Working with a Mentor

Working with a mentor to learn the most effective strategies to grow your business can

be helpful. This is precisely where I can make a difference.

All start-ups and small businesses have to go through ups and downs before they reach

the thriving stage. Cash flow problems, marketing issues, HR issues or simply better

business management issues are part of every business’ growth story. These

challenges can often discourage small business owners and can result in good business

ideas coming to an end before it really should. My schtick? To empower owners of start-

ups and small businesses and help them overcome these challenges so that they do not

pull the pin on their great idea too early.

Business mentoring sessions are meant to help you analyse and overcome your

business challenges. While the solutions provided for you may be different from another

business owner, my mentoring relationships are bespoke to each owner and their

problems, but will always aim to tackle those related to business management,

productivity, slow growth, employee hiring or attrition, lack of customer engagement, or

even your business culture.

So, what kind of topics should you be raising with me?

Your story and my career

Our career stories may sound like a simple discussion to have with each other, but it will

provide each other with valuable insights. We need to engage and share experiences

with each other to help build trust between ourselves. Telling your career story isn’t a

pitch to buy or invest in your business. Instead, it’s about us understanding the ups and

downs that we may have each faced along our lives and for you to know I speak from

experience.

Your SWOTs 

Starting a business requires a wide array of skills. Since your initial team may be

small……. Sometimes, it is just you ……and quite naturally you wear several hats while

testing the business waters. In the thick of this, it can be difficult to identify which skills

are currently lacking for which you need to get additional people power outside of you, or

to set up a process to ensure you are able to focus on your best skills, whilst others can

complete tasks for you.

Us doing a SWOT analysis to understand your strengths and what you may be currently

lacking is important and the solutions will be in improving some skills and adding some

people power or adopting technology to get better results. The solutions might not

always be to your liking but then that’s the way for your business to grow faster.

Discussions regarding you and your team skills can help you with your hiring and also

help you attain your goals optimally.

The pragmatism of your business goals

Any top business mentor will tell you that long and short-term goals have a critical role to

play in your business success. You should prepare your version of short and long-term

goals to discuss these with me.  As a new business owner, you may have huge

motivation to set goals, but achieving these can be a different story altogether.

Discussing with me will help us to clearly define these goals and to plan a realistic path

to your business success. We will have productivity, feedback and goal-

setting discussions regularly, as they will help you become a better business manager.

Your business growth

Most businesses have several metrics that help them evaluate current business growth

and if they are in line with planned projections. As a new business owner it’s possible

that you are not looking at the metrics properly or analysing it all in an incorrect manner.

You may evaluate the growth of your business by how fast you reach your goals without

considering the impact on many aspects of your business. Our discussion about your

business growth will help you evaluate your business strategy and undertake

corrections, if required.

Starting a business and then expanding is no small task and having a business mentor

on your side can only lead to success.