How To Find A Great Business Mentor

Business Coaches can range from $1500 – $5000 per month, most small businesses aren’t large enough to afford that. But it doesn’t matter how new or small you are, you will grow. Here is an age old but still great way you can get coached for free or at least at a much lesser expense… 

Get A Mentor

You can go about this a couple of ways: 

Firstly, you can choose someone you know, who knows you, who runs a business that is bigger and more established than yours. Ask them if they would be your mentor, ask can they please meet with you for 1 hour a month or 1 hour a quarter and look over how you are operating your business. Most successful entrepreneurs are more than happy to give you a little bit of their time for free if you are wanting to learn from them. 

To keep this person mentoring you, ensure you listen well – show how you have implemented what they advised you from your last meeting. Ask them ‘How’ and ‘Why’ questions. Be respectful of their time, if they say they’ll give you one hour per month, don’t send them an email everyday. Use your one hour wisely, don’t focus your time on little business issues, get their input on the bigger business strategy and operations growth of your business. Always remember to show and say Thank You.

Secondly, you can choose a more higher profile person who you really respect. It is great to have one on one time with a mentor but you don’t always have to do this to learn from them, to have them input into your life and business. Buy their books, listen to their podcasts, go to any events they have on. Don’t just listen to what they say (although i’m sure it’s great), but also watch how they say it, how they treat people, how they structure their thoughts, their talks, their sales, their team etc… A lot can be learnt through simple observation. 

You can choose one or both of these options. I personally have a mentor I meet with regularly and a mentor who doesn’t even know i exist. Both of them have had profound influences on how i run my business. Spend some time and choose your mentor/s wisely. I once spent just over a year with a mentor (face to face meetings) before I figured out that their outside life was not how they behaved behind the scenes. They had a great facade and ticked all the boxes I had created in what i wanted as a mentor, but unfortunately their character wasn’t one I wanted to be like. Take your time and as much as possible make sure they genuinely have a good character, that they are teaching you to run a business that is honest, ethical and of benefit to the wider community.