The modern workforce is dynamic and flexible, and professionals today have more career options and opportunities than ever before - advisory work included. Advisory work is the one job that can sustain a person’s professional and personal lifestyle throughout their career. It can be a steady stream of work that gets scaled back or turned up as your schedule allows for it. Most typically, advisory work starts once you hit full stride in your career, meaning you have the experience and expertise to advise others, and tends to continue well into retirement – making it the longest job you will ever have.  

So, what is advisory work?

Advisors work hand-in-hand with companies to proactively identify the organization's opportunities or problems before they occur and then strategize with the CEO or other C-suite executives to develop the right roadmap for achieving success. Rather than performing individual tasks, like a freelancer or consultant, they provide information and resources that help leadership teams make smart decisions and encourage them to think critically about the issues at hand.

The truth is that even the most experienced CEOs don’t have all the answers. There are challenges and areas of business that they have never dealt with before (for instance, a CEO going through an IPO for the first time or a tech entrepreneur navigating business negotiations) where they could use sound advice from an expert who’s been there, done that.

An advisor’s key role is to be a mentor for a company’s leadership team, coaching them through important decisions, using their cumulative experiences and knowledge to offer strategic guidance. Because they are not hired as internal employees, advisors can easily hold advisory position(s) without it getting in the way of their current job.

On-demand advisors (“one-on-one advisory work”)

Since no two businesses are the same, advisory work can come in many different forms, each one designed to help companies in the way they need it most.

An on-demand advisor is just what it sounds like – a qualified advisor who can be hired at the request of a company seeking strategic guidance. In today’s modern gig economy, high level executives and deep industry experts are now available to be contracted for short-term engagements, similarly to the way video freelancers, for example, get hired for specific projects. This is a particularly valuable concept at the executive level, where on-demand advisory work allows companies to connect with independent subject-matter experts on an as-needed basis.

These advisors are most often hired at an hourly rate and can be retained for any agreed upon length, whether it’s for an hour brainstorming session, extended project, or somewhere in between. Individual advisors can provide insight for executives when unforeseen business challenges arise or an exceptional business opportunity needs to be accessed. Hiring by the hour is the ideal choice for companies that need answers to time-sensitive questions or want a quick and easy brainstorming session with someone who has relevant experience.