The Value of a peer board
Improving your core skills
Every business owner has specific strengths and weaknesses – and even cluster people can benefit from more in-depth assistance in certain areas. You may be excellent at maintaining order in your business financially and finding inefficiencies, but less skilled at communicating with employees or developing a marketing strategy.**
Each member of the advisory board of business owners will come with a different and unique system of strengths and weaknesses as proven in the real world. This makes such a council a powerful tool that allows business owners to fill in the gaps that each of them has in their knowledge and increase their abilities in other fields. In addition to giving advice, you will also have the opportunity to share the knowledge you have. This challenges you to grow and even gives you the opportunity to help other business owners.
Another bonus is that while many business owners feel it is difficult for them to admit their vulnerability or the gaps in knowledge they have in front of other people, this kind of advisory board is a safe place where you can test your strengths and grow professionally.
Help in evaluating new ideas and strategies
Are you going to break your head about a new idea for growing your business? Considering a possible business opportunity? Here is another place where the experience of your advisory board members in the real world can be useful.
Raising effective growth strategies for business, marketing strategies, transfer strategies for managing the business to another person, etc. can be difficult. Adopting generic advice in your particular business is a challenge, and trying to assess whether a specific strategy will work or not is easier when getting help from other experienced business owners. In a council that contains diverse members, there is a high chance that one of them encounters a situation that you are dealing with and can give you personalized advice.
Your council members can also help you ask the difficult and critical questions that need to be asked or offered ideas and reservations based on their own experience. They can help you uncover things you don’t see and flood gaps in your line of thought to ensure that your strategy doesn’t contain holes.
Get an external perspective
When you look at your business too closely, it can be difficult to spot problems or opportunities that may be obvious to someone else. Cultivating a group of external and unbiased viewers is a great way to expand your perspective (it can be especially helpful in family-owned businesses, which often suffer from relying on the advice of too many people with very similar perspectives).
This is one of the greatest benefits of a council composed of members engaged in various fields. A business owner who has spent 40 years in manufacturing will be able to raise unique questions and ideas when trying to help a wholesale business. These questions and ideas can lead to real brilliance, while if you put your problem up to a group that only includes wholesalers, you might only hear standard advice that is acceptable in the field.
Increase your level of responsibility and accountability
Many business managers are good at meeting the everyday goals of the business. But goals that belong to the larger picture and that are meant to expand the business – such as implementing a new marketing strategy or networking with potential business partners – are often done on a small fire only.
An advisory board made up of business owners helps increase your responsibilities so you don’t give up on the goals that are part of the larger picture. Knowing you’ll need to get into the next meeting and report on your progress creates positive pressure to do the things that will really grow your business.
In addition to putting pressure on your team and increasing your responsibility, members of the council can help you understand why you are having trouble reaching certain milestones or goals. They can help you identify what problems are holding you back or brainstorm you to think about ways to get roadblocks out of the way.
Increase your level of responsibility and accountability
Many business managers are good at meeting the everyday goals of the business. But goals that belong to the larger picture and that are meant to expand the business – such as implementing a new marketing strategy or networking with potential business partners – are often done on a small fire only.
An advisory board made up of business owners helps increase your responsibilities so you don’t give up on the goals that are part of the larger picture. Knowing you’ll need to get into the next meeting and report on your progress creates positive pressure to do the things that will really grow your business.
In addition to putting pressure on your team and increasing your responsibility, members of the council can help you understand why you are having trouble reaching certain milestones or goals. They can help you identify what problems are holding you back or brainstorm you to think about ways to get roadblocks out of the way.
What should you consider when joining a business advisory board?
Many councils will allow you to attend one or two sessions as guests before you decide to join. This is a good idea because it allows you to see group dynamics in action and gives you a better sense of adapting the specific group to your needs.
When you are trying to decide if a particular council is right for you, consider the points below before making the decision.
The friends
Who are the current friends? What types of professions and fields do they come from? Do they have diverse experience and diverse subjects? Useful tools to test current members of a potential advisory board of business owners are LinkedIn and Google.
In the advisory council, it is important that members come from different fields and not compete with each other. The concept works on a basis of openness, and you will not be open to a competitor from your field.
The time's up
How much time do you need to spend on the advisory board each month? How often do they meet and how long do they last? Beyond meetings, are there any additional time requirements such as anticipation of volunteering or receiving business training from an outside party?
A financial investment
What is the annual or monthly cost? How much will your business need to grow (or how many new customers you will need to bring in) to benefit from the investment of joining the Council? Does the board seem to give at least that or even more?