Why Your Business Will Benefit from Having a Mentor
Starting your business off by yourself and being a solo entrepreneur is exciting and exhilarating. It’s something that many people dream of, and they want all the success and profits that go with a business that works well.
The problem is that although the idea is a good one, many have never run a business before, and they don’t know which steps to take to ensure success over failure. This is where having a business mentor can be the difference between your hard work paying off or having to close down altogether. A mentor is someone who knows first hand how a business should be run and that knowledge can be invaluable. Here are the reasons why.
Information and Knowledge
No matter how much you might know about your sector or your specific niche — whatever your business specializes in — that doesn’t mean you have any knowledge of running a business at all. You can certainly learn as you go, but this can be a slow process and it will usually involve making some mistakes along the way.
Having a business mentor to talk to and ask questions will speed up how soon you can become a success. That doesn’t mean you can rush things, but it does mean you can bypass many of the pitfalls that you might otherwise have come across. This will help you to keep going at a much better rate of progress.
Your mentor is someone you can ask questions of, and they can be a sounding board for you to see which direction you should be going in. They will have a good grasp of business; they will know what KYC means, how profit and loss works, what the best method of marketing is, and so much more. If you have a mentor, use them as much as you can.
They Offer Motivation
Something that many first time (or even second or third time) business owners suffer from is lack of motivation. If there is nothing happening or sales are slow, or they reach an obstacle, sometimes is can just feel easier to step away and try something else. Perhaps they even feel as though they should get a job with someone and be employed once more.
A business mentor will offer plenty of motivation to keep that business owner looking to the future, no matter how difficult the present might be. Of course, some people will be happier being employed rather than self-employed, and that is not a problem. There is no shame in realizing this. However, if your business has potential and you simply need someone to help you find your motivation, a mentor can be the best way to do it.
Goal Setting
Along with motivation, if you have no plan for the future of the business then you won’t know which decisions are right. This is yet another way that a mentor can help. By talking things through with someone who already creates goals for their own business, you can determine just what you want to do.
What a mentor should not do is tell you exactly what to do without question. This is still your business and that means the ultimate decision making is down to you. However, their advice and help can assist you in deciding what you want and help you make SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) goals to get there.