Have you ever considered working with a business mentor? If you find a good one, they can help you grow your business and hone your skills along the way.
Have you ever considered working with a business mentor? If you find a good one, they can help you grow your business and hone your skills along the way.
Role of a business mentor
A business mentor is someone independent who uses their experience to help guide you through the running and growth of your business. They may be a professional business coach who you don’t have any prior relationship with. Alternatively, they could be a successful person you already know and trust. Their role isn’t to run your business, but merely to help guide you through and pass on their knowledge and experience.
Finding a business mentor
Business mentors can be anybody you look up to. Whether it’s a previous manager or somebody who has already succeeded in similar business pursuits. If you choose somebody that you already know, it’s as simple as asking them if they’d be comfortable being your mentor.
Additionally, you can pay for the services of a professional business mentor. There are several companies offering this service, so it’s worth doing a bit of research to determine what you get for your money and how beneficial that service will be to you.
Benefits of a business mentor
There are so many ways you can benefit from a business mentor. Here are just a few.
Increase your business knowledge and experience
It’s quite all-encompassing, but having a mentor helps you increase your own business knowledge and experience. We learn from experiences, so if you’ve got somebody you can turn to when making business decisions, you can benefit from their past experiences. As a result, your knowledge grows and you can make smart decisions. In turn, your experience grows. This is one of those situations where you can learn from successes rather than mistakes.
Maximise your business performance
Business mentors are often full of tips and tricks to boost your productivity. If you work alongside your mentor, you can learn by watching how they approach their day. If not, just ask them. They will almost certainly have some advice on how to increase your productivity and performance. Your mentor has probably tried a range of different things to increase productivity, so draw on their experience.
Improve your problem-solving abilities
Heard the old saying, “A problem shared is a problem halved”? This is where many people find the most benefit from working with a mentor. Business mentors aren’t there to give you all the answers, but by seeking advice and having them work through an issue with you, you’ll start to improve your problem-solving skills. It’s likely they can show you some different methods for approaching problems, and you’ll grow your skills from there.
Build your confidence
Sometimes we all just need a bit of encouragement. Whether it’s somebody to tell us we’ve done a good job, or someone showing belief in our abilities. If you’ve got a great mentor who is good at developing people, they’ll know what they need to do to help boost your confidence.
Develop your leadership skills
People aren’t born leaders, despite popular belief. Leadership skills can be learned over time, and the best way to do it is by working with leaders you respect. See how they go about things. Watch them motivate their teams. Before long, you’ll start developing your own leadership style, and you can work out what works well for you and what doesn’t.
Widen your network of business contacts
One thing that most business mentors will impress upon you is the importance of networking. You can’t succeed in business on contacts alone, but it certainly helps. The people you know can significantly impact the trajectory of your career, whether it’s through finding new clients or even making new partnerships. Having a business mentor who can introduce you to some other influential people is crucial to your success.
Have a trusted/experienced sounding board for ideas and business decisions
When it comes to making the big decision either for your career or for a business you’re running, you don’t want to take any chances. Seeking out your trusted mentors for advice is just smart policy when you need to make key business decisions. A different viewpoint is always helpful, and you may also find your mentor has had to make similar decisions in the past. Their advice might just turn your decision from a blunder to a piece of brilliance!
