A Guide to Building a Great Advisor Profile on the Invigorate Platform

As an advisor to some of the most successful businesses in the UK, you’ve undoubtedly spent years honing your craft and perfecting your skills. And you’d now like to pass on that experience and expertise to the next generation of growing businesses.

However, this is no easy feat. There really isn’t an efficient way to enable you to share your knowledge with those ambitious businesses. One of the biggest challenges within our current scaleup ecosystem is connecting businesses with advisors who can help them solve their current challenges. Which is a real shame given the immense value that scaleups bring to the economy, especially in these uncertain and disruptive times.

It’s exactly why we built the Invigorate platform – so you can connect with and help build the businesses of the future. The next Uber, the future Deliveroo, even the up and coming Airbnb…

But the platform isn’t just about connecting people.

It’s about connecting the right advisors to the right businesses.

A part of this process is done via the intelligent algorithm that’s embedded in our platform.

Behind the scenes, this algorithm is carefully pairing your skills, experience and background with the specific challenges that our businesses are facing. When businesses log in, they have the opportunity to view and browse these matches.

However, there’s a crucial moment here as our businesses look through their top matched advisors. Because they’ll be looking for a number of key things:

• Relevant industry experience;
• Companies they relate and aspire to;
• Results you’ve achieved for other growing businesses;
• Your thought leadership;
• Shared values;
• The tangible ways in which you can help.

This is where your profile plays a big part. It’s your opportunity to stand out and to craft a top-notch profile that businesses will immediately relate to and connect with.

So, you can see just how important your profile is! Time to let it do the talking…

Name

Simply input your first & last names – no Mr, Mrs or Ms is required here.

Headline

This is where you should add a short one-liner that best describes how you can help our businesses and what role you would play.

Spend some time thinking carefully about this and really putting yourself in our businesses’ shoes. Don’t simply describe yourself; explain how you can help. And don’t forget, our client base are all extremely busy individuals so the headline is your opportunity to grab their attention.

Description

Now you get to illustrate in more detail how you can help.

Again, think about the value you have delivered for other growing businesses in the past. Share the results you’ve helped businesses achieve or the connections you’ve made for them that have helped them grow.

We advise using bullet points and bolded text here so it’s easier to read.

Thought leadership & frameworks

Here’s your opportunity to share your thought leadership pieces and any methodologies or frameworks you typically use when working with businesses. For example, this could be a step-by-step process you take founding teams through to determine leadership skills gaps, or a workshop approach you do with sales and marketing teams to ensure better alignment. As you probably know, the advisory business is very much built on trust and credibility so it’s important to position yourself in the best light possible to our businesses.

Notable companies worked for & advised

LinkedIn may show a company you’ve worked for, but it doesn’t provide you with the opportunity to share your wider client base or firms you know well. The Invigorate platform does!

Also, don’t forget our scaleups are looking for fellow, fast-growing businesses to get a quick sense that you’re familiar with their challenges. Big corporate names won’t hurt, but make sure you include in your description how they relate to the SME market.

An example of an advisor’s Thought leadership pieces, frameworks and notable companies.

Case study

Businesses are looking for tangible examples of how you’ve helped other companies like theirs. They also want to hear the stories behind the results! So what better way to show this off than through a quick case study. We’ve designed this section so it’s quick and easy to complete – all you need to do is submit the raw content and we’ll do the rest to make sure it shows you off in the best light possible.

An example of an advisor Case study.

Reviews

Reviews are really the most important part of your profile, they allow other people to add weight to your credentials. They signal to other businesses that you not only have the relevant expertise and track record, but you’re also great at advising businesses and can add real value.

What makes Invigorate platform so unique is the ability for businesses to discover vetted advisors who can instantly help their business, help structure working together, handle invoicing and payments as well as close the loop on reviews – it’s what businesses look for first.

Matching parameters

Amongst a number of other intelligent criteria, the following information is used to help businesses find the most relevant advisors for their current challenges.

Industries – our businesses are looking for experts in their industries. So, we recommend you keep this focused to a couple of core areas, unless you’ve genuinely held high-level exec positions across multiple ones!

Areas of expertise – again, your core competencies is where you’ll really shine and what our businesses are looking for. In particular, we recommend thinking about the value you bring to your client base.

Availability – some businesses are looking for light-touch support, while others are on the hunt for more hands-on help. Consider carefully how you want to support our businesses based on your availability and willingness to get involved.

Value set – we all know how important personality fit is, especially when it comes to working with ambitious and often investor-backed businesses. This section is your opportunity to let your personality shine through, especially if there are specific values you deem important in the businesses your work with.

If you want to get matched with the best businesses that the UK scaleup ecosystem has to offer, then just follow the above steps to building a great profile. Then watch the messages roll in!

If you need additional help or support with building your profile, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us on [email protected]. A member of our team will be more than happy to help you build that stand-out profile!