How to hire a Business Advisor

How to hire a business advisor, step by step

Here's a step-by-step business advisor hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a business advisor job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new business advisor
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a Business Advisor do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The business advisor hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

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   Hiring the perfect business advisor also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list presents business advisor salaries for various positions.

   Type Of Business Advisor	Description	Hourly Rate
   Business Advisor		$32-66
   Business Development Consultant	The role of business consultants is to provide an analysis of a company on its business practices and make recommendations for long-term goals. This role is also connected with various duties and responsibilities, including reviewing the company's financial statements, engaging in research on how to improve the company's offers, and developing new business models... Show More	$25-65
   Small Business Consultant	A small business consultant specializes in developing and recommending strategies to optimize the daily operations of small businesses. They typically meet with clients to identify their needs and preferences, determine their short and long-term goals, perform market research and analysis to find business or client opportunities, determine the strengths and weaknesses of current processes, and implement solutions against problem areas... Show More	$16-31

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common Skills:

   • Customer Service
   • Project Management
   • Business Operations
   • Strong Analytical
   • Healthcare
   • Human Resources
   • Real Estate
   • Business Strategies
   • Excellent Organizational
   • Process Improvement
   • Financial Analysis
   • Business Practices
   • SQL
   • Lean Six Sigma

   Check All Skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage training and presentation collateral on SharePoint system, resulting in recycling of documentation for consistent messaging across enterprise.
   • Manage cost-centers and leverage unique Indian production and post- production capabilities and position the company as a prefer production partner.
   • Prepare financial statements, payroll tax reports, and advise small business clients on accounting and financial management matters.
   • Provide a supplement team in an effort to create a cloud computing architecture team at a major telecommunications company.
   • Handle miscellaneous bookkeeping duties including payroll, payroll taxes, accounts receivable, accounts payable and financial statements for client companies.
   • Support the reengineering of the SME development area.

   More Business Advisor duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your business advisor job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A business advisor can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, business advisors' average salary in alabama is 38% less than in new jersey.
   • Seniority. Entry-level business advisors 51% less than senior-level business advisors.
   • Certifications. A business advisor with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a business advisor's salary.

   Average business advisor salary

   $96,469yearly

   $46.38 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level business advisor salary

   $67,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 14, 2025

   Average business advisor salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
   1	California	$126,199	$61
   2	Massachusetts	$109,661	$53
   3	Oregon	$105,756	$51
   4	Pennsylvania	$100,728	$48
   5	Kansas	$98,909	$48
   6	Illinois	$98,294	$47
   7	Michigan	$96,878	$47
   8	Louisiana	$96,477	$46
   9	North Carolina	$96,286	$46
   10	Virginia	$95,079	$46
   11	Texas	$95,008	$46
   12	Ohio	$94,772	$46
   13	Iowa	$94,225	$45
   14	Indiana	$94,174	$45
   15	New York	$93,452	$45
   16	Arizona	$91,694	$44
   17	Minnesota	$89,780	$43
   18	Georgia	$88,252	$42
   19	Washington	$88,095	$42
   20	Kentucky	$87,386	$42

   Average business advisor salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
   1	Amazon	$143,572	$69.03	271
   2	Boehringer Ingelheim	$139,179	$66.91	18
   3	Bloomberg	$136,271	$65.51	3
   4	Workday	$133,073	$63.98	20
   5	ConocoPhillips	$125,696	$60.43
   6	Marathon Petroleum	$123,840	$59.54	8
   7	Shell Trading	$122,169	$58.74
   8	Canon	$113,627	$54.63
   9	Chevron	$112,356	$54.02
   10	United Nations Foundation	$108,545	$52.19
   11	CVS Health	$107,956	$51.90	214
   12	SE2	$107,912	$51.88
   13	Koch Industries	$107,690	$51.77
   14	Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.	$106,777	$51.34	312
   15	Federal Reserve Bank	$105,889	$50.91	24
   16	Federal Reserve	$105,418	$50.68
   17	Summa Health	$103,780	$49.89	2
   18	Ernst & Young	$103,098	$49.57	591
   19	AARP	$102,087	$49.08	2
   20	Quest Software	$100,746	$48.44

4. Writing a Business Advisor Job Description

   A good business advisor job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a business advisor job description:

   Business Advisor job description example

   Do what you love. Love what you do.
   At Workday, we help the world's largest organizations adapt to what's next by bringing finance, HR, and planning into a single enterprise cloud. We work hard, and we're serious about what we do. But we like to have fun, too. We put people first, celebrate diversity, drive innovation, and do good in the communities where we live and work.
   
   About the Team
   Workday is forming a high-performance Revenue Operations organization to steer us toward our goal of growing from $4B to $10B in revenue. The Business Insights Advisory Team is a key player in fuelling this growth by empowering their business partners to make more informed decisions, helping drive actions from insights, and ensuring they are getting maximum value from our broader Analytics organization.
   
   About the Role
   
   As a BI advisor you will combine your passion for analytics and problem solving as you help teams to drive long term revenue growth. Key responsibilities will be analysing business performance and Go-To-Market strategy changes, supporting annual planning, and delivering new insights to leadership. This role will provide the creativity to tackle problems and find new ways to help sales leadership understand the dynamics of their business.
   
   You proactively serve up insights from BI solutions along with interpretation and recommendations to drive-long term business growth. In addition, you will provide recommendations for new analytics and dashboards to further strengthen our analytics infrastructure.
   
   We have a fantastic team culture that blends fun with high performance and professional development and career growth! We are looking for someone who is energised by collaborating with others and is a strategic problem solver who can interpret data to help the organization make better decisions.
   
   About You
   
   8+ Years experience in Sales or Marketing Analytics/Operations or FinanceStrong data/business analysis experience ideally in the B2B space Excellent problem solving and analytical reasoning skills Proven experience in evaluating business cases, program effectiveness and/or investment decisions Strong interpersonal, presentation, and relationship building skills Problem-solver capable of translating issues into simple terms to facilitate discussions and decisions.Interact effectively across all levels of the organization Takes initiative and pursue challenges with passion
   
   Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!

   Copy This Example

   

5. Post your job

   There are various strategies that you can use to find the right business advisor for your business:

   • Consider promoting from within or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to find candidates who meet your education requirements.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your business advisor job on Zippia to find and recruit business advisor candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit business advisors, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new business advisor

   Once you've found the business advisor candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new business advisor. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a business advisor?