If you find yourself starting your own business or taking the lead in a company, you’re likely excited. You know with your skills and talents that you can make a difference to this organization.
But what if you have lots of good ideas yet don’t know where to start? What should you do if you need advice about certain business situations but don’t know where to turn?
This is where the benefits of mentoring comes into play. Discover more on how mentoring can help you feel equipped, provide you great business strategy, build confidence, and ready to take on any business situation that comes your way.
Understand the Benefits of Mentoring Through Improving Skills
If you’re just starting out with your own company or you’ve been promoted at your job, it’s likely your skills are still green. Feeling intimidated and unsure if you’re making the right choices when it comes to business is normal.
You shouldn’t have to struggle completely alone while you’re learning. One of the advantages of mentoring is you’ll get the chance to practice and improve skills in certain areas.
Depending on who you pick as a mentor, they can assist you with:
- Improving sales skills
- Learning about servant leadership
- Finding out the best way to build your team
You learn in a one-on-one setting when you have the chance to work with a mentor. This gives you time to understand and discuss what your shortcomings are and find ways to improve them that offer measurable results.
If you find yourself having problems with staff not understanding you or the direction you give, a mentor can help you change the way you present material. You’ll find that two heads work better than one when it comes to improving your ability to work in a new setting with different people.
Gain Advice From Someone Who’s Been in Your Shoes
Despite feeling unsure of yourself as you start out in this new role, realize that everyone who was in your position felt the same way at one point. If you’re having issues dealing with something specific and don’t want to share this with others in the company, a mentor is a perfect person to talk to.
If you’re seeking help with how to create brand awareness, but don’t want to hire an agency and here how they’d do things, you can start off by talking to your mentor. You can find out what’s worked for them in the past, or even hear their thoughts on what they’d suggest for your particular type of company.
Among the benefits of mentoring programs, you get to hear the advice and strategies of someone who’s been there before. This is less costly than dealing with a consultant and can help you understand how the business world changed since you started working in it.
Even if you’ve never worked with a mentor before, don’t dismiss the idea. You never know what valuable advice someone else who’s walked this path can offer you.
Learn How to Network and Where to Go
One tricky aspect of being involved in a business is knowing where to go to meet potential clients. Networking is more useful than people realize.
Knowing how to get your business out front and center isn’t an easy feat if you don’t know where to begin. Some companies benefit more from certain types of networking events, and if you’ve just started a company or gotten promoted, this isn’t always public knowledge.
By talking with a mentor who has experience in your industry, you’ll learn what they suggest in terms of meeting with other professionals. Perhaps they’ll suggest a breakfast meeting two times a month, or a giant networking event once every two months.
If your industry offers virtual services, certain events that get held online can prove popular when it comes to spreading awareness about your business. In this age of social media, a combination of both online and in-person networking proves to offer the most profitable solution.
Discuss with your mentor the goals you have for the company, and how much time you’d like to invest with networking. Together, you can find a pattern that makes sense for your business and time constraints.
Form Helpful Relationships
One final benefit of having a mentor is the ability to create a long-term relationship with someone else who has knowledge about business and understands what you’re going through. While you’ll talk with your spouse and sometimes others at work, no one can truly understand your position and the frustration you’ll deal with on a daily basis when you’re just starting out.
Having a mentor you develop a close relationship with gives you another person to vent to, learn from, and enjoy a working relationship that goes beyond business and profit. Your mentor can help you figure out how to recharge and what to do when you feel as though you’ve lost your passion.
They can also remind you that this happens to many people in your situation, and you aren’t the only one to go through this. Developing a relationship with someone who’s been there offers perspective on an otherwise isolating time in your life while you’re still learning the ropes.
Don’t feel afraid to reach out and seek help when you need it. More than anyone, your mentor wants you to succeed after they’ve helped you to work through so much in your new career.
