All successful entrepreneurs have a group of business advisers. Basically, this group is a number of people that you have around you for advice. But let’s face it, we can’t just go to anyone for entrepreneurial advice … so how do we pick the people we need in our adviser group?
No one knows it all…
If you’ve ever met someone who knows everything … they probably hadn’t accomplished much. There are many people who think they know how to do things best. For example, everyone around me can tell me how you can become rich. Yet none of them are rich…
I’d rather listen to advice from people who have a proven track record. I don’t take accounting advice from my baker, nor do I take baking advice from my accountant (unless he happens to be an exceptional cook too of course). You definitely want your advisers to be experts in their field. Stop listening to your bum friend who keeps telling you how you can become successful.
Don’t think you should know it all. Intelligence defined as IQ has little to do with being a savvy entrepreneur. Actually, there are many entrepreneurs that aren’t ‘IQ smart’ but are very successful. What those entrepreneurs can teach you is that it isn’t about knowing it all, but about finding the people who do know it, and combining their knowledge.
The 5 fields of expertise you need
In order to combine the knowledge of several experts, you first need to determine which fields of expertise you need. Apart from specific expertise in your field of work, there are 5 fields you need:
- Personal development
- Accounting
- Investing
- Marketing
- Law
1. Your Personal Development Adviser
I believe that the only way to become truly successful is to keep working on yourself. There is an unlimited amount of learning you can do in this field, and the sooner you begin, the more effective your achievements are. As an advisor in the personal development field, I highly recommend you find a personal coach.
2. The Accounting Adviser
This one is simple, hire an accountant. Many entrepreneurs who just start out try to do their own accounting… This is the stupidest thing you can do. And I should know, because I was one of them. Why is this stupid? Well, because:
- You don’t like accounting
- You are not good at accounting
And the fact is, you don’t need to be. You only need a general understanding of the numbers. Reading a balance sheet, understanding cash flow, those are the things you need to be able to do. Booking stuff and filing tax reports is what your accountant can do for you.
Find an accountant who also offers to do your bookkeeping, so you can easily do it all at a single company. Of course, the accounting advice may cost more than the bookkeeping. Also make sure you have an accountant you trust and, preferably, one that is easily accessible. Don’t become a number at some big accounting firm that ‘has a good name’.
3. Investing
This is one field where you should NOT get an adviser. I hear you thinking ‘but there are so many of them’. Yes, and are any of them rich? No! Well, then why would you listen to them!?
There are many different ways of investing and I’ll give you a few options here. Try to find one that suits you, learn about it and get your feet wet slowly. As you learn, you’ll become better:
- Stock market
- Real estate
- Gold/Silver coins
- Art
- Start ups
Many more opportunities exist and the best thing you can do is to get started now.
4. Marketing
Don’t try to become the world’s best copywriter. Also don’t try to know everything about Internet marketing. Why? Because you can hire people to do it for you.
If like me, you are interested in Internet marketing then maybe you’ve picked up a course from one of the people who have made a lot of money with it. Well, I bought and studied several courses and there was 1 thing they all had in common. The marketing person wasn’t alone. They just use their name. They run a company just like you do.
So the bottom line is: the marketing guru isn’t actually a marketing guru. He is an entrepreneur who hires people with great marketing knowledge and puts this into a course. Nothing wrong with this, as long as you’re aware of how it works.
Personally I have 2 advisers here. One is a good friend who is an online marketing specialist, so I learn cool stuff from him. And best of all; I only have to buy him a beer or give him some of my advice for free in return.
The other is a company we hired to come up with a marketing concept. It costs us a lot of money, but the result is something we could never have come up with ourselves. That includes our entire team of smart people (about 20). Because the company we hired has marketing experts.
All in all, it is cheaper to hire them than to come up with something bad yourself!
5. Law
The final piece of the puzzle is law. You have to understand the law. Of course you don’t learn all of the laws by heart, that would be silly. Instead, you hire an attorney and/or a notary.
Make sure that all of your important contracts pass the notary. It costs you money now, but saves you money in the long run (your first lesson in investment – right there!).
How to use your advisers
You don’t carry your team of advisers in your briefcase, obviously. Rather, you use them as you see fit. That said, I try to keep to the following intervals with my advisers:
- Personal coach: every month
- Accountant: every quarter
- Marketing: every quarter
- Law: once a year
April 7th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Great post. YOu make it seem so easy to express your experiences. I wish i should have do as well inside sharing on my weblog. I just got the software started and sometimes feel stuck about what to share or when it is the right thing to express. what to do?
April 21st, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Basically, I view it like this: if there is no risk to other people or the company, I write the article. Usually I use the articles to shape my own thinking, because putting this to writing means you really have to think about them. And then I figured that the best way to do this, is to share it with other people. If I even only help 1 person with this blog, it will have been worth it.