For business advisors or coaches looking for new clients (and those considering hiring one), what characteristics or traits make for the right match?

Two huge ones: > Confusing activity for results. Many older entrepreneurs haven't learned the lesson, either. You can 'be busy' into oblivion. > Confusing social interaction for prospecting and sales activity. Talking =/= Qualifying. You should not be trying to let "everyone" know you exist. Find your target market and focus your effort there. Otherwise, you'll waste your energy.

Approach it as if you were applying for a position in an organization. You will want to find the right industry, the right management team, the right opening on the board [either governance or advisory], the right person to help you. Next create a statement that says why you on this board. Then sell it.

Growing up from 1+subs to a team like you're saying is a classic problem in consulting. The financial math is not in your favor until you get a consistent team. Here's an article of mine detailing the issues and also detailing solutions: http://blog.asmartbear.com/consulting-company-accounting.html Having said that, I would also say you're trying to do too many things at once with not enough resources, which means the chance of being successful with each one is diminished. For example, you could focus on consulting revenue so you can build up your bench, so that you truly can self-fund the development of a product without distraction. Or you could focus on product, investing time/money there with consulting only to pay for that, even using subs for that, until the revenue there gets to the point that it's scaling (which will be hard, as you can already see). Building a product or a successful consultancy is individually very hard -- most fail. So trying to do both at the same time means you'll almost certainly fail. Which is a shame, because that's "failure due to time-management / strategy" as opposed to actual market forces. i.e. something fixable! I hope some of this helps, although I agree with you that talking through the details would probably be more helpful. The specific details of your situation matter.

If you spent that money on Clarity ($200 with an expert) and you didn't get value, email support@clarity.fm for a full refund. We offer 100% money back guarantee. Alternatively, you can sort by ratings and price. If you want a great coach - call John, he's awesome https://clarity.fm/johnramey Also, Marcy if you can afford her https://clarity.fm/marcyswenson

I've had many "Advisors" over the years and I like to break them up into 2 groups. 1) Formal Advisors These are people who strategic insights into the business and would create value for the company by having them listed on our site, and have access to them in an ongoing way. I typically engage them well before anything formal to see if they would actually be helpful and that we both get along. Compensation is usually around 0.1% - 0.5% ... if the person is amazing and will also help with the fundraising process, then I would go as high as 1%. 2) Personal Advisors These are people who I turn to for specific advice around tactics and strategy on an infrequent basis (maybe once or twice a year). Things like SEO, Internationalization, etc ... I typically try to create value for them every time we chat, so that it's win/win and I don't compensate with equity. I've personally never paid for formal advice, although I do often via Clarity .. but that's different. The great thing about Clarity is I can avoid spending the time or equity to get similar quality advice in usually a faster time period, however both approaches (list above vs. using Clarity) are totally different affinities to the person and the company. Call if you need more.