How I Built a Board That Makes My Business Smarter

I’m going to divulge one of the biggest secrets to building your business. Ready? The more you know, the more you’ll grow. That’s it. While it may sound trite, the truth is that knowledge is power, and knowing how to leverage that information will be one of the biggest assets you will ever have in expanding your business into a thriving enterprise.

But it’s not just about reading an exhaustive list of articles, listening to every business podcast or going to countless trade shows. While all of those are important, having a reservoir of expert knowledge you can tap into at every stage of your growth is paramount. What’s better quality experiential wisdom than learning from the best of the best?

As such, it’s very important to have a team of trusted experts and people you can rely on for receiving counsel and to talk things out with — but who you bring to the table is equally important.

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Building the best board

One great source of experts may be your board of directors. Of course, most venture-backed businesses must have this element; even so, it’s an incredibly valuable tool you can use to further your business from many angles. Even if a formal board is not required, I’d recommend building one from the ground up.

At its base, it will be composed of people who can provide new insights and make key connections and introductions. For example, you may have someone who is great with partnerships or has a ton of experience raising capital, and tapping into their expertise will be immensely helpful if these are areas where you need guidance. Overall, having someone who has been in your shoes with an emerging business and knows the ropes can be really helpful.

Yet the other side of the coin is that, often, a board can be full of third-party representatives of investors and venture capitalists who have provided capital for the business. They may very well have their own agenda and provide bad advice, which only satisfies their bottom line.

For this reason, it’s always important to corral your own hand-picked advisors or a separate advisory board that you wholeheartedly trust and understand your business’s landscape and what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, I have a business coach who is probably my most trusted advisor; I rely on him constantly in many situations.

The key, however, is to diversify the group so you don’t have all the same people sitting around the table saying the same thing. Instead, you want a good variety of viewpoints.

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Finding diverse experts

Of course, finding a diverse population of advisors with the expertise you are looking for is not always easy, but there are great resources that can help. Networking is critical: If you’re a good networker with long tentacles in the industry, you will always find people wanting to help. You may need to determine how to recoup their time, such as with equity or other offerings, but there will always be interested parties.

If you need help growing your circle, visit local business or entrepreneurial networking events and industry-specific trade shows. A great newer option I’ve found is Hampton, a private network for high-growth founders. Of course, there’s also YPO, the Young Presidents’ Organization, which is ideal for fostering relationships with other CEOs. Joining these groups can be invaluable for networking opportunities. In all cases, you’ll want to gather emails, connect on LinkedIn and don’t be shy about talking to people and letting them know what you are looking for.

However, one thing to keep in mind is that while you are looking for diverse minds on the board, you should ensure your picks are tangentially relevant. You don’t want someone to be so out of the box that there’s no throughline. I think of it as filling in blind spots for the business, so you always know how to navigate the road best ahead.

The best ways to utilize your inner circle

Since board meetings are typically regularly scheduled, it allows you to interface with your advisors on a regular cadence, such as every quarter. Adding an agenda item for knowledge-gathering in these sessions can be helpful, such as asking for introductions with key players, tapping into their networks for connections and seeing what other opportunities they can offer.

But it doesn’t always have to be this formal. I always have a few board members on call, my most trusted experts, who can be my sounding board and go deep with me on important matters when they happen, because they always will.