If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, refresh your strategy, raise capital or make your business more profitable, a business advisor can help.
Too often in business, business owners can be distracted by the day-to-day, with the big goals falling by the wayside. Business advisory services will help cut through the noise to get to the heart of what your business needs to do to achieve its goals.
What’s the difference between a business advisor and business coach?
A business advisor is very different to a business coach as they are much more focussed on the “doing” rather than just the “guiding.”
In other words, a business coach will support you to set goals and remain accountable to achieving them, but won’t identify what tasks need to be completed to achieve those goals. Whereas, a business advisor will tell you what specific steps you need to take to achieve those goals and help you take them.
As a consultant and partner in your business, a business advisor provides much more hands-on support. As an outsider to your business, they can often see things that you can’t. They provide a fresh perspective on your business to help identify opportunities and clear barriers.
A business advisor will generally be trained as an accountant and therefore is much more like a CFO than a coach. They can take a holistic view of your business and finances.
What does a business advisor do?
A business advisor will:
- Act as a sounding board for the CEO
- Help develop or update the business plan
- Review and report on financial performance
- Prepare detailed budgets, forecasts and cash flow reports
- Advise on tax planning, asset protection and succession planning
- Help reduce overheads and deliver efficiencies
- Help the business raise capital
- Help the business generate more revenue
- Engage with lenders, investors, auditors, key partners and the Board
Securing business advisory services will be particularly useful when big decisions need to be made such as:
- When and how to source capital
- When and how to restructure
- How to build resilience into the business
- When and how to pivot
- How to turnaround a business
- Which products lines to expand or phase out
- How to improve profitability
- When to reduce headcount
- When and how to tighten spending
- When and how to invest
- When to merge with or acquire another company
What’s the process of working with a business advisor?
A business advisor will meet with you regularly to review your business’ performance, set goals and track your progress against those goals.
They are much more than just an accountant. They will have an understanding of all functions of business, from operations and sales, to marketing and legal. They are usually also well networked and can connect you with experts or specialists in certain areas.
A good business advisor will usually have a background in business themself. They should understand the challenges business owners face and the sacrifices they make in order to launch and run a successful business.
Does my business need a business advisor?
While all businesses can benefit from business advisory services, there are certain milestones or conditions which suggest a business is ripe for this kind of support. Here are some scenarios which could mean your business could seriously benefit from business advisory services.
- Your business is growing rapidly
- Your business has big growth goals
- Your financial knowledge is lacking
- The financial reports and data you currently have access to are unsatisfactory or only tell a small part of the story about your business
- You don’t feel you’re armed with the right financial information to make significant business decisions
- You’re experiencing issues with cash flow, costs or profitability
- You’re concerned you’re missing out on market opportunities
- You have big ideas but aren’t sure how to execute on them
Looking for more clarity and direction in your business? It might be time to source a gun business advisor. At Keeping Company, we provide business advisory services which help catapult our clients to high growth. Whether it be helping them raise capital, through to setting the strategy, we are committed to providing exceptional value to clients and pride ourselves on helping them be as successful as possible. Contact us today to find out more.
At Keeping Company, we’re not just accountants, we’re business people too. With our counsel, your business can reach its full potential.
We have a team of experts; Cloud Accountants, Business Advisors, Finance Specialists working together and ready to help, contact us today.
For all media enquires please contact Tracy Miller, CMO, Keeping Company 0414 898 452.
The material and contents provided in this publication are informative in nature only. It is not intended to be advice and you should not act specifically on the basis of this information alone. If expert assistance is required, professional advice should be obtained.