Advising the small business client

The context of the professional business advisor is explored, with specific focus on the culture, communication preferences and learning styles they prefer. The advisor's rational and analytic world-view is contrasted with the informal and idiosyncratic world of the typical small business owner. Interviews with ten professional advisors suggest that there is some truth to the assumption that advisors and owners have disparate world-views. Advisors do recognize this disparity, but recognition of the problem is only the first step. Even advisors who are motivated to improve the advice relationship by immersing themselves in the world of the small business owner can expect to face challenges because of the dynamic nature of the advisory relationship and of the firm's development.