Small Business Management: Mentors Can Help With Business Growth

As a small business owner, you sometimes might find yourself in a rut. Perhaps you’re handling your business the same way every day, and you wish you had someone to give you ideas, help with growing your business, or learn new business strategies. If this is a position that you’ve been in before, you might consider investing the time and energy into finding a business mentor.

According to some business experts, having a mentor in your corner may just make the difference for your organization’s success and profitability.

"IdeaCrossing views business mentors as critical resources for entrepreneurs seeking sound advice about how to grow their businesses," said Ray Leach, CEO of JumpStart. "A good business mentor will have solid experience to draw from and will help entrepreneurs scale the learning curve of business ownership. Whether a 10-minute phone call or 10 hours of free consult, that relationship can be critical to your future success."

IdeaCrossing recommends the following strategies for finding and working with a business mentor:

• Find the right business mentor for you. Finding a business mentor is a two-way street, but when you are making a choice, select someone you are comfortable with who takes the time to understand your business venture and offers skills and knowledge you don't yet possess as an entrepreneur. Great business mentor sources include business and industry associates, social clubs, alumni groups, professional contacts, and online communities. Increasingly, the Internet is a great place to pair smart-thinking business pros with entrepreneurs seeking to grow their business.
• Be assertive in your business mentor search. Any social activity requires effort and outreach on your part. Whether you are shaking hands at a business function or initiating online communications, be bold and take action. Reach out, state your case, and foster solid relationships through online and offline social communications channels.
• Once you've located your business mentor, it's time to listen. He or she is the expert and has most likely been in your shoes. Share as much of your business plan/concept with which you feel comfortable and take detailed notes. Then act -- separate the suggestions that are actionable and realistic at your current entrepreneurial state from the ideas that would be best utilized in the future.
• Take a step back and review your process. Did you find a business mentor with whom you've connected on a personal level? Did he or she provide the skills and advice you needed, outside of your original thinking? Did you listen in an unbiased fashion and act upon sound data?
• Do a gut-check. After you've crunched the data and analyzed your mentor's ideas and related results, what do your instincts tell you? How can your relationship with your business mentor continue to grow and benefit you in the future?

For more information on this topic visit www.ideacrossing.org.