mentoring

Running a small businesses can be a bumpy ride. Owners face many challenges, and what has worked in the past, just may not work anymore.

• For the first time a business may have to actively market and sell their products and services.
• Despite increasing revenues, a business may find that it’s never making enough money.
• Business-owners can find they are so tied up in day-to-day operations, they no longer have a clear direction for the business.
• Owners spend their time working in the business and too little attention and time is spent working on the business.
• Managers don’t have a clear idea which activities are profitable, and which are not.
• Employees don’t have clear objectives and responsibilities and hiring new staff adds to the chaos.
• Small business owners need to be expert in many areas and carry the burden of responsiblity. This can inadvertently create can a bottleneck.

Entrepreneurs and managers may have worked in a particular way for years. While they become aware that if they want to move into the next stage of growth, their ways need to change. But the power of habit is strong and our default behaviours and comfort zones hold us captive. Time seems the most limiting factor –there are not enough hours in the day to do something ‘new’ in addition to everything else.

A mentor is an outside resource who will help identify, manage and focus on what will bring about the right change for the business to move to the next stage.

A mentor is a cost effective resource that can help at any stage in the business, to support the owners and managers to figure out where they want to be, and help them get there in a more reliable way and in a shorter time.

what is a mentor?

• A mentor is a trusted advisor and coach.
• He has either more experience or complementary experience, which is useful to the company.
• He has ‘been there and done it’ which helps to avoid making expensive mistakes and saves time.
• He will listen and share ideas and thoughts, and will challenge in a constructive way
• He is not an employee or someone who runs your business for you, but rather guides and facilitates your thoughts and processes.
• He makes sense of what is and what else

what is a mentors role?

• Support the entrepreneur or CEO to achieve their goals in a cost effective way
• Point out things you are too busy to notice
• Inform the decision process
• Help to keeps plans on track
• Keep an objective and grounded perspective of the business
• Help owners and managers hold the big picture

what are the key benefits?

• Reduced operational and financial risks
• Saves time by avoiding trail and error mistakes
• No additional employer responsibilties and associated costs
• Valuable contributions when assessing opportunities
• Faster and manageable company growth
• Add skills that the company needs but does not have.