We all know the comfort and joy of seeing someone Phone-A-Friend on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Each time, the contestant sits and sweats center stage while $1 million is up for grabs. Each time, it’s fully within their reach if they can just get the next few questions right. And each time, the next few questions are undoubtedly difficult.
But there it is, the saving grace: 30 seconds on the phone with a friend, 30 seconds for insight that could make or break the whole shabang.
Now imagine you had this option of phoning a friend when it came to your business endeavors. Lucky for you, this is an achievable reality. Entrepreneur mentors are your Phone-A-Friend, and with the right one, $1 million is just the start.
What is an Entrepreneur Mentor?
In short, an entrepreneur mentor is someone who believes in your enterprise ideas enough to turn them into reality. Not only have they reached a level of success that’s left them with wisdom to share, but they are also willing and able to invest their time and occasional financial resources. Having reached a baseline level of success, business mentors bring priceless insight from their lived experiences.
Why do Entrepreneurs Need a Mentor?
Why do Entrepreneurs Need a Mentor?We’re not saying you or your business needs to Phone-A-Friend all the time. For some entrepreneur mentors, that would be an actual nightmare. What we are saying is that you need to have the option.
Whether you’re just starting out or have been in the business a long time, having someone with a track record of success in your corner goes a long way. I mean, the numbers speak for themselves; 70% of small businesses surpassed their five-year milestone with the help of enterprise mentors. And mentoring doesn’t have to look like one-on-one relationships between you and an industry leader (although that is definitely something worth striving for); business and sales mentor programs for your entire team are widely available and within reach.
The benefits of having a mentor are straightforward enough—you and your team will have access to both a sounding board as well as a channel of expert feedback. As a leader, it’s worth asking how clients can expect good business if you’re not making those decisions for yourself?
Running a business isn’t easy. When it comes time to sink or swim, Selling Revolution is the ultimate lifeguard. Stop worrying about keeping your head above water and book a call.
5 Reasons You Need An Entrepreneur Mentor for Your Business
1. They Serve as Guides on Your Entrepreneurial Journey
“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
If there’s anyone who understands that success isn’t linear, it’s your business mentor. And sure, we’ve all heard this quote before, a gentle reminder that where you’re going isn’t nearly as important as how you get there. But when’s the last time you applied that to your enterprise? The great thing about entrepreneur mentors is that they’ve been in your shoes before, so much so that they can guide you on your business journey. The steps you are going through now—or are about to take—can be on solid ground if you harness your entrepreneur mentor’s learned lessons.
2. They Help Start Planning Your Goals
Chances are you already have a vision or certain goals in mind for your business. Given that an entrepreneur mentor is someone who’s already hit key enterprise milestones, their insight is invaluable in the planning process. You know where you want to go, but they know the tried and true way of getting there.
3. They Can Be Your Angel Investor
If your business is in the starting stages—or even if it just exists as an idea—entrepreneur mentors can be catalysts for vision and growth. Business mentors invest their time and energy into your business, sure, but angel investors take it a step further with financial assistance, often in exchange for equity. With an angel investor, you’re essentially getting incredible commerce insights while fiscally thriving.
4. Mentor’s Experience Can Help in Various Situations
You either sought out your entrepreneur mentor—or fostered an organic relationship with them—because of their experience. They accumulated success due to their own decision making capabilities, making them the perfect resource for whatever situation you find yourself in.
5. Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset in the Workplace
Your entrepreneur mentor is successful because of the way their mind operates. Throughout their years of experience, they’ve honed a mindset and intuition about enterprise. By engaging with a business mentor, you will inherently start to constructively criticize your own thought processes and solutions both in and out of the workplace. When you work one on one with your entrepreneur mentor, however frequently that may be, seize every opportunity to extend that go-getting mindset far and wide.
Best Places to Find Good Entrepreneur Mentors
Sometimes entrepreneur mentorships happen naturally, perhaps starting off as friends or colleagues and growing into a partnership. Other times, this just doesn’t happen and it’s up to you to seek out an entrepreneur mentor. If you find yourself in the latter situation, rest assured that you don’t have to physically bump into the right person at the right time. In fact, the internet is going to be your best friend with a wide range of online tools at your disposal.
Online Meet Up Events
Fostering a natural and simultaneously productive business relationship with someone can be a daunting task. It’s not as straightforward as bumping into someone you admire before asking them to mentor you in your enterprise endeavors. Fortunately though, online virtual meet ups provide opportunities to proactively network with both people in the same boat as you as well as potential business mentors. Finding a mentor has never been easier; you can do so from the comfort of your living room if you wanted.
Two available resources are Eventbrite and Meetup. Both customizable online platforms offer the ability to funnel your interests into networking opportunities either virtually or within a radius that you determine.
Online Forums
Online ForumsIf you’re just starting your search or if you want peer guidance on best practices, look no further than online forums. Business advice doesn’t necessarily need to come from one individual; forums allow for multiple sources of input and aren’t on a time crunch like your own mentor might be.
Check out other entrepreneur’s experiences and tips on Reddit. With a subreddit system that filters topics into individual communities, groups like r/ecommerce and r/Entrepreneur offer insights and lessons learned, as well as the ability to facilitate group conversations and get real-time counsel.
For more peer-to-peer mentorship, Startups.com is a platform worth considering. The site vets every applicant and designates you into a group of eight like-minded entrepreneurs where you meet once a month to discuss business goals as well as hurdles.
Social Groups or Communities
Social media may have come into existence as a means to have fun, but more and more it is becoming an instrument of enterprise success. Not only can you follow leaders of your industry, but you can also directly reach out to them and develop professional relationships.
The go-to professional networking site, LinkedIn allows you to showcase your resume and skills in a way that could propel your career. The site’s search capabilities allow you to seek out specific entrepreneur mentors or even just sort through opportunities via hashtags. And what’s great is that you don’t have to already know someone to request to connect.
Slightly more personal than LinkedIn—Aunt Mabel is not endorsing you for CRM—Facebook can be the perfect way to connect with business mentors, especially if they are already in your peripheral network. But what makes Facebook such a stellar resource is the optimization of its Groups, where you can float in and out of online communities filtered by location and interest.
Twitter is going to be the middle ground between LinkedIn and Facebook. There is no pre-requisite or expectation to know your followers or who you follow, making it less awkward to connect with someone you’d like to be your business mentor. That being said, the platform doesn’t necessarily allow you to display a portfolio, meaning your tweets should reflect your entrepreneurial potential.
SCORE Volunteer Mentors
When you are in the active stages of turning an entrepreneurial idea into a small business, the cost of business mentorship programs can be a roadblock. To help take the financial pressure off growing your enterprise, the U.S. Small Business Administration partnered with Deluxe to develop SCORE. A nonprofit organization connecting entrepreneurs with over 10,000 volunteer mentors around the nation, SCORE boasts low-cost workshops, webinars, and an online library of free resources.
CONCLUSION
Starting, managing, and growing a small business is no small feat. An entrepreneur mentor or mentorship program can help, as can Selling Revolution. Let us take your sales techniques to the next level and book a call today.