Why hiring an advisor for your Startup is important?

Joel Ibaceta
joelibaceta
Published in
3 min readSep 8, 2020

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An emerging company or a Start-up is the one focused on a business that is characterized for having a high scalability, that is to say, capable to grow at a greater speed, supported by the most recent technological advances. However, one of the biggest challenges faced by these organizations is the need to consolidate a work group composed by experts.

The costs associated to the recruitment of experts in areas related to technology, the low budget on which they rely due to the few investments received and the constant variation on the workflow are among the most frequent reasons as why some Start-ups have difficulty on consolidating a group of professionals, making it impossible to keep the costs of having an expert within the group since it will be difficult to bear the costs but also we would not have enough workload to take advantage of the experience 8 hours a day.

In this context, many emerging companies choose to hire an advisor with the aim of boosting the growth of the organization by looking for new ideas related to strategic decisions on which the future of the Start-up relies. In other words, it is an essential investment at the time of finding effective solutions to specific issues.

What an advisor is

An advisor or consultant is an expert on a specific area, usually associated with technology, and his function is to advise the founding members, their work group and their investors during the decision-making related to the company. Although this consultancy does not define the final answer to the approach, certainly, it is essential at the time of finding relevant details that may interfere in the matter.

That is to say, the final decision is always on the hands of the founding member and the investors of the emerging company. Nevertheless, the role of the advisor is to apply his experience and knowledge in favor of the clients. Usually, it is about a recruitment for hours or projects, whose goal is to create value through the opinion and, simultaneously, guide the entrepreneurs through the road to success.

Scenarios in which hiring an advisor for your Start-up creates value

There are many contexts in which hiring an advisor may be of greater help for an emerging company. The most commons are:

When the knowledge and the previous experience, which shapes the background of the founders, is insufficient or limited on a certain area. In this scenario, the best is to hire an advisor, an expert in the human resources area or an expert in the area that contributes in the construction of a professional profile in accordance with the needs of the company. In addition, he can participate on the interviews during the recruitment process.

At the time of making far-reaching decisions for the emerging company, the founding members must invest in the services of a consultant for the purpose of using all of his expertise in favor of the Start-up. In this way, they will predict the results regarding the different options, which would be undoubtedly more economical in comparison with the possibility of losing money on a poor investment.

The most common areas in which the Start-up advisor can suggest the new entrepreneurs are: management of the corporate finances, strategies on digital marketing, human resources, innovation and technology, among others.

In summary, the Start-up advisor generates added value to the emerging company in different areas, including: the increase of the credibility and reputation of the company, the contribution in the pursuit of a professional management in different areas, the support in the development of commercial and operational strategies and the improvement of the relationship between the organization and other enterprises of the sector.

Where to get a Start-up advisor

The best way to get an advisor for emerging companies is through closer references or they are usually part of an offer from an accelerator for Start-ups. In other words, an organization that works boosting ideas and endeavors on the early stages for the purpose of increasing the growth rate and consolidating their business model to find new investments as a result.

Other alternative options to find advisers are placing the word “advisor” on the browser of LinkedIn, or requesting the assistance of entrepreneurs with a vast experience in the area or experts working on companies that they use as an inspiration. In the end, investing in the assistance of an expert is the best choice at the time of making decisions; even when it can be expensive, it is not a constant spending, which implies a business advantage in regard of all that can be lost when doing businesses without guarantees.

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Joel Ibaceta
joelibaceta

CTO at Kwema Inc. #developer #traveler #investor #packtauthor #fintechexpert #entrepeneur Github: https://github.com/joelibaceta, Instagram: joelibaceta