I’m a big believer in modeling masters - find someone who has already achieved what you want to do and copy their strategies for your own business. With my first company we thought we needed help to take our company to the next level. Sure we had clients around the world and were investing in our product, but we wanted to play a bigger game.

We thought it would be best to bring in some outside advisers to help take our company forward. We began tapping our network to look for someone to fill the role. We did our research on people, asked a lot of questions, and checked references. The first guy we brought in ended up being a big waste of time and money. We flew him to see us and go to a tradeshow with us. He was all talk and no action. Many weeks and thousands of dollars later we parted ways.

Through our local connections we found another adviser who ended up being instrumental to our success. He helped us negotiate several large deals and was a trusted person we turned to with the experience we were looking for.

Here are a few tips to help you create win-win relationships with advisors:

1. Pay out on success. Don’t pay them up front for future work. Make it success based and pay them once they deliver.
2. Don’t give up equity too soon. There’s nothing like having a bad equity partner and advisers often will ask for a piece of the action. If they are performing then there’s every reason to give them that extra incentive but don’t give up equity before they have shown you what they can do.
3. Use your connections. A reference from someone in your network is always better than bringing somebody you don’t know at all into your business. Even if you check their references, it’s much better to trust a candidate who has been referred by somebody you know and respect.
4. Make sure they’ve been there. If you want to take your company to a $1 million or $10 million or $100 million company, make sure the person you’re bringing on has done it before. If they are advising you they should already have the experience you need.
5. Do they know your industry? Every industry has it’s own way of doing things. Make sure your candidate has the industry experience you’re looking for. They should already know the main customers, partners, suppliers, and investors and the dynamics of the business. Whoever steps in to help you should be ready to go and not have to do a lot of on the job learning.

It’s important for every entrepreneur at some point to go outside and ask for help and advice to get to that next step. Make sure in doing so to ask the right questions and select the person who is the best fit for the job.

Evan Carmichael

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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