Whatever business you are in, there is going to come a time when you will need some outside help from a small business advisor with something you aren’t familiar with. You could be hired to handle legal issues, financial planning, and investments, accounting services, insurance coverage, or any other number of categories. When this time comes, knowing who to turn to will eliminate costly timing errors, which can further deteriorate a fragile situation. Know the different types of business advisers you can seek out beforehand, and always have a plan.
1. Advisors on Strategy
A business strategy includes planning, workflows, action plans, and projections spanning every aspect of your business.
In the business world, strategy is the high-level task of launching new products, opening new departments, hiring key leadership roles, and entering new markets.
Considering the wide range of disciplines covered by business strategy, advisors tend to focus on the big picture. They often collaborate with other niche consultants for specific initiatives (which we will discuss further).
Among the most important reasons businesses seek out strategy consultants or small business advisor is:
- Choosing the right processes for new ventures
- Aligning and optimizing processes or resource allocation internally (often in conjunction with operations consultants)
- Launching new initiatives without harming the organization as a whole
- by evaluating initial concepts and business plans proposed by senior management
An important element of implementing business strategy workshops is to conduct SWOT analyses horizontally (across the organization) and vertically (focusing on upcoming initiatives or ventures).
2. Advisors in Marketing
Marketing advisors understand customer behavior, identify unique selling propositions, and package them across the right channels.
Marketing can be approached from different angles. The small business advisors in the field are generally familiar with the broader categories in the field, but specialization is often required.
- Several advisors in the world of marketing specialize in mom-and-pop shops or restaurants and local marketing.
- Consultants in digital marketing help to create digital strategies and lead digital transformation initiatives.
- They have often been involved in advertising campaigns or public relations campaigns.
- A branding advisor shapes the messaging of the business, slogans, digital identity, the company’s vision, as well as a lot more required to grow a team successfully, attract the right talent, and amplify messaging for the right audience.
Both traditional marketing initiatives and digital marketing can be handled by marketing advisors. Marketers with a strong understanding of your industry can identify new monetization channels, partnership opportunities, and short- and long-term strategies to skyrocket your business in the coming months.
3. Advisors in Financial Matters
In the accounting and investment industries, the term “financial advisor” is used for several different initiatives. Among them are:
- Advisory services for investment portfolios
- Consultation on bank accounts (and handling deposits and other investments)
- Long-term and short-term financial planning and projections
- A part-time CFO’s functions are de facto outsourced
In-company consulting, financial consultants (or Small Business Advisor) review past data and future projections regarding your business model and apply industry-grade patterns for risk management and resource allocation (both investing in internal initiatives and managing all expenses, from rent to salaries to stock distribution).
As a result of existing additional capital (of continuously profitable businesses with healthy net margins), a financial advisor may develop a separate portfolio investment plan that yields a healthy return on funds that are yet to be distributed. It may include anything from the stock exchange to forex or penny auctions to buying gold or investing in real estate.
Additionally, financial small business advisor are often able to help with personal finances as well. Dividends vs. salaries, what is eligible as a company expense, and long-term investment paradigms are discussed.
4. Advisors to Operations
Operations consulting is a branch of management consulting that focuses on solving operational and efficiency issues within the organization.
Operations are the day-to-day activities in a business, as opposed to the “bigger picture” of the business strategy. The operations advisor delves deeper into the execution components of accomplishing tasks, allocating resources, establishing practical workflows, and revising the supply chain from start to finish once a strategy has been established.
In a manufacturing or eCommerce business, operations experts can help establish the most efficient workflow in production, shipping, warehouse management, logistics, and overall efficiency.
As agents, operations consultants focus on the most expensive component of running an agency (staff, since salaries, are the biggest cost) as well as the proper in-team management – everything from reporting through meeting scheduling, feedback reviews, day-to-day assignments for team members, feedback loops, retention opportunities, and efficiency paradigms for maximizing output.
5. Advisors to Management
Management advisors are the strategic planners behind operations consultants (who execute the plans).
Most management consultants (and advisors) are MBAs with a decade or more of corporate experience.
Interestingly, this is mainly due to the background in “management consulting”. The title isn’t a popular one in the startup ecosystem, and many founders haven’t gone through the process in the first place.
Traditional management small business advisors focus on a certain specialty for SMBs and startups, and use the following titles instead:
- Consultant in digital marketing
- and growth strategy
- specializing in startups
- Advisor to startups
- Business consultant to startups
Management consultants assist organizations with improving their operational performance, conducting an analysis of existing organizational issues, and developing improvement plans.
