How to Boost Your Success and Get More Business Value

Your chances of success in life and in business are statistically improved by having the RIGHT mentor, where valuable connections, timely advice and moral guidance can accelerate the journey to your success.

How to Accelerate Your Success with a Business Mentor

The main benefits of having a business mentor are:

• Access to impartial advice and encouragement
• A supportive relationship from outside the business
• Help with seeing problems and solution more clearly
• Improves self-confidence
• Builds on experience and enhances professional development
• Encourages reflection
• Motivates and relieves the feeling of isolation

A good mentor has been there and done it already – they know your pain!

Impartial Advice and Support

Inspirational entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey says, “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.”

Having access to someone who has walked in your shoes, who has an impartial view of both your personal life and your business and gives encouragement is worth their weight in gold.  From personal experience I would have quit on more than one occasion without the support and guidance of my mentors in the past.  They gave me moral support, hope and improved confidence that I could continue.

In one business they supported me exiting my company when it was right for me even though it was earlier than originally planned, allowing in me to avoid major burn out.

My mentors are my heroes.

A Supportive External Relationship That Boosts Your Success

Having been in exactly the same situation at the start and through the various crisis points in a rapidly growing business, a mentor knows when to give “tough love” and when to be more empathic.  Being an entrepreneur exposes you to a huge variety of challenges not just in the mechanics of running the business but in personal motivation and self-discipline.

Mentors can clearly identify your strengths and knowledge gaps.  A great mentor holds up a mirror to your productivity, how you work and what habits you have.  Holding you to account helps you get focused on the right things at the right time and making the appropriate commitments that get your business speeding towards your goals.

It can be hard to know who to trust, especially with proprietary information or intellectual property.  Mentors are impartial – with nothing to gain except the reflective glory of your success and nothing to lose except their own time – they can safely be exposed to confidential information and ideas without fear of loss.

Clarity on Problems and Solutions Focused on Your Success

Mentors are often peer level sounding boards that allow you to bounce ideas off them without fear of judgement.   Being able to express views, ideas and explore options with someone who has nothing to gain or lose can be very liberating.

Equally, in partnerships, an external person who is unbiased will give a balanced opinion and ask challenging questions.  In my own businesses I have worked with my mentors to test ideas to destruction before getting them implemented – often one idea has turned into something completely different as a result of mentors being involved.

A good mentor will get you to stand back from the coal face and get some perspective on your business and the decisions you need to make.

Self-Confidence

Having someone who guides you and can placate your fears is reassuring when all around you it may appear chaos!  When the doubts start to creep in, a mentor often bolsters your confidence and shows you that things are not a bad as they might appear.

Self-confidence is very important to success and having a high self-confidence contributes to career success more than talent and competence.

Mentors have the capacity to help their mentees boost their self-confidence.  The right mentor helps to show how challenges can become opportunities, that can be exploited.

Experience and Professional Development for Your Success

No one is an expert in all areas of business so having a mentor can fill the gaps!  A lot of business success comes from WHO you know, and a mentor often has an extended network of people who can benefit your business.

They become invested in your success, so they give you access to all the tools, connections and knowledge you need.  Their circle of friends, colleagues and acquaintances are able to add value to your business and your own personal development.

Experience is crucial to business success, yet it’s also expensive and time consuming. Whilst in the Age of the Internet, there is nothing you cannot learn on-line, there’s only so much you can gain from books and courses.  Having a Mentor is a guaranteed way to gain experience in less time.

If you do not have a mentor, you miss out on this rich source of support.

Mentors are typically paying it forward by sharing their experience, mistakes and successes.  They share opinion but let you get on with making the decisions you need to make.  If you make a mistake they don’t tell you “Told you so”, they pick you up, dust you down and let you get on with the next step.

Reflection

Emotional intelligence is a crucial factor in entrepreneurial success. Having control over your emotions makes for better decision making and a more consistent management style.

With inexperienced founders, the advice of a mentor who has already been through the business roller coaster brings a level of maturity to the table that allows proper reflection rather than emotional reaction.

If you are REACTING you aren’t LEADING!

Eric Schmidt, an experience business man and software engineer, worked with then inexperienced Larry Page to run Google starting in 2001.  By 2007 Schmidt was listed as Number 1 of the 50 most important people on the Web, along with Google co-founders Page and Brin.   Both Page and Brin were able to overcome major business and investment hurdles by making smart judgments in partnership with Schmidt.  They became much great than the sum of their parts!

Motivation and Reduced Isolation

Even the most successful entrepreneurs have mentors – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was mentored by Steve Jobs.  Jobs was mentored by Mike Markkula – an early investor and executive at Apple.  Eric Schmidt, as mentioned earlier, mentored Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google.

Having the back up of someone who has been there and done it takes away the feelings of isolation, loneliness and being unsupported.

Often entrepreneurs can be paralysed by thoughts of the consequences of failure, impacting productivity and the attitudes of your entire staff. Having a mentor takes some of the pressure off, giving you a sounding board as well as advice and encouragement.

When entrepreneurs fail to meet their goals and expectations, they often get depressed, and downhearted.  It’s easier to pick yourself back up when you have a mentor keeping an eye on your progress.

Want to Boost Your Success in Business with a Mentor?

There are great benefits to you and your business by getting a professionally qualified and accredited business mentor on your side.  To get started, book in a 20 minute no obligation call – it’s that simple.

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