For the first five years of our business, my wife and I didn’t go too far outside of the family for business advice. We had financial and legal assistance, but at some point, we started to realize how much we didn’t know about all sorts of things. As a small business, we needed an informal board of directors to help guide our path forward. I highly recommended you consider establishing one for your company.
Where Can a Small Business Find an Informal Board of Directors?
We couldn’t afford an official board of director but we were very lucky. We could always offer double chocolate brownies as a lure. I remember saying, “help us and in exchange we will give you these amazing brownies.” It was not too hard to get some really smart people to listen and provide advice.
But beyond the sweet bribe, we reached out to several people whom we thought could help us. Fearless networking became our path to get access to people who had the experience and expertise to help us solve many business problems. Through an acquaintance of a family member, our Philadelphia-based business got marketing help from a very senior professional at Campbell Soup. Bob Subin was a very influential and important marketing professional. He grew the Prego brand (with help from Howard Moskowitz) into an $800 million dollar entity. He offered us very sound and practical marketing coaching to guide us along our path. To this day, I remember him telling me that you have to concentrate on both top and bottom line growth to be successful. It isn’t one or the other. He explained the dynamic of selling a branded product into foodservice. Best of all, he was someone willing to listen to any problem we encountered and he always had a simple and easy-to-follow method to solve the problem.
A key lesson was to ask for help. We told our informal board of directors, we would limit the time commitment, and would send questions in advance. This helped attract willing participants.
We were also fortunate to have several distributors who sold our product who were also willing to provide their views and perspective on our business needs. Mitch Berliner, a DC Haagen Dazs distributor, helped us learn about the network of distribution in the U.S. for frozen goods. He and I spent hours chatting about alternative approaches to getting the product to market, merchandising in stores, challenges with sampling and how to grow profitable market share. Once again, I had to ask for help. This is something many entrepreneurs and small business owners are not comfortable doing but it proved to be a wonderful way to get exactly the practical help we needed.
I hired a food broker to help me crack the supermarket frozen food aisle too. Mel Nissinger, a local Philadelphia broker, helped to educate me on these strange ideas like slotting fees and the cost to get the product on a shelf. He gave me some views on how to find brokers in other markets and what not to do when expanding a brand. There was never a question too stupid to ask Mel – and I appreciated his patience and the range of experience in his field. Yes, Mel was being paid but he had business experience beyond the food broker side, and he too became an important ally.
Informal but Invaluable
What I learned from my experience was that when I found someone who knew things about business I didn’t understand, I’d asked them if they would be willing to be an adviser. In almost every situation, the answer was yes. I knew a little about marketing and business – but truthfully, it was my first real entrepreneurial venture, and I was quickly overwhelmed by all of the responsibility for a fast-growing brand.
The Lesson for You
If you have a small to the mid-sized business you own or manage, how can you bring a team of advisers close to you? In an ideal world, you’d meet a few times a year and talk with them. Maybe it’s over a meal or a conference call – but you need to find a way to pose a few questions in advance and listen to them share their knowledge. Make it easy for them to help you.
Pick people who will be direct, truthful and tell you bad news. Don’t pick people who love you because they will have a hard time with the truth. Honest, frank and direct advice is the most helpful thing you get from an informal board of directors.
By the way, if you work in marketing for an organization, you can develop an informal board of directors for your personal brand. Don’t think this idea is just for owners. Marketing managers, Directors or VP also need coaches who they can bounce ideas off of too.
One of the best ways to manage this process was to send three questions before you meeting or get on a phone call with your board members. Tell them what is keeping you up at night. By writing it down, you force yourself to make the question very clear. Be prepared. They may be an informal board of directors, but you can still formalize how you work with them. Part of my success is directly linked to the informal network of advisers I was able to attract to my company. I found really smart people who were willing to give me a few hours of their time, three times a year.
How are you being coached and advised on your business, brand or career? Who do you know who knows someone who can help? Take a chance, ask for help.
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Photo of Rachel’s Brownies courtesy of The New York Times
