Build Your Perfect Board Of Advisors

A Board of Advisors is an invaluable asset for your business. Learn the why, who and how of building one

Over 15 years scaling my company, I always looked for best practices to accelerate our growth. One of the best ideas I heard was to form a Board of Advisors (BoA) for our company, which we did years before we had a formal Board of Directors.

Essentially, our BoA fulfilled the same function as a formal Board, without the corresponding fiduciary responsibility to the business. I‘ve often been asked why and how to do this, so I’m putting everything I learned into writing for the first time.

First, let’s talk about why a growing company needs a BoA. Our BoA fulfilled several key objectives for my company and leadership team as we grew:

• It introduced outside accountability and checks and balances for our ideas.

• It provided a group of smart people who could brainstorm with us and validate our strategies.

• It taught us how to prepare and present at formal board meetings, which proved vital once we had a formal Board of Directors.

• Our leadership team received feedback directly from board members, rather than always from me.

• It forced us to step back, evaluate our efforts through our advisors’ objective lens and articulate our strategies and actions clearly.

A BoA is the company equivalent of a coach or personal trainer. Your advisors, if selected properly, will have broader experience than you and can examine your company’s strategy and outcomes with an objective, seasoned perspective. They’ll help you see what’s working in your business, and ask hard questions when things are off track.

Next, let’s dig into the how—the guidance below is a synthesis of advice I received from others and approaches we found to be effective in our own process.