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In last week’s blog post, I talked about our move to San Diego, and the importance of asking for help during all phases of the move. 

One of my travelling team members

We had friends supporting us with meals and encouragement before the trip, packers and loaders and movers working during the trip while my husband, daughter, fish, dog, and I were a travelling team across country, then in San Diego more support from our new nanny, all the businesses providing what we can purchase in order to help create our lives here, and still more from our friends by phone and online.

I cannot imagine making such a huge move (or even a smaller one!) without the help of each and every person along the way.  Maybe we could have done it ourselves, but why would we even want to??

That is the question we business owners need to start asking ourselves more often.  The “I can do this myself!” attitude that helped us become successful business owners can also be what gets us stuck in doing too much ourselves and stressing ourselves out so much that we lose our effectiveness. 

I love this quote by Napoleon Hill, from his book Think and Grow Rich:

“Ally yourself with a group of as many people as you many need for the creation, and carrying out of your plan, or plans… Compliance with this instruction is absolutely essential.  Do not neglect it.”

We entrepreneurs MUST have help!  Not just with carrying out plans we’ve already created, but also in creating and expanding our plans, and helping keep us on track (or go off the original track if necessary).

Consider creating an Advisory Board or Board of Directors … or if that feels too formal, call it a Dream Team.  These are the people who believe in your overall vision and believe in YOU, but not necessarily people who all think alike and agree on everything. 

Although very important, creating an Advisory Board does not need to be a stressful process.  Remember when you were in grade school and had to choose teams for kickball?  What did you do then?  You didn’t say, “No, I don’t want any other players,” you went ahead and started picking the best people available to give you a better chance of success.  

So start choosing your Advisory Board / Board of Directors / Dream Team members today.  You simply need four things:

1. Business Current State:  Where is your business now in terms of accomplishing your goals, making your vision a reality?
2. Business Future State: Where do you want your business to be in the near future?
3. List of Needs: What talents and skills are needed in order to get your business to the desired future state?
4. List of People: Who do you know (or need to know!) in order to provide those talents and skills?

Then the next, most important step is:  ASK!  Ask them to be a part of your advisory team.  You will be surprised at the abundance in number of YES’s especially if you tell them up front what the role is that you want them to play for you because most of the time it is not very time intensive.

I’m currently putting together an advisory board for Lorin Beller Blake & Company, and would love to hear your real-life experiences:

Do you already have an advisory team in place?  How it is working for you?

Are you in the process of creating an advisory team and know your needs but don’t have the people?  Let us know what you need! One of our readers might be a great contact for you.

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