We have found over the years, that the experience and guidance of a high calibre mentor can make the difference between success and failure. The following tips and thoughts will help you to decide if the time is right for you to find yourself a mentor, and help you to make the most of the mentoring experience.

What is a Mentor?

Simply put, a mentor provides a second opinion, offering constructive feedback from an individual experienced in either running a business or in your specific field of interest. The idea is that their support will advise and encourage you in your role as decision maker for the company. A mentor gives you access to a different perspective on events or issues that arise within your business, offering impartial advice.

Myths about mentors.

People often have varied opinions about mentors and their roles. This varied perspective on the role of the mentor can prevent you getting the most out of the mentoring relationship.

• Your mentor is not someone who will do all the work for you or try to take over.

• They are not an employee, but are there to help.

• Your mentor is not a business consultant in disguise and your mentor will most certainly not be running the business for you.

• They can share their experience and, with you at the helm, help guide your business to success.

What makes a good mentor?

The characteristics of a good mentor will vary depending on you and on your business. You need to find someone with whom you are comfortable working. One person may value a friendly, easy-going relationship with a mentor, whilst another may prize a mentor with knowledge and technical skills. However, it is important that a mentor maintains a positive outlook and a high energy level with a desire to help your business grow. Ideally, they will have hands on experience of running a business and preferably in your field.

What a mentor can bring to your business

A mentor can bring a wealth of skills, knowledge and experience to your company as well as widening your network of business contacts. Mentoring can also help you personally, building confidence in your own skills, decision-making and problem solving abilities.

Avoid problems through planning

Problems arise within mentoring relationships when expectations and objectives are misunderstood. To overcome this you should first determine how a mentor could best help your business and work out what you want to learn in advance. Set specific goals, whether they are tactical (learning how a particular job is done) or strategic (learning what and why something is done). Also, set out a specific timescale to achieve your goals.

Lay out ground rules and set boundaries

Set boundaries and ground rules at the beginning of the relationship as this will help things to run smoothly from the start. A good mentor will be someone who also has very clear boundaries. You should remember that a mentor will challenge your ideas and thoughts from time to time; this should be seen as constructive criticism rather than overstepping the mark.

What’s in it for them?

Effective mentoring requires time and effort on the part of the mentor, but they usually give their time free. In turn, they will have the opportunity to develop their own skills and increase their contact base. For a number of mentors the joy of watching someone grow and develop is reward enough.

Make mentoring a strategic business imperative

The guidance and wisdom of someone unconnected to your business will be critical to its success, especially in its formative years. Expert impartial advice is priceless.

Commitment

Demonstrate your commitment to the success of the mentoring relationship. Make appointments and stick to them, come to meetings prepared, ensure you complete the work you agreed to do. Ask questions, offer ideas but remember be prepared to listen. Take an interest in your mentor.

In the end, your mentor will become not only your advisor, but also your friend and confidante. That doesn’t happen instantly-building trust and personal interest takes time. You set the tone at the outset of the relationship by demonstrating your commitment to the process.

If you’d like to learn more about mentoring, here are a couple of great articles you may wish to read Value of a business mentor or choosing a business mentor .

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My story happened about 9 years ago. Life was sweet, then. I was a part of a social/business community based on personal development. I had started public speaking a couple of years before and found I had a talent for it. I took every opportunity to speak and, before long, the opportunities were lining up…

I had just finished a tour of the UK, speaking in most of the major cities. There was a big event lined up and I was billed as the top UK speaker, right before the international keynote speaker. My speech was a triumph, I got a standing ovation. This was the highest point of my life up till then. I had two partners lined up to begin a big project within the community and couldn’t wait to get started. Everything was finally going my way. I was in debt, had no cash but I could see that was all about to end. At last, I believed I could fly!

Around this time there had been a few new people join the community. Some of us were less than happy about the new element. It seemed they were all about money and less about growth, more profit and less service. Before we knew it, the Department of Trade and Industry had begun to take an interest in what we were up to. It all happened very fast. Suddenly there was a court case going on and the DTI was trying to shut us down. 70 of us headed of to the high court to watch the proceedings. They had to move the case to a bigger courtroom to accomodate us. Both sides laid out their case. The prosecution talked about the unscrupulous nature of the new element and one person in particular. Then the defence talked about the virtues of the more established members of the community and one person in particular – me! I had no idea this was going to happen. All the details of my business, personality and values were laid out in court for anyone to hear. It wasn’t that anything nasty was said, on the contrary, it was just mortifying.

