Starting a business is like starting a relationship, its easier to start it than it is to maintain and sustain it over time. So many people have lost fortunes to failed businesses and this shows that you may need guidance to make a success of your business. An experienced mentor will act as a cushion against the uncertainty and a light in the dark. Here are a few reasons you need one:
Access To Professional Advice
There is general advice that you can get from friends and from the streets, this is the ‘this is what I think’ statements that we often choose to structure our businesses after. Yet it is an undisputable fact that experience cannot be bought, no matter how wealthy you are. Conversely, you can skimp on rent by operating out of the proverbial garage – but you’ll have to put your all into making the right connections.
The presence of a mentor in your business plan will protect you from the harrowing experience of losing some part or all of your capital. Why? because they have been there. It is not what they think, it is what they know.
The recommendations and the pieces of advice from a mentor may be the difference between closure and financial breakthrough. A mentor already knows the potential challenges that you are going to face during the course of the business and how to overcome them. You should find one and listen to them.
Access To Useful Business Connections
Networking is key to the modern day business. The useful kinds of connections can go a long way in sustaining your business through hard times. Good Mentors will open you up to the right connection that will give your business a soft landing and steady progress. A valuable mentor will connect you with bigger industry players, clients, suppliers, and other people that will be instrumental to the growth and success of your business.
A great mentor will do you one better, he will endorse you and recommend you to people that matter.
Opportunity To Learn Valuable Business Skills
So many skills are required for a business to achieve any measure of success. Some of these skills are learnt during the course of the business. If you have nobody to teach you these skills, you may later learn them. But, that will be at a cost. It will cost you time and money.
Having a mentor will save you a fair bit of expenses in business trainings and seminars because the rudiments of business must be learnt nonetheless. From the right manner of approach to potential customers and how to handle stubborn customers, business must be learnt.
A Mentor Will Offer A Shoulder To Lean On
Many business people struggle with the feeling of isolation. If you have the same feeling or you want to prevent it, you need a mentor who you can share your feelings with. This will give you the perfect opportunity to talk freely without any apprehension.
Asking questions or seeking the opinions of a mentor about challenges and changes will save you from depression and discouragement. Experience means that he has been there and done that.
A Mentor Will Help You Not To Lose Focus
Never in the history of the world have we had as much sources of distraction as we do now. The constantly changing trends of business can make one lose focus easily or keep jumping into every new opportunity or jumping from one business to the other.
When the anxieties of life and business are trying to blur your mental vision, A good mentor will be there to shift your gaze towards your goal, so to speak. He will help you to decipher solutions to your problems rather than allow the problems to kill your dreams and aspirations.
You Will Be Able To Share Resources
Businessmen are always in need of resources. The resources needed may differ from one businessman to another. Some of these resources are easy to come by while some are either expensive or difficult to get.
A mentor may have some of these resources and he may be ready to share them with you. Apart from having the resources personally, he may know of people who have what you need. A mentor has been around for a while so he can give a few valid pointers as to where to get what you need. He can even share his resources with you.
you will probably still make it without a mentor if you are determined enough, but a mentor will save you so much time and energy.
image credit: shutterstock
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