6. Advisors on Taxation
A tax advisor utilizes his or her expertise on tax laws to help clients handle their taxes most efficiently and take advantage of any tax advantages or exemptions. There are several types of companies one can register locally, several payment methods (wire transfers, credit cards, payment providers, aggregated services), different options for paying dividends vs. fixed salary, the possibility of distributing shares to the senior team, and other payment structures for different divisions (or products) within the company.
A tax advisor can handle tax forms and CPA services, as well as communicate with tax authorities on behalf of their clients when they work with a tax advisor early on. Specifically, these tax experts offer to consult on two main types of tax advice: corporate and personal.
In most cases, corporate clients refer to large companies or enterprises, while individuals who have large assets need personal tax advice. Imagine the complex structure of Google or Facebook, registered simultaneously in many countries, transferring funds back and forth with different taxes in every country.
There are several areas where tax advisors can help an organization with its financial work:
- Taxes on corporations
- corporations
- corporations, international and customs
- executive personal tax
- estates and trusts
- Value Added Tax (or similar taxes in different countries or states)
These are some of the responsibilities of tax advisors:
- Tax return preparation and optimization
- optimization
- optimization, including resolving any issues that may arise
- Tax compliance, including the resolution of any issues that may arise
- and saving on taxes under the law
- Financial and legal advice
Together with accountants, lawyers, or other financial advisors, tax advisors can create an expert team that can help you deal with financial issues and even prevent them from occurring in the first place. Typically, they work closely with the CFO and the CEO in a large company.
7. Advisors on Legal Issues
In essence, a legal advisor is an in-house lawyer who advises the company on issues concerning the law that applies to it (area, country, state, or even city in some instances).
Larger companies often have a legal team comprised of legal experts while smaller companies have a legal advisor on-call whose primary responsibilities include:
- Drafting and negotiating contracts with clients or vendors
- following local and international legal requirements
- Interacting with management and employees
- Provide legal analysis and research (especially in newer areas such as CCPA or GDPR)
- Review acquisitions, mergers, or negotiations and their legal implications across the organization (including non-compete clauses, non-disclosures, or possible monopolies).
- Provide legal advice for settlements of disputes.
- Ensure that legal policies and clauses are implemented properly within the organization.
Lawyers are particularly helpful in ensuring that companies reach legally appropriate conflict resolutions when there are labor or contract disputes, compensation issues, harassment suits, and other employee or management conflicts.
Most small to mid-sized businesses can’t afford to hire a full-time lawyer (and it’s also too expensive to do so), so legal advisors can be extremely valuable.
Additionally, legal advisors deal with multiple businesses (often 15-20 at a time) and provide a broader perspective based on their experience with similar situations.
8. Advisory Services For IT
IT advisors are specialized consultants in one or more of the following areas:
- The development of infrastructure
- in hardware systems
- includes networking
- as well as software
- and Web design
- for building or scaling development teams
- for product development
- Security (for banks, governments, and companies working with security agencies).
The majority of IT advisors are former CTOs or VPs of technology who transitioned to consulting, enjoying the variety of working with multiple clients at once.
There are profiles in specific areas of work – such as facilitating the recruitment of technical teams or helping a company to outsource complex products (through contracting with the right agency).
A company or ISP that is looking to migrate to a large cloud infrastructure, such as Amazon Web Services, or build a dedicated server center can also hire an IT advisor and begin the planning and transition process.
Small businesses often work with IT advisors rather than building an entire technical team in-house. In addition to their core expertise, the IT advisor acts as a part-time CTO or works alongside the CTO on initiatives that are not within his or her areas of expertise.
9. Advisors to Recruiters
To scale a business successfully, recruitment is one of the most important processes.
- In 2012, 56% of companies reported that a candidate rejected their job offer
- Among the 20,000 new hires, 46% failed within 18 months
- months; 89% left because they didn’t fit the organization’s values
- and 11% failed because they lacked the necessary skills
- Often, hiring the wrong fit costs six figures (let alone missed opportunities and limited progress due to delays).
Scaling can be very costly when downplayed since hiring issues may vary.
In addition to providing in-house consulting for internal hiring, recruitment advisors communicate with staffing firms (or other outsourcing companies).
You can access a broader pool of recruitment agencies by working with a recruitment advisor, therefore bridging the gap between companies and job applicants.
The Responsibilities of a Recruitment Advisor are as follows:
- Negotiate job descriptions, contracts, and fees
- Screen candidates for a job and headhunt candidates
- Interview prospective employees alongside team leaders
- Organize the selection process in an easy-to-follow, smooth manner
- Promote job openings internally
A recruitment advisor can streamline the hiring and onboarding process, as well as streamline the staffing process.