After 3 days the case ended. The DTI had more money than us and based on the bad boys, a fairly strong case. They won and we were shut down immediately. My business, income, future plans, opportunity to speak and my social life all went in one short pronouncement. I went home devastated.

I crawled into a corner and, for six weeks, I pretty much stayed there. I wasn’t whimpering and singing a poor me song, I was thinking. OK, I did whimper and sing a poor me song for a couple of days, then I started thinking. I realised I could still speak, I still had the ability. I could still inspire people. I could still teach personal development and leadership, I just didn’t have the environment. The court case had embarrassed me but enhanced my reputation and, although I had lost my social life, I still had real friends. I realised they could take away my job, but never my work. I had lots left in me.

I spoke to the people I had agreed to partner up with for the big project. We couldn’t do what we had originally planned, but we could do something similar but bigger. One decided to come with me, the other moved on.

So, we started The Wow Factor. We had decided on the triangle and circle logo and it was with the designer. I was in the bath and had a sudden thought. I jumped out and rang the designer asking him to put fire on the top of the logo. It just had to be there. But, apart from some pretty design, we didn’t have a clue how to move forward.

Six weeks later we got a call from London Fire Brigade (as it was then, Fire and Rescue Services is what they are called now) asking if we could do leadership courses with a strong emotional intelligence leaning. YES, we most certainly could. Not much later I bought my partner out so that she could go and do her thing. Nine years later, Zandria and I are still teaching leadership in The British Fire Service amongst other things, and still loving it.

The company we have built was the lemonade squeezed from a nasty court case. Around the time it happened I found a card and carried it with me for a long time. It has a quote from Albert Camus on it,

In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me, an invincible summer.

Pass it on

The Rules

Life gave me lemons, so I made lemonade – MEME
Rules:
* Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
* Link back to person who tagged you.
* Write about an incident in your life you first thought was really bad, but ended up being a blessing.
* Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
* Let each person you tagged know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
(* And if you want to – link back to this original Lemonade Meme post too.)

I’m tagging;

G Blogmaster from CanIGetRichOnASalary?

Bill from Money-Hacks

Nina from Queer Cents

Shawna at Bumblefucked

This post appears in the carnival of money stories at Money Ning

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I saw it for the first time today but I’ll be a regular visitor from now. There’s much for the experienced entrepreneur as well as the absolute beginner.

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The Big Day has arrived – it’s time to make some money – not earn it, but make it! Like any act of creativity, making some money is immensely satisfying. Especially the first time. So, now you’ve chosen your product or service. You know where, how and to whom you are going to market it. Off we go! Now there are only two things between you and making money – action and your emotions…

How do you feel now? Excited, scared? Unmotivated, raring to go? Some people, the most entrepreneurial amongst you, will have raced ahead. No starter pistol necessary, they will be a couple of weeks into their quest by now, having doubled their money already and now on their second project. Some will have raced off without planning or preparation. Already, they will have given up, convinced this won’t work, and moved to the next big idea. Others will have diligently worked through the exercises, arriving at the starting blocks ready and willing, looking for the next lot of instructions. Some will have read the exercises with interest, possibly even had an idea or two, but broadly, for them, it will be an intellectual exercise. Yet others will be wondering if they dare go ahead, their heads will be full of “what if”s. They’ll cradle their dream of making some money and developing financial independence without ever making it a reality. None of these are better or worse, just different – where do you fit, what does this tell you about yourself?

Watch carefully how your children think and behave around this. Their world is different to the one we grew up in. They will have to more comfortable with change, develop habits of lifelong learning and tolerate a level of risk, to be independent and happy adults – all this in societies that are becoming more risk-averse. Entrepreneurs have always stood apart as people prepared to take risks. Developing the skills and attributes of entrepreneurs is the key to living beyond survival in a rapidly changing world.

So what can we learn from them? What can we teach our children? Why is this series of simple exercises, so important? Those of us who grew up between the 1960s and the 1980s had more freedom than any other generation before us. With the exception of traffic, life is, statistically, no more dangerous now, than it was then. Children are no more likely to be victims of violent crime, abduction, accidents or abuse than we were, but the perception is that they live in a more dangerous world. They get driven to school while we walked, they play inside while we played out, their time is tightly structured, ours was free. They are in danger – of obesity and fear and lack of creativity. Sure, kids don’t break their legs and have scabby knees nearly as much as preceding generations, but, be honest, wasn’t that stuff fun?

