By Fernando Berrocal

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As a new startup owner, you must understand that businesses are beneficial to everyone in a community. However, it doesn’t matter how well you are starting out on this entrepreneurial journey.  You must remember that your methods can always be improved upon. You will be on your way to achieving your goal if you carry out all the advised activities, such as marketing to the appropriate target markets, monitoring direct and indirect competition, evaluating advertising performance, etc. 

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So, the question to ask yourself will be: What else can a small business owner do to accelerate their business growth? As an important business solution, we advise you to think about establishing a board of advisors for your small business, regardless of its type of industry. In this blog post, we will go over the benefits for small business owners to have an advisory board for their businesses.

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To start with, you should be conscious that a board of small business advisors does not need to be intimidating to a business owner, or their business team or be viewed as an obstacle to its success. The opposite, actually, would be the correct sentiment. A dedicated small business board can accelerate business growth and provide strengths to make up for any particular flaws an owner may have. For this specific scenario, take into account the following benefits:

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• Challenging Thinking: It’s common knowledge that small business owners are notorious for their optimistic philosophies toward their businesses (and life in general). While it's true that this quality keeps a business owner pretty motivated, the correct advisory board can push the owner to see things more clearly and critically than they might otherwise. This helps prevent having "tunnel vision", or being overly optimistic about how the business will operate. This can also help the startup owner to have certain business plans concerning different types of business risks that may appear along the way.

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• The Individual Strengths of Each Board Member: The members of a board of advisors should have a diverse range of business knowledge and expertise. This range of information can be used as guidance in a variety of different areas of a small business. For instance, a six-member board will be able to directly explain it to you and will have years of combined expertise dealing with all important different business challenges and solutions. A board of directors can offer specialized expertise that a firm's owner and management team may be missing if the correct mix of members is chosen.

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• Business Networking: Today, business networking is very beneficial for all types of businesses, regardless of their size or industry. Board members might leverage their connections to link business owners with subject matter experts, and locate critical strategic partners and/or funding sources. A small business's visibility to other community members might be increased by utilizing the connections of board members. Remember that board members have been in these environments for longer than you have, and may have better connections than your competition.

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• The Innovative Ideas: Individual members of a board of advisors may offer intriguing creative solutions and/or different business strategies for challenging problems or potentially lucrative new business prospects. Owners frequently lack the time or experience to look beyond their daily routines when they are overburdened with attempting to manage their businesses day in and day out. Members of the board can offer fresh insight into unexplored possibilities and can advise creative ideas that might help a small business achieve greater profitability.

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• Resonance Chamber: An issue or circumstance may occasionally arise for a business owner without being very specified. To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of doing something "this way or that way," all that is required is a sounding board of "think tank partners." Sometimes just hearing different viewpoints helps put a business owner follow the right path to future success.

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• Personal Improvement of Startup Owners: It makes sense that small business owners are familiar with the technological components of their operations and must cooperate with them. However, they typically lack expertise in human connections, communication, or business management. For a business owner's personal growth, advisory board members with a richness of diverse business and personal expertise can act as business mentors in these cases. Try to learn as much as possible from these individuals from a personal standpoint. Remember that to be a great professional, you must be a great person in the first place.

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To a certain extent, small business entrepreneurs can be very egocentric. A business owner must be open-minded when thinking about creating an advisory board since they frequently operate their businesses with a "my way" mentality and either established them from scratch or bought them. A board cannot be successfully formed if the owner is unable to embrace new ideas and constructive criticism. Solid ideas and business tactics, on the other hand, can result in greater growth when a board's efforts collectively assist the owner in articulating a future vision and strategic small business plan.

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Board members can address gaps that small business owners frequently experience. These consultants, who may have seen their businesses develop from inception to maturity, can offer owners tried-and-true organized techniques to assist them to avoid common mistakes on the route to success. A well-chosen advisory board can guide a small business to long-term success.

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Ready to bring your startup to the next level? Apply to MassLight’s next batch. MassLight supplies capital and a dedicated tech team. We take equity in return. Have questions? Refer to our FAQ page.