Many business owners have thought about the possibility of creating a board to assist them in increasing the success of their business. However, many closely held business owners do not have boards because they do not want anyone telling them how to run their business.
An effective board does not tell anyone how to run their business. Nor does it change a business from a friendly family atmosphere and move it toward bureaucracy. What an effective board can do is provide objectivity, a high level of professionalism, evaluation of the owner’s performance, assistance in formulating strategies, provide intellectual, financial and interpersonal capital acquisition, as well as, local and industry image enhancement by their presence, assist in the creation of a succession plan, and most importantly, the board may become a mentor for the business owner. We provide the assessment of whether a board would be beneficial for an owner and assist in the development of such a board.