5 Reasons Why You Need A Mentor In Business
Starting your own business requires a variety of different skills and plenty of experience. Of course, these skills and experience are things that will come over time, which is why a mentor can be the ideal way to ensure that your business takes off successfully. In fact, having a mentor and joining in with networking and knowledge exchanges such as we offer here can be a good idea for a number of different reasons. Here are just some of them.
Gain Experience
Perhaps the most important reason to engage with a mentor is that they will have the kind of experience that simply cannot be learned from books or through watching tutorials online. Your mentor’s experiences will be firsthand and real, and they may have come up against issues and challenges that you haven’t even considered before. With an experienced, professional mentor on hand to answer your questions, give you advice, and generally lead you in the right direction, you will be able to avoid the pitfalls that you might otherwise have had to deal with.
Networking
Having a mentor to help you means that you should be able to take advantage of plenty of extra networking events and meetings. Your mentor will be able to introduce you to exactly the people you need to help you take the next step, even if this is something your mentor can’t do themselves. This is especially useful when you need skilled, specific work done or if you need advice about something specific such as the difference between MFE vs MBA. The more people you know – including your mentor – the more you can get done quickly and easily.
Reassurance
Starting a business can be a lonely, frightening prospect, even when you are entirely sure of what you are doing. If you are unsure, it can feel even worse. For some, this could mean giving up completely because running a business is more worrying than they thought it would be. However, with a good mentor on hand, you will gain that added level of reassurance that everything will be okay and that you can succeed as long as you keep trying and keep listening to advice. This little extra boost can make the difference between success and failure.
Free Help
If you’re on a limited budget, this is a crucial consideration. While skilled coaches and consultants may be able to provide certain services that a mentor cannot, it nearly always comes at a cost, generally in the hundreds of dollars (or more) each month. On the other hand, mentors are widely accessible and free of charge via a variety of organizations. However, when you meet with your mentor, make a point of taking them out to lunch or coffee to say thank you.
Emotional Intelligence And Strength
Following on from the idea that a mentor will be there to reassure you, they will also be there to ensure that your emotional strength, or emotional intelligence as it is something called, is boosted when needed. Just a slight dip in your emotional strength can cause a much larger one in your business as a whole, and having a mentor there to help you feel good about things again can change everything for the better. Success could be just around the corner, but without your mentor to keep you moving onwards, you might give up too soon and never actually see it.