your network by meeting new contacts who share a mutual interest with your business. Meeting potential contacts over a cause you both support feels more natural because you are first meeting as peers and fellow volunteers before anything else.
Choose your advisory board members wisely and carefully. While you should find advisory board members that are qualified, you should also make sure that they want the best for you and your business. This way you can really trust their advice.
One of the key functions of an advisory board is to provide objective feedback. This outside perspective can be invaluable, helping you see the business from a different perspective and identify potential areas of improvement. To get the most out of this feedback, you must be open to hearing what the advisors have to say, even if it contradicts your own beliefs or what you had planned. It is also important to keep in mind that not all feedback will be useful; you will need to filter out the advice that is not relevant to your business and focus on the constructive criticism that can help you move forward.
Advisory boards have a handle on the competition. They’re familiar with the top brands in your industry and how those brands market their products successfully. Use their insight to learn what your competitors offer that you don’t and vice versa. If you capitalize on what you do best, you’ll stand out from the crowd.