Business Advisory Board 101: Who It's For, How It Works, and Why It's Invaluable
What is a Business Advisory Board, and why is it invaluable?
A business advisory board provides organizations of all types and sizes with a structured and collaborative way of approaching business issues and opportunities so they can grow. Your advisory board comprises other business leaders who provide guidance, advice, and support so you can embrace opportunities and grow your company. Above all else, an advisory board acts as a soundboard, holding you accountable for your goals and keeping you on track.
A Business Advisory Board also fills any gaps in management expertise. It allows organizations to gain access to a wide array of experts from all fields and industries that join the group as peers helping each other grow.
Whether a company is scaling or in rapid growth mode or established like larger corporates, multinationals, non-profits, academia, or government agencies, they can all benefit from a well-formed Business Advisory Board.
A Business Advisory Board can help identify and solve emerging challenges and threats and help organizations utilize their strengths and identify opportunities through robust, high-level discussions.
Unlike a Board of Directors, Business Advisory Boards are flexible and informal. This allows for a free flow of ideas in an unthreatening way. It provides business leaders with a safe space to discuss problems and opportunities.
How, when, and where are Business Advisory Boards held?
At The Alternative Board (TAB), we have certified facilitators that form and help run Business Advisory Boards.
While it doesn't matter how often you hold your meetings, they must be held at regular intervals.
Meetings can be held in person or virtually; however, in-person sessions are more effective, but these can sometimes move online when convenient.
Who can benefit from a Business Advisory Board?
While any business can benefit from a Business Advisory Board in any growth stage, there are many cases where Business Advisory Boards are invaluable.
Some of the most common scenarios businesses form advisory boards are below:
You're running your business smoothly, but you don't have a clear path of where it's going
You know where your business is going, but you don't know how to get there.
Your company has plateaued.
You are in rapid growth mode.
You feel like you're missing opportunities.
Your business isn't growing because your network isn't.
You've made costly mistakes.
You feel like you're operating in a bubble.
You need access to out-of-the-box thinking and a fresh perspective.
You have great ideas, but you have trouble executing them, or you have a strategy, but you don't stick to it.
You need a sounding board and accountability.
You have gaps in management expertise.
How to form an effective Business Advisory Board
At TAB, we make sure our Boards comprise people or members from various fields, expertise, and industries. This helps bring a vast resource for management expertise for any organization, and members get a unique perspective from people outside of their organization and industry.
They also have access to members who may be lawyers, accountants, marketers, sales and human resource professionals, etc.
We also establish guidelines to run these Boards smoothly. It is critical to have members who are open to feedback and provide value freely to the group in a respectful, professional, compassionate, and generous manner.
If you are planning to put together an advisory board, you must do it right. Business advisory boards are as good as the members that serve them, and the most significant impact an advisory board can have is on the company's vision.
Most business owners operate in silos and get so bogged down by working "in" their business that they lose sight of their vision. Business advisory boards help keep their eyes on the big picture so they can work "on" growing their companies.
Are you ready to carve out a few hours a month and dedicate them to growing your business? We can help you join the most effective Business Advisory Board for your unique situation and offer monthly one-on-one coaching along with the advisory board. Email us and we will get you started today.