This Article First Appeared on: Smallbusiness.chron.com
Written By: Miranda Morley
Would-be successful business owners need assistance from others who have an intimate knowledge of how business works. Many small business owners try to get that information from business books and classes. While these can be helpful on their own, they are more helpful alongside business mentoring. In a business mentoring relationship, a seasoned business owner meets with a new or potential business owner one-on-one to give advice and boost morale.
1. Asking Questions and Getting Advice
The biggest benefit of having a business mentor is having someone you can ask questions and get advice. As a new business owner, you are likely to get more advice than you ask for from people like family members, friends and the people who own the store next door. While some of their advice may be sound, your mentor can help you sort out which you should follow while advising you on more complicated business matters that your friends or family would not know how to solve.
2. A Different Perspective
Business mentors can help you look at problems and situations from perspectives that you would not have thought of on your own. For example, as a new business owner, you may have trouble looking at your business through the eyes of a customer, potential investor or government official. Your business mentor, who has dealt with these people often, can help you understand how your business will look to these individuals.https://d4fa937a0632d0c1251b1dbfa3f7dc33.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
3. Improving Key Skills
Mentors are not like advisers and consultants, who care only about the business venture. Instead, business mentors help you develop your business skills. For example, if your employees are constantly complaining that they don’t understand project directions, your business mentor can work with you to help you improve how you communicate with your staff. This way, you will have a better understanding of how to communicate with your staff both now and in the future.
4. Venting With Someone You Trust
Owning a business can be stressful and frustrating. As a business owner you’ll often need to vent with someone you trust. Business owners cannot vent to their partners, employees or customers without causing instability in the structure of the business. However, once you vent to a mentor, you can often start the process of working with the mentor to solve the cause of your frustration. For example, if lazy employees are plaguing your business, you may need to vent to your mentor before you can think positively enough about the employees in order to develop a plan to motivate them.
5. Expanding Your Network
Business mentors can put you in touch with contacts who can help you make your business more successful. The more networking you do, the more people you meet. And the more people you meet, the greater the odds are that you will have someone in your rolodex who can help you solve business problems. For example, your business mentor may introduce you to another of his mentees, an award-winning recent college grad who is looking for an entry level position in web design. Perhaps you are looking for someone to help you design your new company’s website. Thanks to the mentor’s contact, your search for a valuable asset may have just become easier.
6. Methods and Strategies
In addition to simply giving advice and helping improve your personal business skills, business mentors can prepare you with a library of methods and strategies that you can pull from throughout your career as a business owner. They can not only tell you, from experience, how important it is to create a positive environment and boost morale, but they can also give you strategies for doing so. For example, mentors can help you learn strategies for observing employees to see if they are happy at work, dealing with irate customers or handling financial problems.
7. Long-Lasting Relationships
Although some mentor-mentee relationships are short-lived, if you hit it off with your mentor, you can foster a long-lasting relationship through which you and your mentor can continue to collaborate for the rest of your career. This will give you the consistency and resources you need to maintain a successful business.
8. Confidence to Make Better Decisions
Knowing that you have a credible mentor to turn to can give you confidence when facing difficult business situations. Similarly, good mentors will praise you when you have made good decisions. Praise can enable you to see yourself as a wise and experienced business person. Seeing yourself confidently this way will help you stand your ground when you must defend or stand by your business decisions.
9. A Gentle Nudge
Starting a business is difficult, and many business owners face challenges early in the process. However, many business owners go through the same types of struggles. Hearing first-hand from your mentor about her experiences will help you realize that the struggles you are going through now will prepare you to be a better businessperson in the future.
10. A Chance to Give Back
Mentees are not the only people who benefit from business mentoring. Business mentors also experience benefits thanks to collaborative learning. By helping others improve their business skills, business mentors may improve their own skills. They may be inspired with new ideas, meet new contacts and learn new business strategies from their mentees.