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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If you look around you will see, even with a recession drawing nearer and the credit crunch backlash, there are plenty of great credit card offers available. These offers are aimed at attracting new users or  encouraging existing ones to transfer their debt to a new lender.

Now is a good time for you to review your current credit card arrangements. Before you start looking for deals, get clear about your purchasing and payment habits. Think carefully about your reasons for wanting a new card, this will help you to choose wisely.

Do you pay off the full amount owed each month? If you do, then a card that offers rewards or cashback is likely to suit you.

When your credit card bill arrives, do you pay interest each month? A card that offers you a good deal on purchases is likely to be right for you.

Do you want to reduce existing card debt? A card that offers you the lowest deal on balance transfers for a number of months could be just what you need.

Once you are clear about which of the broad categories you fit into, you can look around for a deal that is right for you.

A friend of mine, recently received an anniversary 0% APR offer on a credit card. She used the offer to clear her bank overdraft. This gave her a year to pay off an overdraft with a high rate of interest, now paying no interest at all. Her bank is pleased, she has put cash into her account. It didn’t matter that it took the form of a balance transfer.

A word of caution

I learned the hard way about balance transfers. If you are transferring a balance, do not use the card under any circumstances to make purchases. Ever! Purchases attract a different interest rate and will cost you dearly.

If you balance transfer, the lender decides which part of your debt will be paid first. You can be sure, the decision will be the interest-free debt first.

There is no reason you should be paying interest on credit card debt. There are many places you can go to get free, impartial information about the latest and best deals. Don’t delay, go find yourself a deal that’s right for you – get your cards changed now.

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Theo Paphitis, star of Dragon’s Den, claims that he would rather stick razor-sharp pins through his eyes than shop at Lidl. Lid,l for those of you who don’t know, is a discount supermarket chain of German origin with 7000 stores in 17 countries. When I read that article recently, in the Times, it made me laugh out loud. Not so long ago, I would have said something similar. For years, I have been a shop and label brand snob when it came to shopping for food.

I was convinced that only the larger supermarket chains, and the well-known brands could meet my refined needs and delight my culinary tastes. However, the need to watch my spending and the consequent discovery of low priced supermarkets, opened my eyes to a completely new world of shopping.

Look at the following scenarios and discover if you are a food snob;

• When you shop for groceries, you only ever buy well-known brands.
• There are buy one get one free offers, but you slavishly stick to what you know.
• Friends have told you a cheap lesser-known brand of food is really, but you can’t bring yourself to buy it.
• Food items have foreign labels so you refuse to try them.
• You are convinced that high price equals high quality.
• In a taste test, one of your favourite products does poorly but you’d still rather buy your known brand.
• You’ll travel to several shops to buy the brand you love.
• You’d rather go without, than risk trying an unknown brand.

If any of these sound familiar, it’s possible that you are a bit of a snob when it comes to food shopping.

When I decided that I wanted to become debt free, I had to look at every area of my life where I spend money. I discovered that my regular trips to the large well-known supermarkets, guaranteed that I would end up with a huge sum added to my credit card debt.

The first time I ventured into a low priced store, I found myself quite reluctant to buy anything. I just browsed, convinced there was nothing I wanted. Gradually I let down my guard and started to take a good look at what was being sold. Yes, they had name brand products – sometimes they were cheaper, sometimes they weren’t. I also discovered many new and different things, at prices that were significantly less than I would usually pay.

I strongly suggest swallowing that pride and venturing into the cheap shops. What harm can it do? Your grocery bills can be reduced by as much as 50%.

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I remember the first time someone called me a “card tart”, I was most offended. I ended up feeling as pleased as punch, once that person explained they were impressed by the way I transferred credit card balances to get great deals.

I know I make judgements about people, it helps me to make decisions about the people I work with and the people I chose to be friends with. Businesses are no different, they like to categorise us because it helps them to decide what services to offer and what kind of risk we present to them. Simply put, they use labels to inform their business practice.

I came across a website this morning that helps people find the best deals on credit cards and they had some great descriptions for credit card users. Have a look at the list below and see if you can work out what kind of person each of the card users described might be.

• Th O% Surfer
• The Monthly Revolver
• The Claimer
• The Big Spender
• The Traveller
• The Emergency User
• The Poor Credit Experience/First Timer

Then go to which Credit Card 4U and find out how accurate you description was. Did you fit any of those descriptions? Or perhaps you have a name to describe how you use your card that wasn’t there.

The next time someone calls you a first timer, just take a moment to breathe and reflect on the conversation before you respond – you just might stop yourself getting a black eye.

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When she got back, she told me two things; what kind of company had processed the charge (they sell sewer pumps!) and that it wasn’t fraud…

I was fascinated that she was so sure it wasn’t fraud, since I had no memory of purchasing any sewer pumps – ever. She explained the spending wasn’t the pattern used for fraud. She explained in quite some detail exactly how to commit online fraud safely. If I were looking for tips, I would have got plenty. She showed me how how the sewer pump spending wasn’t like that. I was really worried about ID fraud and thought someone may have somehow got hold of my details. She said no, it wasn’t that either.

Well, rather than spend my day guessing and getting there by a process of elimination, I asked her to put me out of my misery and tell me how it could have happened “Oh, the person entering the credit card number online probably just missed by one digit”. What? How could this be? What about all that security we are assured of online, I thought.

“But what about the 3 digit security code?”, I asked, “doesn’t that protect me?” The answer was somewhat surprising, though I wonder why I am still surprised at financial institutions. “Some companies check the 3 digit code and others just go by expiry date, if you have the same expiry date it might go through”. Then I was told that, in order for them to investigate it, I had to write a letter post it to them.

After I got off the phone, it occurred to me that someone had, presumably erroneously, used my credit card to make a purchase online. They hit a lucky number and my card was used instead of theirs. That this is possible, is scary. Their name did not match the card number. The delivery address wouldn’t match the card address, the 3 digit code wouldn’t have matched and the valid from date was probably different too. Yet none of these security checks seemed to matter. After all those failures by the credit card company, I had to write and inform them before they would investigate the claim. Credit card companies are fully aware that each step you ask people to take, there will be a fall off percentage. In other words, some people won’t phone and report it, some will phone, but not get as far as writing the letter, leaving the customer liable for the spend and not the company.

How easy is then to commit online fraud? Probably not that difficult given a bit of insider knowledge. It seems it’s not fraud we really have to worry about. It’s the lack of security – that and the fees we pay to cover those shortcomings.

Does anyone else have this kind of experience?

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