Why I Wrote This Book
Like you, perhaps, I’m a diehard entrepreneur.
When I started my first company 30 years ago, I had no idea what I was doing. I only knew that I needed to follow my mom’s advice: to never let anyone else determine your value or your worth. My former boss capped my worth at $34,000 despite triple-booking me on projects and billing me out at an insanely high rate. So when he declined my request for a salary increase that reflected my value, I knew it was time to go.
I led Information Experts, the company I started alone in my home office, to a thriving business with almost $14 million in revenue from 1995 – 2012. During that time, we weathered the implosion of the telecom and internet industries in the 1990s (at the time, our two primary markets); the 9/11 terrorist attacks that temporarily decimated the D.C. business region where we are based; two recessions; one government shut-down; multiple government budget freezes; the collapse of the auto, finance, and housing markets (into which we had grown); and two personal cancer scares – all while being a hands-on mom to two sons.
I certainly didn’t accomplish all of this on my own. I’ve always believed that we become the people that surround us. If we want to be the very best at what we do, we need to surround ourselves with others that are the very best at what they do.
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With this philosophy in mind, I set out to build and implement a board of advisors. One frigid January morning, I was having breakfast with two mentors who were well-connected and very familiar with my business. I shared with them some of the challenges I was facing with my company:
- We weren’t doing a good job of controlling our expenses.
- We had a handful of non-performers, as well as some leadership that was great for where we used to be, but not qualified to get us to the next level.
- Our infrastructure was not set up to handle the size of the proposals we were producing.
- We had no process or accountability measures in place for the 70-plus projects we were managing. I wanted to implement a Project Management Office to standardize all project management.
- We needed to really zero in on key accounts. We had done a great job of making a large and well-respected footprint in the federal marketplace; we needed to take a step back and assess which agencies were the best fit for us.
- We needed assistance determining which operational functions we should outsource and which ones we should keep in house.
- We needed mentorship preparing to exit the 8(a) Business Development Program created by the Small Business Administration to help small and disadvantaged businesses compete in the marketplace.
- We needed to elevate our profitability.
My mentors suggested I implement a board of advisors so I could surround myself with experts who could help us with these tasks. And just like that, the quest for my inaugural board of advisors began. A mere six months later, after I had carefully defined exactly what I needed and interviewed close to 30 candidates, I selected six and held our first advisory board meeting.
While searching for information on how a small business can implement an advisory board, I found a handful of articles, but no books that guided the small business owner through the advisory board acquisition and set-up process.
In true entrepreneurial fashion, I set out to fill that void. This is how the SCALE™ Model for developing business boards of advisors came to be.
![](https://builttoscale.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Marissa-Levine-Built-To-Scale.jpeg)
I created the SCALE™ Model for you because I’m passionate about helping other entrepreneurs remove the roadblocks that are impeding their ability to reach their greatest personal and professional potential. Surrounding ourselves with the people who can help us get from where we are now to where we want to be is an essential part of achieving that outcome.
The SCALE™ Model is a proven framework for business owners like you to use as you build the advisory boards you need to become exceptional, connected, knowledgeable leaders and build the most successful and profitable businesses possible.