Your Advisory Staff
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Many business owners mistakenly believe that they have to learn and know every possible nuance about business to be successful. From accounting to taxes to incorporating, many business owners needlessly try to do it all.
I've learned important lessons over my 15 year career as a cleaning and restoration business owner and one of the more important lessons is that trying to learn every little detail about every business function will DRIVE YOU CRAZY! Having said that it's still important to understand key concepts of your business and options, but trying to learn all the details of taxes, the legal system, business structure, etc. will most likely stunt your business growth or add many unnecessary years to becoming extremely successful.
Your Advisory Staff
As stated above, there are functions in your business that you need to fully understand; but you can't possibly or even need to understand every little detail. That's what an Advisory Staff is for. Let's look at some of the Advisors and how they can help every business owner, not just bigger companies.
Financial Advisor
This person knows everything about finances and how they affect your business. A well-established bookkeeper or accountant makes an excellent Financial Advisor. This should be a person who is well familiar with you and your business and someone you can call on for good financial advice. Be sure this person is qualified! Uncle Louis may have run a successful machine shop, but the financial differences between a machine shop and a cleaning and restoration firm are many. Your Financial Advisor must help you with things such as structuring payroll, tax strategies, budgeting, and money management.
Banking Advisor
The allocation and disbursement of your assets - especially equipment and money - are functions familiar to a good Banking Advisor. Your Banking Advisor should work well with your Financial Advisor to give you the best advice about investing in and using your assets wisely. My Banking Advisor is my bank manager. I confer with him about my asset needs and together with my Financial Advisor (my accountant) we develop strategies to help my business grow.
Legal Advisor
Your Legal Advisor helps you understand and plan your business from a legal standpoint. He confers with your Financial Advisor and you to help develop succession plans and asset allocation in the event that the unthinkable happens to you. Your Legal Advisor is also instrumental in helping you map out legal strategies and advice as you grow; such as employee issues, real estate contracts, contracts with your customers (esp commercial and restoration), potential liabilities, collection efforts, and many other functions of your business. My Legal Advisor is my business lawyer whom I've known and done business with for years. He's restructured notes, helped build a succession plan, helped with power of attorney plans, made changes to forms and contracts, and pretty much keeps me out of trouble!
Business Advisors
Business Advisors are those with business knowledge and experience familiar to your situation. One of my Business Advisors is my Mentor, CJ, who taught me more in just a few sessions than I learned in five years prior. Two more of my Business Advisors are my partners at BRC Systems Solutions - Dan Burk and Keith Collins. Yet two more of my Business Advisors are my parents, whom I bought the cleaning/restoration business from. Also on my Advisory Staff is my webmaster and marketing experts I've sought advice from over the years.
Other sources of Business Advisors can include: executives at your local Small Business Development Center, your local SBA and SCORE officers, Key personnel at your local Chamber of Commerce, successful friends and family members, Specialists who have already been where you want to be, etc. I'll bet if you sat down for a few minutes you could write out a short list of potential Business Advisors that can help you grow.
Assembling Your Advisory Staff
First, make a list of the 4 types of Advisors I noted above: Financial, Banking, Legal, and Business. Think of people you know or have heard of from a trusted source that could fill these roles. One word of caution - pick your Advisors VERY carefully! Try to pick those who are not only on the same page as you, but are well familiar with your situation, your business, where you're at, and where you want to go.
Next, create an "Advisory Portfolio". Get a binder and Title/Divide the binder into the four Advisory sections. Notes with each of your Advisors will go in the appropriate sections. You will use this for reference about things you've discussed and planned.
Third, meet with your potential Advisors and let them know what you're trying to accomplish. Tell them that you would like them to be on your Advisory Staff. You'll both know very quickly if the potential Advisor is right for you. I can't stress this enough - it's your life, business, and future. If you don't think a prospective Advisor is going to work out to your benefit, don't feel bad about saying "sorry" and keep looking. Professionals understand that they can't be all things to all people.
Fourth - after you've created your Advisory Staff, choose the frequency of your meetings and follow through. Consider getting a couple of them together if and when their functions overlap, such as your Financial and Legal Advisors. Meetings where all of you are together are much more productive than trying to talk with each individually.
Lastly, use your notes as benchmarks for your goals. For instance if you set up a budget with your Financial Advisor, check your progress at planned intervals, such as monthly at the start and at least quarterly after it starts humming along. Be sure to review your portfolio of Advisors at least once a year and see if there are any holes that need to be filled. If you're having trouble marketing, for example, consider Business Advisors who are great marketers.
Cost
There will be costs involved, especially with professionals. They have to be compensated for their time, effort, and expertise, of course. With a little bit of homework you can decide if the expertise you're looking for is worth the added expense in a given category. When you pick the right advisors, though, you should end up saving tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours of stress. One of the smarter things I did early on in my career as a business owner was I surrounded myself with successful people in key areas I needed help with, especially Finances, Legal, and Business Advisors like CJ and Dan and Keith at BRC Systems Solutions. Through their help and expertise, my business made hundreds of thousands of more stress-free dollars and faster than it would have if I tried to do it all by myself.
Create and implement your Advisory Staff and you'll be well on your way to Wild Success!
Scott
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