Entrepreneurs are risk takers, they feel the same fears as others but they go ahead anyway. They are willing to fail – sometimes spectacularly, rather than live with the regret of no endeavour. They develop relationships of mutuality and reciprocity, sharing and learning with others. They surround themselves with people who support them and take their advice from successful people, champions of what they do. Entrepreneurs give it a go, even when they don’t have all the facts. They are confident that, if they fall, they can pick themselves up.

Equip your children for adulthood in their world, by daring to teach them – to dare.

This Week’s Exercise

Feel the fear, then Go Ahead – make some money!

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This week we are looking at how to germinate the ideas and turn them into a seedling project. To do that we need to take broadly the same steps we would if we were starting a major international business, just in a smaller more family-friendly way. This weeks exercise will start this process at the right scale for this project.

Marketing

The next big step and where we are focusing this week is marketing. Often people get marketing mixed up with sales, but it is so much more. It has long been defined as the Four Ps;

• Product: The product part of marketing is about deciding what you want to sell. How will it address the needs, wants and/or problems of your customers? Shannon, the 11 year old girl we’re following through this process, has two big ideas. The first is to make home made cookies. In this section, then, she can look at whether her cookies are to fill hungry bellies at school break time and be sold in a clear plastic bag to her friends, or whether they will be packaged quite differently and sold as a gift. That one decision will affect her market, who she sells them to, and the price she can ask. Even if she sold them for school snacks, the price would be different if sold to children at school, or aimed at parents as healthy snacks for their children.

• Pricing: This is about setting a price for your product, including discounts. It’s important to think carefully about it. If the price is right, your product will make you a good profit. Too high, and you won’t sell enough to make it work; too low, and people may miss the value or you won’t be able to produce enough to keep up with demand. Tyler, the 12 year old boy following this process, sells sweets at school. He has carefully watched his classmates and observed their preferences. He buys very popular candies in bulk and doubles the price selling singly. Pricing also includes whether you will allow discounts. You may also barter some of your product for time or credibility. For instance, if you know someone who heavily influences other’s choices in the area of your product, you may want to offer them a discount or even a free gift. If your product is food related and you have a friend who is known as a gourmet, get them to recommend your product – you’ll have no problem getting them to try a free sample.

• Promotion: This is about how other people get to hear about your product or service. How will you advertise or talk about it? Will it have a brand, an identifiable look or feel or will it be generic? My sisters-in-law make beautiful and sometimes funny one-off greetings cards. They have a particular look to them and are stamped with their name on the back. It adds a professionalism to their special personal touch and tells people where to come for more. Shannon’s other big idea came from the adding value exercise. She thought she could buy some good paper and add value to it by drawing one of her wonderful pictures on it. Shannon now has to decide if she will do special pictures for commissions, or draw what she feels and then see if she can sell them – how will she let people know? Will she get others to talk about them, give her Granny a free gift or carry a portfolio of pictures with her?

• Placement (or distribution): This is about how the product gets to the customer; for example, do you sell on the internet, door to door in your neighbourhood (cookies etc) or is it through other people? This is also about where and to whom the product or service gets sold. Is it for children, gap year students, families or business people? My business partner, Zandria, has the idea of adding value to food and preparing a meal, then further adding value by serving it in someone’s house. I think that’s a fantastic idea. She cooks exquisite Jamaican food. So, should she aim her service at busy Jamaican families with no time to prepare or English people, looking for something a bit different?

Just as a road map guides you on a journey, a marketing plan guides you to your goals. This simple plan will keep you on target towards your goal of multiplying your original $20 or £10.
This week’s exercise

For this week, take your three best ideas from the previous exercises, (links are all included if you haven’t been following). Write them onto a piece of paper in 3 columns. For each idea answer these questions;

1. Who would want this product or service?
2. How much will they pay for it?
3. What are the profit margins (how much more can I sell it for then it cost me)?
4. How much of my time does it take?
5. Will I enjoy making it or doing what’s required?

Then look carefully at your answers. Is there an obvious frontrunner? If one makes more money but another is more enjoyable, which is the most important for you right now? There is no fixed right answer. To check if you have chosen the right project for you, use my Mum’s simple trick. She taught me this when I was a nipper and I’ve used it all my life. Assign two choices to different sides of a coin and toss it. Look which one won. Immediately, check your response. If you feel disappointed, choose the other one. If you are happy, you know you’ve chosen the right one!

Time to get started and multiply that cash!

Image from www.freedigitalphotos.net

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