The benefits of business mentoring

 

What is business mentoring?

Business mentoring is a relationship between you – as a business owner and someone with business experience who is willing to act as a guide, that experience can either be in the same area as the business you have started or can be related to a specific business issue you may have for example hiring staff. The business mentor offers advice, guidance and support to help you run and improve your business.

For instance, On MentorMatchMe the mentoring relationship starts out on-line where you find a mentor who fits your specific needs after completing your challenge and identifying the most appropriate mentor response. Over time the relationship may involve face-to-face meetings, online discussions including Skype or a combination of both - depending on which arrangement is best for both parties.

Some of the areas your mentor will be able to assist you with include

Early business start-up issues

Business Planning and Business Plans

Paths to securing finance

Business Finance

Dealing with regulations

Hiring staff

General personnel issues

Business expansion

Sales and marketing

Business exit

Import and export

Business partnering and collaboration

Conducting the mentoring relationship

There is no absolute rule as to how the mentoring relationship should be conducted however through experience you will get more from the time with your mentor and visa versa if the relationship is structured around achieving a specific objective. To help structure the relationship you can use some of the planning templates in the MentorMatchMe resources area.

It's likely that your mentor will stay in regular contact with you through meetings, telephone calls and emails. The nature of the relationship may vary from being fairly casual - eg a monthly telephone call or informal visit - to being more formal and structured - eg setting meeting agendas and business objectives; this would be our recommended approach.

Tracking success

As already mentioned, in entering a mentoring relationship you are investing your time and energies in order to advance your business. Therefore it is worth tracking the success of the mentoring engagement during the time you and your mentor are connected.  Try to be very specific about the outcome you would like from the mentoring engagement, whether that being a specific outcome such as successful business