What makes an advisory board made up of business owners different?

An alternative board of directors or a traditional advisory board is a group of individuals who are personally selected and meet to help direct the business owner in making difficult decisions. These individuals typically complete the expertise of the business owner, and they may include different professionals – from a financial advisor or lawyer to a sales specialist or marketing person. In addition, the team manager is a qualified coach who takes care of the accompaniment and training between the meetings. In business training, the coach will assist in implementing, sharpening and preparing for the next meeting.

Consulting councils made up of business owners have been a key component of big business for a long time, but the owners of privately owned businesses do not usually have the resources needed to use them. In addition, when you are immersed in a business problem, even the advice of experts sitting on an advisory board is something that can not often be compared to the situation in which you share your concerns with a group of people who not only understand your business but also the pressures you face as a business owner.

This is where external advisory councils made up of local people who are also business owners can be valuable. They bring together people with similar thinking from a variety of fields, who can share insights and expertise to help each other make their businesses grow. In such councils the members meet as equal persons in their status, with a common goal of increasing their membership and developing skills as business owners and leaders. This creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust, in which members can be honest about the challenges and questions they face.

The concept of an alliance of business owners and other skilled people similar to each other in the fields of business was first introduced in Napoleon Hill's book Think and Grow Rich. He recommends that business owners pass on any program they have through what he calls their Brain Alliance. He writes: “No single person has enough experience, education, innate ability, and knowledge to ensure the accumulation of vast wealth without co-operation with other people.”

Not only do other business owners more fully understand the problem you're facing, but the more the business owners' advisory board "ripens," the more the members get to know the other members' businesses better, and can offer personalized insights about things like how to boost sales, How to run the business more effectively, and how to solve distressing problems related to manpower.

And as the members of the advisory council become more knowledgeable in the business of the other members, something amazing happens. Alan Fishman, founder and chairman of the TAB, explains why this kind of council is so successful. “The friends are here to open up and tell about all kinds of things they don’t talk about with anyone else,” he says. “They never discuss their fears or dreams about what the future holds with their employees or even their managers.”

Being able to open up so fully within a group of people you can trust allows business owners not only to grow their business but also to find a personal and professional balance. Think about the following points to better understand how an advisory board of business owners can help your company—and you—thrive.