Was starting your Micro or Side-Hustle business a bit of a love story?
And have you found, just like with true love, that the thing you love is not always loveable?
Your relationship with your business can be a bit LOVE/HATE; you don’t always like it, but you should always love it. If you’re not passionate about it you wouldn’t keep coming back day-after-day – particularly when your business has the potential to give you the best, or the worst, day of your life.
The Truth About Business Mentoring
Think of a Business Mentor as a Matchmaker, an Agony Aunt or a Marriage Guidance Counsellor (maybe a combination of all three?), but their specialism is BUSINESS.
So, your ideal Business Mentor will have:
- Run their own business
- Run a business just like yours
- A set of credible case studies, and
- Be the right fit (is the ‘chemistry’ right?)
You may have a Mentor that doesn’t fit these criteria but supports you in other ways – inspiration, a role model etc. That’s absolutely OK – as long as you don’t only rely on them to guide you in making decisions about your business.
For those decisions, you really need a BUSINESS mentor.
Now, Take 10-Minutes to Get to Grips with Business Mentoring
Thinking of your business as loveable, but not always likeable, let’s put YOU to the test. If any of these nine criteria are issues for you and your business, a Business Mentor is someone you will benefit from.
1. You struggle to do everything in the hours you have, to stay disciplined and to prioritise
Your problem isn’t keeping busy; your problem is you have too many things you want (and need) to do. It’s a struggle to decide what to do first – and you don’t have anyone but yourself to keep you accountable.
But you still keep going.
A Business Mentor enables you to focus and prioritise They also challenge your assumptions about what, and how, things should be done in your business.
2. You think, “I have to…” instead of, “I want to…”
You love your business and, like peeling an onion, there are layers upon layers of new and exciting discoveries as well as skills and techniques to lean and develop. If you are doing something you don’t love it’s also like an onion – full of tears.
A Business mentor helps you identify what you should be doing – and what you should be outsourcing to others.
I have said it before “Do what you do best, and outsource the rest!
3. You’re not always sure about what to say, or how you will say it
You know your business fulfils a need and it’s something your target customers want – because you see examples of them buying elsewhere, but you’re not 100% sure about what to say to make them want to buy it from you.
A Business Mentor works with you to develop your key message. They help you develop your marketing strategy so your customers hear your message loud and clear.
4. You’re not entirely sure who your customers are
You’re doing all the ‘right’ things – all the things the ‘gurus’ on Facebook and Instagram are telling you should be doing – but you’re still not attracting the right / the right number of customers.
And you don’t know how to get the people you want to buy from you.
A Business Mentor works with you to get under the skin of your target customers and to understand the benefits your products and services bring to them – which makes selling so much easier.
5. Your hours spent in your business can sometimes feel like a chore
Have you ever stopped and said to yourself
“Is this worth it? Wouldn’t it be better if I just went off and got a job?”
OMG, I’ve lost count of the number of times I said that in the past.
When your business isn’t running like a well-oiled machine; when it’s not bringing in the customers, the £££ or the personal satisfaction you need it can seem like just hard work with no reward.
A Business Mentor will help you really harness the Business in your business so it becomes less of a chore and more the rewarding experience it should be – both emotionally and financially.
6. You hardly ever look at the clock
Is that a bad thing? Doesn’t it mean that you are engrossed in doing something you love?
Well, yes and no.
If you’re not looking at the clock it can mean that you aren’t fuly aware of how long tasks, activities and appointments are taking you
So, what’s the problem with that?
Firstly, it could mean you are spending too much time working on one thing, rather than another (maybe working on the wrong thing!?). Secondly, and really importantly, it could mean you are underestimating the time it takes you to complete a task for, or work with, a client – which could mean you are not pricing and charging your products and services properly.
A Business Mentor enables you to be specific about the realities of time in your business and works with you to develop a product and pricing strategy that is based on actual time and resource, rather than guesswork.
7. You don’t research, plan and organise as it’s not necessary, and a waste of time
A successful business is one that is constantly researching and planning; it remains focused on its goals so it is totally relevant to its customers.
You know this is true, but you just don’t have the time.
A Business Mentor shows you how to use time effectively in your business and provides tools and strategies that make researching and planning part of what you do – rather than an addition to what you do.
8. You view success as personal fulfilment, but you would like some profit too!
Your business means more to you than just profit. Of course it does!
But, you also know your business has to make money, otherwise it is nothing more than an expensive hobby.
A Business Mentor works with you to create a profit-making structure in your business, without removing the essence of what success means to you.
9. You don’t want to have to work every hour of every week; you want time to enjoy all the things you are working so hard for
You may want to spend fewer hours in, and on, the business; spend more time on your other interests and hobbies, spend quality time with your family.
But you can’t see how.
A Business Mentor is like a helicopter. They hover above your business, seeing it from the angles that, because you are so involved in it on a day-to-day basis, you can’t see.
Their job is to look at your business – warts and all – to help you enhance the positives and deal with the negatives.
They are invested in the success of your business as an advocate and guide, but they are an independent and objective advisor whose job is to help your business work for you, rather than against you.
To stop it from being a burden that makes you work for it and bring back the love and joy.
If any of the nine statements above apply to you, we should talk!