10. Advisors in Sales
Our role as sales advisors is to manage the sales processes within the organization – building in-house sales teams, streamlining internal sales processes, improving the funnel development process with our marketing team, and refining pricing.
Seventy-nine percent of consumers prefer dealing with salespeople who are trusted advisors. Having a trustworthy sales advisor in a company is crucial, whether it is B2B or B2C.
When you hire an industry leader who is a known player in the field, this will facilitate your recruitment process, as well.
The responsibilities of a sales advisor vary depending on the industry and the products or services the company offers.
Professional sales advisors can assist E-commerce businesses in a variety of ways:
- Negotiating better terms with vendors and delivery orders
- Managing sales promotions, discounts, prices, and return policies
- Promoting sales and partnership opportunities (including wholesale and retail)
- Participating in sales transactions with the team
- Addressing customer concerns and complaints about high-tier customers
- and assisting in sales pitches and presentations
Following the first several months, B2B businesses can delegate sales meetings, trade show demos, and other strategic relationship deals to their advisor.
50-90% of the buyer’s journey with a B2B company is now completed before the buyer interacts with a salesperson. Sales advisors, regardless of their tasks, have a common goal: to increase the likelihood of a sale by providing sales advice and creating an appealing environment.
When looking for a sales advisor, companies tend to look for the following traits:
- Extensive experience in the field (preferably with other companies in the field)
- Ability to lead webinars and product demos using digital technology
- in a customer-oriented and results-driven manner
- Expert knowledge of products and services
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Outstanding organizational skills
- Team-building skills for growing an in-house sales team
- in collaboration with executives, they expand monetization opportunities based on their vision and product understanding
11. Advisors for Digital Transformation
A good number of Fortune 500 companies offer mostly digital products or services, thanks to the rapid growth of the digital universe over the past 20 years.
As a result, traditional businesses struggled to transition to the web in various disciplines:
- Cloud-based systems for in-house systems
- including CRMs, ERPs, marketing automation solutions
- Modernizing hiring with application tracking systems and innovative ways
- of digitalizing services and solutions previously offered offline
- and developing eCommerce solutions where appropriate
- Transferring on-site onboarding and training processes to online training environments
- Mentoring and training sessions with different groups of employees about the new technical suites (and other concepts related to data privacy and security)
Advisors who specialize in digital transformation assist businesses in transitioning to the modern web with minimal friction.
In many cases, they work alongside marketing teams to ensure a seamless process without interfering with existing operations. As a result of traditional offline marketing, offers are being adapted to the digital environment, and include tracking systems like Google Analytics, advertising solutions from Facebook, Google, Taboola/Outbrain, Instagram, and marketing automation suites (and more).
Since online visibility has become a selection standard for millennial and Generation Z consumers, digital transformation advisors have been extremely valuable for attracting young talent and ensuring the company shows progress in adopting the latest tech and industry-grade standards in web design.
12. Advisors in Public Relations
Small businesses rarely hire PR advisors, but having one can have a significant positive impact on your branding and marketing efforts.
Public relations advisors are professionals who manage the image and reputation of your brand. PR advisors assist with:
- Increasing the status of your business
- through goodwill among your target customers
- Dealing with issues and crises tarnishing your company’s image
- as well as connecting with the media for greater exposure
- and, if necessary, rebrand your business
Even if you are capable of developing your PR strategy, it is difficult to match the connections and resources of reliable PR advisors. Their name comes from the fact that they shape images. You can turn a PR nightmare into an opportunity to showcase your brand better when you have a good PR advisor on your side.
If the options for hiring business advisors seem overwhelming now, take my free email business accelerator course to learn more about the most important areas of running a successful business. When you have identified the initiatives you need help with, look for the right advisor in the corresponding field and get ready to transform your business.
Having a similar value system is perhaps the most important quality in a small business advisor. You won’t be a good fit for an advisor who doesn’t value integrity over ‘winning at all costs. Finding an advisor who agrees with your philosophy will help you build a company that meets customers’ needs, and profits will naturally follow.
However, that doesn’t mean an entrepreneur cannot benefit from a different perspective. For instance, an small business advisor may suggest new directions for your business you hadn’t thought of before. The most important thing is to separate ideas from core values and find an advisor with a combination of similar values and unique ideas.
The first step to finding a trusted advisor for your small business is to describe what qualities you expect in a business advisor. Next, narrow your options until you find the perfect match for your small business.
