All business owners sometimes have hiccups – starting and running a business is a constant rollercoaster with plenty of unexpected WTF moments along the way. (Though we wouldn’t change it for the world, would we?!)
Juggling all the hats you have to wear, especially if you work on your own in your business, can be exhausting – and sometimes you really do need an outside perspective.
If you’re a multipod, you’ll probably find that some days the juggling is your superpower, and on other days you really can’t deal with it and would like all of it to go away, please.
Advice tends to be to take a step back and look at your business from the outside – but when you are your business, this can be surprisingly hard to do – we’re more emotionally connected than we think to our labours of love.
Having someone new look at your business with experienced eyes can really help to supercharge your marketing, sales or development – it’s hard to quantify as each person and venture has their own challenges and needs, but it’s amazing how much difference it can make.
What a business mentor is
A good mentor will share their experience and advice with you, helping you to change or improve your mindset, build your confidence, and understand your next steps to making your business (and life!) successful on your terms.
Mentors encourage you to problem solve and untangle your thorny business issues, but can also share their experiences and contacts with you to help you move through situations which arise.
Having a business mentor means having someone to ask questions – icky ones, sticky ones, small ones and big ones. There is no such thing as a silly question, and often we will have come across the issue before, so can advise best practice and also what we’ve seen happen in the past.
Back in the early days of my own business journey I read that starting a business is the best self development process – and it’s true! Most of us are very intertwined with our businesses, so any mentoring you have for your business is likely to impact your life, and vice versa. Usually very positively.
What mentoring isn’t
Having a business mentor isn’t a magic bullet for all your troubles, either – it can certainly help to deal with them over time, but as with coaching, mentoring is most effective when you are also prepared to put the work in between sessions.
Mentoring also isn’t the same as coaching, though both have their place in business and self development – they have different approaches.
What can a business mentor help with?
Almost anything you’re finding difficult, frustrating, bewildering or puzzling in your business, from time management to finding clients to your website to expanding your team.
In the past I’ve helped my mentoring clients with things as varied as:
- Time management
- Starting a blog for the first time
- Systems – for content, marketing and running your business
- Streamlining multiple businesses and making them work around you
- Productivity, time management and scheduling
- Finding your voice and message
- Finding the confidence to make the leap
- Changing direction
- Finding suppliers for a new product
- Confidence and support in all aspects of running a business
- Market research & gathering information
- Writing their own copy for websites, marketing, etc
- Start up help
- and lots more
Choosing a business mentor
Choosing a mentor should be an exciting process – you’re looking for someone who you click with on a personal level, because you need to be able to be honest with them, as they will be with you.
Some specialise more than others – who you choose will largely depend on what you want to gain from the process.
It’s perfectly acceptable to have more than one mentor – perhaps covering different aspects of what you want to learn or change, or just at different times within your business.
Ideally they will have done the thing you want to achieve, or be further ahead with it than you are. How far ahead is down to you – sometimes someone just a step or two in front has more empathy for the situation than someone who is years ahead.
How does mentoring work?
Ah, the unanswerable question! It will vary depending on what you are seeking mentoring for, and who your mentor is, and your business, and lots of other things too.
When I offered mentoring as a service, I had about a 50:50 split between Zoom and in person meetings, and frequency varies from weekly to monthly meetings.
Each session or series of sessions was agreed based on what each client needed. The session itself was usually mostly discussion – questions, answers, notes and information sharing. I kept notes on each session for each client, and they could also access the recording if they wanted to.
Some sessions had follow up notes and materials, from flow charts to worksheets to journal prompts – every one was tailored to the client and the subject of the session.
Mentoring I’ve had has been broadly similar – some very helpful, some less helpful, but all tailored to me and that moment in time.
Nice things people have said about me
“She has this absolute knack for seeing beneath the surface of your business and knowing exactly what to suggest to help you out of the rut you’ve dug yourself into. What I love, though, is that she does it with so much joy and passion.” – Sarah Wayte, copywriter and photographer
“Carla’s mentoring work is the right balance of structured tasks and a real understanding of my business and who I am. She has a real energy and makes you fall in love with your business all over again , whilst also giving you the tools to put a strategic plan in place.” – Lizzie Cheeld, VA and director of Love You Burlesque
How do I find a mentor?
I no longer offer standalone mentoring, although if you book a brand shoot with me you’re likely to get lots of informal advice during the process.
If you’re looking for someone to help you, here’s a list of where I’d start looking:
- Your local business & enterprise support centre (in Colchester we have Colbea and Backing Essex Business)
- Ask your network – you never know who might either offer what you want, or have needed similar in the past, and personal recommendation is usually a good thing
- Who are you connected with or following on social media? I follow a whole bunch of excellent coaches & mentors, and it would be daft not to include them in my search
- And good old Googling – especially useful if you have a particular thing you want help with, or if you sit in a specific niche. Someone who’s already taken a product to factory and export is much more likely to be able to help with that than someone whose own experience is mostly in service based models.
Good luck – and let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know!
