Every entrepreneur has challenges. And every entrepreneur needs help with some of those challenges—if not at least some objective and sage advice on all of them. Who better to help you overcome the many obstacles that lie on the entrepreneurial road than people who know your business and have addressed the same challenges themselves than the members of your own advisory board?

PROFIT asked Greig Clark, the founder of College Pro Painters, a venture capitalist and an adviser to numerous entrepreneurial businesses, to share his thoughts and recommendations concerning advisory boards. What follows from Greig is the first of several PROFIT Growth Planner installments dedicated to building your own advisory board.

In my early days as founder and CEO of College Pro Painters, I relied heavily on ad hoc advice. Much of it seemed helpful, but it was potentially flawed. Randomly selected advisors didn’t usually know much about my business. They didn't really know me. And they wouldn't “be there” when the results of the decision unfolded.

In my later years at College Pro, I came across an alternative that I think every entrepreneur should consider: an advisory board. Mine was a group of three seasoned businesspeople who met four or five times a year with my management team and me to review plans and results, ask tough questions and offer strategic insights.

These days, there’s a growing trend towards using advisory boards as an integral business tool. Some 28% of the privately held firms on the 2005-2007 rankings of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies boast one. Research by fellow PROFIT columnist and entrepreneurship expert Rick Spence and me found that entrepreneurs across the country largely praised their boards to the skies. Based on that research, here are 10 key benefits of advisory boards:

1. Discipline:
"You don't want the bank manager to be the first person you are accountable to."

2. Support:
"It helps to have someone who is in your corner, and who is focused only on you and your needs."

3. Business protection:
"It helped us make a much better strategic decision on what business we wanted to be in. It may have saved the company. It certainly saved us millions."

4. Ideas:
"One good suggestion and it pays for itself."

5. Better decisions:
"Over time, it greatly improves the quality of decision-making. And, after all, isn't that what it's all about: consistently making better decisions?"

6. Better decision-making processes:
"It buys me time with my employees. I can honestly say that I need to take this decision to the board and get their input. The decision then has the benefit of simmering for a while, and hence is more chewed over, more objective and less personal when it is delivered."

7. Help with people decisions:
"By having my people present to the board, I get more input on their capabilities, and it strengthens their commitment to their plans."

8. Being more strategic:
"I am starting an advisory board because I believe it will help me see things from a broader perspective, be more strategic and make fewer mistakes."

9. Faster learning:
"An advisory board is there to shorten the learning curve."

10. Peace of mind:
"I sleep much better at night knowing that all of these people think we are going in the right direction."

The benefits don’t stop there. “An advisory board can provide you with a 360-degree view of the overall business environment,” says Michel Nadeau, director of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations at the business school HEC Montreal. He says a board can also give you access to a variety of specific skill sets at low cost; help you anticipate risks; create new networking opportunities; improve the image of your company and impress potential clients; and reassure bankers and investors that your business is well managed and capable of overcoming adversity.

Advisory boards work. Get one working for your company to help it get to the next level faster and with less risk. — By Greig Clark