When we ask the question, “what is a business mentor for entrepreneurs?”, the answer directly connects with how they help you.
Thinking about the question, I generally have to go back and determine what did he or she help me with that made a significant impact on my success.
For example, in my last post, I touched on thinking and working differently about growing your business. I have had a number of mentors explain different ways to think and grow.
What is the Role of a Business Mentor?
When I think about valuable insights I gained and from whom, about using my time more effectively, Dan Sullivan, The Strategic Coach, comes to mind. He’s great at sharing what he knows, and he knows a lot. His approach to getting things done faster and better is to use a variation of the 80-20 Rule.
Sullivan’s teaching is that whenever you start a new project, program or product, 80% of what you need is in your core.
It boils down to this; you know what to do and how to do it. The remaining 20% isn’t in your core and you have no ideas or skills in that area. So, how do you think most entrepreneurs address this problem?
Like many business owners, you might start by working on the 20% with the belief that if you can’t solve this, then you’ll fail. What you don’t realize is that by taking on this job, that falls into your 20% that you’re really not skilled at, almost always leads to failure. If you had a schedule in place, it gets pushed back time and again because you’re not learning the new skill or task, fast enough.
If you’d started by running into Sullivan and hearing what he believes is the best approach for entrepreneurs who are already wearing dozens of hats, you’d have determined who you might offload this 20% to. Especially when it’s offloaded to someone who considers that 20% part of their core or their 80%. (Think, freelancers, contractors, and virtual assistants.) We can add a little math to see how this might affect the outcome of your project.
So, you have your 80% and then add your 20% to someone for whom this task or skill, is in their core (80%), which adds another 16% to your project and you have 96% of your project covered.
Sullivan reinforces this by saying that this 20% will never become part of your core so why would you waste any time trying to become competent in that area?
I add to this, if you take on the 20% yourself, at best, you will become a ‘Trainee’ since training only produces trainees, and would you ever go out and hire a trainee for your project? I wouldn’t, and you wouldn’t either.
It’s important that you look around and find business mentors who you believe can help you, and then follow them. Two great places to look are YouTube and iTunes Podcasts. For example, Dan Sullivan is part of a number of podcasts on iTunes. He hosts Inside Strategic Coach, and Multiplier Mindset, and co-hosts with Peter Diamandis on Exponential Wisdom, 10XTalk.com with Joe Polish, and Capability Amplifier with Mike Koenigs to name just a few. He also has lots of videos on YouTube.
Along with watching or listening to experts who can help with specific projects, you can also find a mentor who will work with you on an ongoing basis. The beauty of this is, you can interact by discussing and getting feedback on your thoughts, issues, plans, or goals. Things to consider when looking:
There are key differences between Business Mentors, Coaches, and Consultants.
- Mentors are subject matter experts in a number of areas and have lots of experience to draw on. They act as your trusted advisor. They work with you over an extended period.
- Coaches are generally subject matter experts in the process of coaching with the best having accomplished some type of formal training or certification program. They’re not necessarily subject matter experts in their client’s problem topic but can help them maximize their professional and/or personal potential. Coaches are commonly called on to be accountability partners.
- Consultants are technical experts who are engaged to provide advice or opinions to resolve clients’ problems and advise them on the best course of action. They are generally hired for a limited amount of time based on the problem to solve.
There’s a lot of confusion about the individual capabilities of each of these three types of experts, since there are no agreed upon definitions for each of these roles. Additionally, some professionals add a title to their background because they believe that they are qualified to fill that role.
The definition of a role might lead to a coach thinking they are a consultant or a consultant thinking they are a mentor, but, having performed each of these functions myself, I know from experience that the roles are very different. If you plan on engaging one of these folks, make sure that you have them give examples of previous client projects.
Checklist: What to Consider When Looking for a Business Mentor
Here is a checklist of factors to consider and steps to take when you’re looking for help with business growth. If you already use a journal, write these down and fill out your needs. If you don’t have a journal, get one and have this be your first entry. Or grab your moleskin or notebook.
- Consider what type of help do you think you need
-
-
- Strategy development
- Project management
- Implementation
- Team building
- Financial planning
- Fundraising
- Leadership development
- Are you planning on large scale changes within your organization? Is this something that you think will take a long time or is it more of a one-time project?
- Like building a website, an app, or other software-based product
- Developing a multiyear business/product plan?
- What type of expertise are you looking for?
-
-
-
-
- Strategic – working on strategic areas is generally looking at something over multiple years.
- Operational – areas where the time horizon is less than 12 months.
- Technical – Generally looking at individual issues unless you are considering a significant upgrade or replacement of existing systems or equipment.
-
-
Do you need an expert to help you understand technical aspects of your problem?
-
- Do you need help organizing your thoughts and putting them into a plan?
- Are you looking for an accountability coach to help keep you on track?
- Are you looking for someone to help you develop your process?
- Do you need someone you can meet with during regularly scheduled meetings? Or do you want access to them whenever you need them?
- Have you decided what your 80% is and what your 20% is?
- Are there aspects of your 80% that you would like help furthering developing?
- Are you looking for a resource or resources to off load complete parts of your project?
- Do you know what types of resources (experts) you need to offload to?
- Do you know where to find them or would you like help finding them?
If you’d like to receive more ideas and strategies to help grow your business in your inbox, enter your name and email below.
I’ll also send you a free chapter from my most recent #1 International Bestseller, Spin Your Content into Gold.