Building Your Advisor Bench

By Gary Pittsford, CFP

In May, the North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) focused on how to build a bench of well-trained employees inside your company to help you grow the business and manage it effectively.

Building a bench of outside advisors to help grow your company and make it more profitable is also essential. 

Inside the company, you need people that you can count on for each specific job description. Outside the business, your bench of advisors would include a good corporate and estate planning attorney, an accountant that specializes in working with closely held corporations, a business financial advisor who has worked with hundreds of closely held businesses and perhaps a bank loan officer that is excellent in working with growing closely held family businesses.

Not every medical doctor is a heart surgeon. Not every attorney or accountant is an expert at working with closely held businesses. It takes time for you to find experts in every category and make them a member of your outside bench.

I have learned over the last 50 years in working with thousands of business owners that the outside advisors that they use are not necessarily the best choices. Be very picky who you choose to work with. 

You have been working for 30 or 40 years building up your company and now it is probably your first or second largest asset. These outside experts on your bench will cost money, but usually it is money well spent. Using this bench of experts that you have chosen will likely get you a higher price for your company, save you income taxes in the process and protect your net worth in future years after you have retired.

Selling or transitioning the ownership of your business can be complicated, just like having open heart surgery. Work hard at finding the best bench of surgeons to help you with your exit planning process.