Who are you going to call?
Professional advisors are the experts a business owner or manager will call to help them solve a difficult or new problem. Instead of trying to find the right answers yourself, it is easier, and often wiser, to phone a business advisor to get the benefit of all their years of experience solving problems for a wide range of organisations.
What the advisor will do for you
If you have selected the right advisor that has the right combination of industry experience and professional qualifications the advisor will be able to quickly;

• Review your current business situation
• Advise on any immediate actions that need to be taken to prevent or reduce more damage
• Determine a range of suitable options to solve your problem
• Inform you of the outcomes, positive and negative, of each option
• Let you make your own decision
• Then provide support to implement the selected option

Why it is a great idea to know an advisor
Imagine how long you would need to spend in training courses and working in the industry to build the knowledge your business advisor has gained from their years of practical experience.
The advisor needs to stay industry and professionally current by watching all the news and events of their chosen fields, while you spend that time running your business instead.
Like a mechanic, you only need to pay them to fix a problem, and not an annual wage waiting for something to fix.
Choosing the right advisor
There are many people claiming the professional advisor title and it can be difficult to know if they are able to solve your problems. Here are some things to help you select the suitable advisor;

• Ask for specific experiences in similar businesses and organisations like yours.
• Find out how they stay current with industry changes
• Do they hold the relevant formal qualifications to match your current problems
• Can they explain your situation and options in plain english
• Ask for the three latest references they have serviced and contact them all to check the advisors professional behaviour and methods.

One important last word on advisors
You need to trust the advisor as you will be discussing your business performance and confidential data in the hopes that you can fix the problem, not create a new problem.
If you are relying on the advisor to help fix your organisation and follow their recommendations it could be expensive if they are wrong or provide poor advice that causes damage to your business.
Ensure that they hold all the relevant insurances and membership to professional associations required in the country or state you operate in.
In Australia, we use professional indemnity insurance of at least $1 million coverage to reduce the impact of poor advice.

Information supplied by Paul Baker
Over twenty years of business development & change management strategies successfully used in National organisations across Australia. The focus is on continuous improvement of business systems to stimulate growth through our principles of Initiate, Inspire, Innovate.
Customer-centric focus using our extensive experience in consumer behaviour and business process operations to find ways to help business owners manage their organisations.