Outside experts for entrepreneurial companies

In 1992, when I co-founded Fairytale Brownies with my kindergarten friend David Kravetz, we both realized that our expertise and perseverance would take us only so far and that we would need outside advice.

David was a product design engineer at Procter & Gamble at the time, and I worked in sales for a television network. We considered ourselves entrepreneurs, not bakers. So we sought help from the local SCORE office — retired executives who give free advice to aspiring entrepreneurs — and also from a family friend in the mattress spring business.

When our gourmet mail-order brownie company really began growing, we formed a nine-member Advisory Board. For an annual "brownie credit" and a free lunch at our quarterly meetings, these experts filled our knowledge gaps in marketing, law, food, safety, and manufacturing.

By Eileen Spitalny, Fairytale Brownies
Reprinted courtesy of EntreWorld.org

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2005-07-13-entre-2-jul_x.htm