How to Put Together an Advisory Board

In the course of meeting many business owners over the years, I have found that few have any kind of board. I decided many years ago to form an advisory board which, of course, is very different from the traditional board of directors, both legally and financially. Based on my experience, I would say that an advisory board is most useful from the end of the first year of a new business and for five years afterwards.

For five years, I had met separately with people to ask their advice. When I started my business in 1992, I took a course for small business owners which was very valuable. Drawing on past experiences from when I headed a department for a not-for-profit and created a museum, I decided that it would be useful to meet with some of the people in a group. The synergy I knew would be very productive as it had been for the museum.

I then decided to ask a group of people if they would be willing to serve pro bono on an Advisory Board. Figuring that only a handful would say yes, as they were all very busy, I asked 16 people—to my great surprise 15 said yes, and the board was born.

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Where did I find them? Having served on committees of various kinds over many years, I had decided when I started my own business that I would not only join professional organizations, but serve on committees. Most came from those committees. I also learned a lot at the meetings and people got to know me and what I could do. In addition, I met some people at networking events. A few I knew from my “past life,” so to speak, from fields like advertising, sales, marketing, banking, publishing, not-for-profit, and the academic world.

The first thing I did was mailed each person a formal letter asking them to serve on the board. I arranged for a meeting room and put together a packet of material for each member on what my company offered. At the first meeting, we discussed what the board would do and not do, then opened the floor to suggestions. One, accepted by all, was that I would include a list of their names and affiliations to use for my marketing materials. Some had to get approval from their employers and no one said no. We met about four times a year for many years.

There was no way I could have done this when I first started my business. I really needed to work on committees and get to know people, and they needed to get to know me. For various reasons, the board as it was is no longer. But I still call on some of the members often.