Getting Added Value From Your Advisor

Your advisor can be as ‘hands-on’ with your business as you want – it should be all stipulated in your agreement and covered in your scoping relationship. But there may well be more ways that your advisor can add value to your growth business. What are these? How can you make use of your advisor?

It’s all down to communication. Regular engagement with your advisor will help you to develop a strong working relationship and a real understanding of their experience, skillset and network.

Refer back to your initial conversation with your advisor when you wanted to find out more about them. How much of this might be useful in a different context?

• What similar projects have they worked on?
• How would they approach this project?
• How would your charges be calculated and what would you expect the overall cost to be?
• What excites them about your business
• Where do they see the use cases (it’s important they share your vision)
• How much time are they willing to dedicate?
• Will they be liberal in connecting me with their network?
• What value have they added to other companies they have worked with?
• How best to communicate with them? Phone, emails, video, in-person.

Advisors can help in many other areas of the business that you may not have thought of (other areas of the business). For example, upskilling and training existing teams, structuring your 5-year strategy and being ambassadors for your business.

If you have an idea about how they might be able to help your business further, then use your regular meetings to raise the topic and explore opportunities with your advisor. A great match is when your advisor is fired up and enthusiastic about your business and actively engaged in helping your business grow. They are not restricted to only working with you in certain areas, but ensure that any extensions or developments to the initial working relationship are accurately documented in a revised or new contract or working documentation.

A great way of working with your advisor and building your contacts is by leveraging your advisor’s extended network. You are welcome to ask advisors whom they might have in their extended network that could assist but you will need to build trust first. Advisors will need to make sure they are making the right introductions which in turn will only be determined once they have been involved in your business for some time.