Having a good business advisor is very important to your success as an entrepreneur or small business owner. An investor, accountant, mentor, or coach can help you take control of your company by acting as a second in command. Or a professional group like New Corporate Management can give you strong guidance about what strategies work best for your business and how to improve them.
It’s hard being an entrepreneur, let alone running a successful one. There are so many things that need your attention, it can feel impossible to focus on anything properly. That’s why having someone who knows this stuff well is so valuable. They can keep you focused on the right tasks while also giving you some much needed respite.
Finding such a quality advisor can be tricky, though. We want to do wel and live your dream life when you run your business with purpose and strategy!
Fortunately, there are ways to find the ideal adviser for you. This article will go into detail on some tips.
Make an outline for a good business plan
Now that you have someone who can help you with your business, it is time to make them part of the process! While they may not be able to review your plans before you submit them, they can offer some helpful tips as you put together your business plan.
The first step in developing your business plan is making an initial outline. This should include everything from describing your company, to what services you provide, to how you will market yourself and your product, to where you are located, and more.
When writing your business plan, try to use bullets instead of normal paragraphs. Use enough bullets so that each bullet points contains one sentence. The reason for this is so that people can easily read the page, and also to keep the pages shorter, which helps in publishing and distributing the work.
Publishing and distribution is important because even though your friends and family can help you promote your business by talking about it, there are always other things you need to do like registering your business, etc. Having these done ahead of time saves time in the long run.
That said, if you are not raising a lot of money, your business plan may need to be simpler.
Consider the following when choosing a business advisor
The term ‘business adviser’ is very broad, making it difficult to know what services all professionals offer and what is appropriate for you. To make sure you are not being tricked or misled, do your research!
Be wary of advisors that haven’t had successes and failure themselves in their own businesses. No one truly knows better than you about your company and industry, so why pay someone to tell you things that you know yourself? A good advisor let’s you run the company butwill make you aware of strategies and missed opportunities you hadn’t thought about.
Also, if you’re shopping for an advisor, look out for flashy advertisements or statements made by an advisor that don’t match up with their own personal success. This could mean they get paid more for giving you bad advice or spending money on marketing strategies that didn’t work.
Exist any federal or state regulations
Even though there are not many formal qualifications for business advisors, there are some licenses that can be helpful in determining their qualification as an advisor. What sort of college degree do they have – for exanple at NCM, we all have MBAs.
Australia is different to the US. In the USA, a few states offer at least one professional designation to help determine if someone is qualified to call themselves an investment adviser. These include being a Financial Planner (which requires a Masters Degree), Retirement Planning Specialist, Certified Investment Adviser, etc. But none of those designations have the practical capability of being growth advisors to startups and SMEs.
Your Advisor should meet with your regularly, at least once a month for a minimum amount of time to review your ideas and progress.
Pay attention to your feelings about the advisor
As mentioned earlier, with any business relationship there will be good times and bad times. When these times arise, it is important to understand why this happens and what you can do to prevent or get through them.
If one of the most important people in your career breaks up with you, then it’s normal to feel hurt, betrayed, and even angry. You may also feel confused as to how to move forward.
You need to take some time to process what has happened before you make any decisions. Try talking things out with friends, family, and colleagues. Ask for their advice so that you know where to turn for help.
It’s also very common to worry what other people will think of you now that you no longer have a partner. But being married to your career isn’t necessarily healthy either.
Running away from your problems won’t solve anything, and investing in yourself by giving yourself more responsibility and reward for doing a great job will only strengthen your confidence. And don’t forget that friendships are a valuable asset!
Above all, remember that your success depends on you and not anyone else.
Consider the following when choosing a business partner
Working with someone is always a risk, but not working together can be disastrous for your career and personal life. As such, you must take some time to assess whether or not this person will help you succeed and contribute to the success of the company you work for or advance your own career.
It’s important to evaluate a potential partners’ qualities before making an investment in their relationship. Look at his or her LinkedIn profile, read reviews and talk to people that have worked with them. Also look into how they conducted themselves during interviews, negotiations and other professional interactions.
Just because somebody else is successful doesn’t mean that he or she is a good match for you. You should be confident in yourself and know what skills you have so you don’t need to lean on others to achieve your goals. Likewise, if you are looking to develop certain skills, you shouldn’t depend on others to teach you.
Look at your financial situation
Being a business owner means you will need to have different levels of expertise in your personal life, which can sometimes get confusing or even conflicting. As such, it is important to make sure that you are looking out for yourself, as well as those around you who may depend on you.
Make sure you’re not too focused on making money, but instead focus more on spending time with family, friends and hobbies because this part of your life is just as valuable as the career side of things.
You don’t want to sacrifice anything else in your life to keep up with the pressure of being rich, so make sure you’re giving yourself some downtime!
There’s no telling how much energy a person would burn from stress and worry about their own success if they don’t take care of themselves. So, be aware of what parts of your daily routine help you relax and learn to appreciate them, since these are tools for your professional self-care regime.
Do you like the person?
As mentioned before, being able to look at yourself in the mirror is one of the most important things that can help you feel comfortable with your business. If you cannot look into their eyes and know that they have your best interest at heart, then what kind of advice will you get?
The ability to trust who you are giving business tips to is very important. Not only should you be confident in their knowledge, but also their willingness to put your needs ahead of theirs. You want to make sure that you do not get tricked or lied to by someone who has the privilege of helping you grow.
Look for people who treat others well and seem to enjoy what they are doing. People who admire other successful people and try to emulate them are good indicators that they are willing to work hard to achieve their goals.
If you ever find that these qualities disappear, stop talking to the individual about business and start looking for someone else to talk to. No one wants to deal with a difficult person, so chances are if someone does not appear to care about you as much when they were earlier, it was because they ran out of patience or resources.
Where to from here?
Becoming a business owner can be a lonely and tough. An advisor like NCM can make it all make sense.
