Find your dream team of business advisors
Find your dream team of business advisors
An innovative workshop series will be held in Tauranga for business owners to find and connect with the right business advisors to help them succeed.
Thoje Hood founder of AdviseMe wants to help match-make business owners and advisors. Eighteen months ago he ran an interactive workshop event putting business owners in the hot seat in front of three advisors to help them overcome a challenge, identify growth opportunities or achieve better work-life balance.
“Our inaugural event in November 2014 and was really well received. We know several participants continued to use advisors they met through the experience,” he said.
“This year we have expanded our offering and turned it into a series. We want business owners to experience the full power of an advisory group over time so they can see the big impact it can have on their business. Ultimately they can finish the series with a dream team of advisors to form an ongoing advisory group.”
The AdviseMe Workshop Series was developed by Thoje Hood with input by Darren McGarvie from business growth centre Firestation and Sheldon Nesdale from Marketing First. The series consists of three workshops with advisors and four one-on-one business coaching sessions.
Participants are paired with three advisors for the first session. Business owners have the choice of keeping these advisors or swapping any or all of them for the subsequent workshops. AdviseMe has a diverse range of advisors lined up to participate with skills and experience across varied industries, business sizes and local government.
“As a small business owner I know the benefits of connecting with the right advisors. Great advisors can make or break your business. But many business owners shy away from the unknown or put it in the too hard basket to find and connect with advisors,” Mr Hood said.
“Our workshop series consist of three 90 minute sessions where business owners are paired with advisors suited to their needs and industry. Before and after each session they meet one-on-one with a professional business coach.”
“Through the workshop series they can try out different combinations of advisors to find the right fit business and personality wise. The business coach after each session provides the support and accountability for the business owner’s agreed actions,” Mr Hood said.
The business coaching will be supplied by Firestation. Co-founder and chief coach Darren McGarvie is looking forward to helping business owners make the most of the Workshop Series.
“The AdviseMe Workshop Series is ideally suited for business owners who want help to develop or launch a new product or service, overcome a specific challenge, fast-track their growth or simply want to improve work-life balance to work less in the business while achieving the same or better results,” he said.
“The one-on-one coaching before and after each workshop is invaluable to help the business owner identify the challenges and opportunities to raise with the team of advisors, and to provide support to implement actions agreed in the workshops,” Mr McGarvie said.
“Advisory groups are a great way for business owners to access skills, knowledge and networks outside of their organisation and can help accelerate success and growth. The AdviseMe Workshop Series provides a safe platform for business owners to try out a range of advisors and the advisory group process,” he said.
At the conclusion of the workshop series the business owners can form an advisory group with any of the advisors they met through the process.
Registrations for participants close on Friday 1 July. Places are strictly limited and business owners are urged to register early to secure a place. To register go to www.bit.ly/AdviseMe1
More information
AdviseMe
• Established in 2014 to:
o To provide an easy, affordable way for business owners to access professional advice that will help their business thrive; and
o To create opportunities for professionals to share their knowledge, develop governance skills and add value to the business community.
• AdviseMe have partnered with Firestation to provide additional support throughout the process with one-on-one coaching sessions before and after each advisory session to hold the business owners accountable for actions agreed in the advisory sessions.
Firestation
• Owned and operated by Darren and Rachael McGarvie drawing on their combined forty years of corporate experience, diverse business ownership and governance expertise.
• Firestation is the only Business Growth Centre in the wider Bay of Plenty with world class programmes and services covering leadership, sales, brand, governance, marketing and business coaching.
• Since launching in 2014, customer growth has been exceptional. More than 140 business owners and leaders engaged with FIRESTATION in the past year alone.
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