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Contestants on “Don’t Forget The Lyrics!”, a TV game show, receive three life lines. In many cases, these life lines provide the contestant with the guidance to choose the correct answer, or at least help eliminate the wrong choices. Rarely does anyone know all of the answers, and without the help of the life lines, the probability that the contestant wins is slim.

The vending and OCS worlds are the same. Think about it: How many times would you have liked to have a life line, or an advisory board, to help you think through your most critical decisions? Imagine having an industry insider, a proven business leader, and respected subject matter experts around a table providing you feedback on issues most crucial to your company’s long-term success.

Board of Advisors are a life line

Advisory boards have no formal power, binding legal or fiduciary authority. An advisory board is an outside group that is informally organized to provide business owners with support, advice and assistance. They serve at the pleasure of the business owner or CEO.

Why?

Many vending companies are family owned businesses that could greatly benefit from an outside group working on long-term strategy. Advisory boards can help with touchy subjects like succession plans and developing new markets.

Anther huge reason to create an advisory board is the fact that I would bet your competitor does not have an outside group working on long-term strategies.

The fact is that most companies in our industry do not use outside groups to help grow their companies.

If they do use someone from outside their company, it tends to be a highly paid former employee of a large publicly traded vending company.