Archive for the Business Planning Category
When cash is tight, the bank won’t increase your loan and the future isn’t yet clear, these are good indicators having an external advisory board will be valuable. An advisory board can be the bridge between what you need today and what the business can afford.
Five Questions Signaling Now is the Right Time to Establish an Advisory Board:
- Are you preserving cash flow by either not hiring senior staff or not engaging consultants?
- Do you have pressing issues but don’t know where to get the answers or the ones you’ve received aren’t useful?
- Has the recession and now the recovery presented business opportunities you aren’t sure how to take advantage of?
- Does your business strategy need tweaking given all the turmoil the recession has caused?
- Are you simply worn-out from doing it all yourself and need additional brainpower to think through decisions?
For many advisors the fee they collect is at the bottom of the list for why they agreed to serve. Many advisors will start out serving for free. So if you have identified a few individuals who could help you out and they aren’t people you would normally engage as staff or consultants, invite them for coffee and explore the possibility. The worst they can say is no but it’s likely they will say yes. During an economic recovery is a perfect time to start your advisory board.
Need more information on how to set-up your advisory board? The Advisory Board Kit: A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing an Advisory Board is now available.
The U.S. Small Business Administration is searching for participants in this year’s Emerging 200 Program.
The goal of the SBA Emerging 200 initiative is to identify 200 inner-city businesses across the country that show a high potential for growth—and to provide them the network, resources and motivation required to build a sustainable business of size and scale. The initiative will run executive training series in a number of urban areas and Native American communities during the 2010 cycle.
This initiative is a jobs and growth stimulation effort targeting promising inner-city small businesses. It focuses on small, poised-for-growth inner-city companies with potential for job creation. The six month intensive and comprehensive curriculum focuses on winning local strategies and attracting capital to fuel growth. In addition to 40 hours of class instruction, this includes 14 hours of mentoring.
The program is free of charge and will run from April, 2010 to November, 2010. All that is required on the part of the small business is a time commitment (60- 80 hours total) by the senior executive of the firm and a desire to take your business to the next level.
Small business owners interested in the E200 program are encouraged to contact their closest local office and/or the Emerging 200 Program at e200@sba.gov.
A recent Small Business Trends blog post provided a good analysis of Anita Campbell’s webinar “How Can You Secure Credit for Your Small Business in Today’s Market?”. To learn about some of the options click through and read the post.
