An adviser is someone who gives advice and guidance in a certain field based on their experience and expertise. There are many advisers available, including business, financial and marketing advisers. Growing businesses often benefit from an adviser when there are gaps in their senior management teams experience or when additional support is required.
Business growth
Companies frequently reach a point when it is in their best interest to speak to someone with specific experience in order to plan for successful business growth. Advisers are a useful sounding board when making a major change to the way you run things, there’s an important decision to be made and you are entering a new phase of your business. Financial Advisers play a crucial role when raising finance for a business. Their experience is important throughout the process, from the initial preparation through to finalising the deal.
Ultimately, advisers often have firsthand experience and expertise to help you make more informed decisions in a certain area. For instance, if you are seeking external investment to aid business growth, an adviser with experience of similar business growth could prove useful and bring many benefits to your business.
Fees and retainers
Dependent on the role they’re asked to fulfil, advisers charge varying amounts based on their time and what they bring to the party. An adviser with a proven track record of improving global companies and helping to get investment will likely to charge more than those who have advised smaller companies. The way that advisers charge their clients also varies. With regards to investment and hiring an adviser, there will usually be a retainer. However, this is invariably only payable if the fundraising is a success. Other professional finance advisers charge a monthly fee, an hourly rate or a set fee for a completed project. It depends on the adviser and how often you plan to use their expertise.
Advisers play an important role in business development and choosing the right one for you can be daunting. Connecting with your business network and asking similar companies is a good way to find an adviser you can trust. There are also many business adviser online directories and websites including the gov.uk resource for business advisers.
Approved and regulated?
A good start point and of paramount importance for a smooth business relationship is to ensure that an advisers experience is aligned to your business and its aims. For instance, an adviser specialising in seeking finance for global corporations may not be the right fit if you’re a smaller business.
It’s worth checking with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to see whether the adviser(s) that you are considering is approved and regulated. The FCA strives for financial markets to work well and for consumers to get a fair deal. Their Financial Services Register shows details of current or previous regulated bodies, firms and individuals of the FCA or The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). The Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Financial Ombudsman Service both allow you to seek compensation if something goes wrong with an approved adviser. However, if they are not approved by the FCA, you will not be covered.
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