How to Find a Business Mentor

A busi­ness men­tor can guide you through the traf­fic snarl of start­ing a new busi­ness. Select a men­tor care­fully so you can depend on his depend on his wise advice and sen­si­ble coun­sel. Below are 8 points rec­om­mended by Wik​i​How​.com that you may want to keep in mind when look­ing for an adviser.

1. Be care­ful shar­ing your busi­ness infor­ma­tion. When you have a new busi­ness idea, be cau­tious. Don’t go around telling lots of peo­ple about it or your idea might be stolen. In select­ing a men­tor, be sure that this per­son is trust­wor­thy and has no rea­son to under­mine your attempts at start­ing out. More than this, be sure to choose some­one who is pos­i­tive, upbeat, and moti­vat­ing. There is noth­ing more off-​putting than some­one whose neg­a­tiv­ity about your pro­pos­als! Ignore the naysay­ers, those who pro­vide the fig­ures of failed busi­nesses; that’s neg­a­tiv­ity you can do without.

2. Find some­one who is very expe­ri­enced in busi­ness. The men­tor must be good at run­ning a busi­ness inside out, from the bot­tom to the top. Your men­tor should have at least 10 years expe­ri­ence in the busi­ness field and have a track record that shines. Note how this per­son has over­come fail­ures too; if they bounced back and did even bet­ter, this per­son is ideal!

3. Find some­one who has the time to spend with you. It’s no good bag­ging a great men­tor only to never see him or her. Check straight away if they can spare a cou­ple of hours a week for a month or two to sit down together and run through all of the issues. Always be pre­pared to shout them cof­fee, a meal, etc. because this per­son is doing you an enor­mous favor. If they seek pay­ment from you, that’s fine too; nego­ti­ate a fair deal and include as part of your start-​up costs – view it as insur­ance for the secu­rity of the future business.

4. Look to the top. While you won’t be able to access the Richard Bran­sons and Estee Laud­ers of the world unless you’ve got per­sonal friend­ships with them, you can learn from their expe­ri­ences. There are many books, online resources and arti­cles writ­ten by high level busi­ness peo­ple who can inspire and moti­vate your, as well as reveal­ing the pit­falls and suc­cess strate­gies that they have experienced.

5. Look at com­pa­nies. The sto­ries of suc­cess­ful com­pa­nies are well worth read­ing. They are not always about one dom­i­nant per­son­al­ity but are often a com­bi­na­tion of lead­er­ship and great team skills. How this achieved is an impor­tant les­son to avail your­self of as you aim to build up good staff in your com­pany. The com­pany that’s always cited as an incred­i­ble suc­cess story is that of South­west Air­lines but there are many other good ones out there too – look at Fortune’s top com­pa­nies for ideas of which to research.

6. Visit a gov­ern­ment spon­sored busi­ness bureau. Such places can pro­vide an enor­mous range of great infor­ma­tion to help you learn about start­ing a busi­ness and they often have free advis­ers avail­able to talk you through gov­ern­ment laws, busi­ness ideas, the dos and don’ts, etc.

7. Use the peo­ple who will be help­ing your busi­ness as a source of men­tors. Your accoun­tant and your lawyer will prove good men­tors if you ask them for help. They also tend to know other peo­ple to refer you to for more detailed advice in spe­cific areas.

8. Use pro­fes­sional resources. More gen­eral busi­ness men­tor­ing can be found in the form of join­ing orga­ni­za­tions rel­e­vant to your par­tic­u­lar busi­ness. You will ben­e­fit from net­work­ing, from sem­i­nars, from din­ner events, guest speak­ers, etc. and might even be able to tap into an advice line if one is offered. Think out­side the square too – busi­ness can be extra chal­leng­ing for women, so this can be a huge source of help, so if you are a busi­ness­woman, con­sider join­ing a women’s pro­fes­sional net­work of support.

Tips:

Social Net­work­ing sites like Face­book, Twit­ter and LinkedIn can help you find and net­work with oth­ers for pro­fes­sional inspi­ra­tion. You’ll get access to oth­ers in your field or the field you are con­sid­er­ing. These like-​minded pro­fes­sion­als pro­vide guid­ance, sup­port and a glimpse into their com­mu­nity. You may even come across fel­low up-​and-​comers like Isaac Dabah, who are already tapped into a net­work of vet­er­ans ready to pick up more mentees.

Con­sider retired busi­ness own­ers. Who bet­ter to advise you than some­one who built not only a suc­cess busi­ness but also a suc­cess­ful life from his or her years of endeavor? And they often have both the inter­est and the time to men­tor you.

Look to your var­i­ous gov­ern­men­tal agen­cies at the munic­i­pal, county, state and fed­eral level for pro­grams and coun­cilors. SCORE is par­tic­u­larly helpful.