THE ADVISORY BOARD SPECIALISTS

The Problem - How to get the best, and most cost effective, advice for your business

Getting the right advice and guidance is critical to business success. That's why many businesses have a Board of Directors to guide that decision making, but for many businesses, especially those growing rapidly or just starting out, having a full Board of Directors to deliver that support and help make those crucial decisions can be too costly and too complex. Prospective Directors are also often nervous about going onto the boards of small and medium sized businesses because of all the duties and potential personal liabilities that go with being a Director of a company.

The solution - An Advisory Board

An Advisory Board can offer the ideal solution. Getting the right people around a table giving you advice as an Advisory Board can add just as much value to your business as having a full Board of Directors. Even where there is a full Board of Directors already in place, an Advisory Board can still add significant value by acting as 'Advisors to the Board'.

The benefits of an Advisory Board

• COST The cost of an Advisory Board is almost always less than having a full Board of Directors, that’s because they act purely as advisors and don’t have to take on all the onerous duties and obligations that go with being a Director.
• SPEED It’s quicker and easier to put an Advisory Board together. Because your Advisory Board members are engaged purely as advisors there is no onerous and complex ‘due diligence’ process for both parties to have to go though.
• CONTROL You are still in control, unlike a full Board of Directors who have very specific legal obligations to ‘direct’ a business, an Advisory Board is there purely to give advice.
• FLEXIBILITY To make changes to full Board you may well have to wait until the next AGM, Advisory Board members are engaged as contracted advisors, so altering the composition of an Advisory Board is generally a far quicker and much less complex process than altering the composition of a main Board of Directors.
• FOCUS A well run Advisory Board can really add value by focusing on and drilling into the key issues where the Board or senior management really need advice and guidance.

Advicepoint - Specialising in Advisory Boards

What we do is put together your Advisory Board for you, and show you how to get the best out of it. We can help you recruit your Advisory Board members from our extensive network of successful businesspeople, if you already have potential Advisory Board members in mind we can include them too. We can Chair the initial meetings and help you bed the process in. It’s not hard, but as is so often the case, having someone who has done it before show you what to do makes it all so much easier.

Take the first step to setting up your Advisory Board

Fill out our enquiry form and we will contact you for an initial no-obligation discussion about your needs and getting your own Advisory Board up and running.

In addition to our Advisory Board Services, we can also assist with;

STRATEGY & BUSINESS MODELS

Technology change and a wide range of other factors can cause a once sound strategy to be quickly overtaken. Do you have the optimal business model? Let us take a fresh look at your business model and strategic options to help reveal new strategic and business model options.

SALES & SALES MANAGEMENT

How do you sell? Are you selling the most effective way available? Are your channels to market really working for you? Salespeople are natural optimists, but is your sales pipeline real and is it being properly measured? Let us take a look to answer some or all of these questions.

NOT FOR PROFIT GOVERNANCE

Through our associated business, NFP Governance Qld, we offer a range of Company Secretarial and Governance services specifically geared to meet the needs of the Not for Profit sector. See the NFP Governance Qld website for further information.

ENQUIRY FORM

ABOUT US

My name is John Burkett, principal of Advicepoint Business Consulting..

By academic training I have a degree in Psychology. My commercial background is in Sales and Marketing in the IT industry. In 1991 I set up a business in the UK which grew into a successful public company group, eventually this business was sold to a large USA based IT company.

Developing this business, and going through all the ups and downs that a business owner experiences, led me to understand how it’s necessary to make the transition from ‘start up entrepreneur’ to ‘business manager’ as a business grows and develops. To help me deal with this I did two key things, firstly I put in place an Advisory Board that later went on to form the main company Board, I believe that doing this was a key element of the success of the business. Secondly, I put myself though an MBA with one of the leading business schools in the UK, so I have both real life experience as well as the business theory behind me! As part of my MBA I did specialisations in Business Strategy, Business Finance and Creativity & Innovation.

I am a Graduate of the AICD Company Directors course, a Mentor at Brisbane's River City Labs, and a long serving Mentor and occasional Chairman on the Queensland State Government Mentoring for Growth program.

While a lot of my experience has been in technology and software related fields, my skills in business management and business development, with a special focus on sales and managing sales teams and distribution channels, has led to being able to support and advise businesses in a wide range of industries and sectors. You may also like to read my latest posts in the Advicepoint Business Blog or download my free ebook 12 Guiding Principles for Business Success.