Helping Minds: Do You Need A Mentor?

To paraphrase, no man of women is an island. All small business owners can always benefit from additional help and support as they wrestle with the daily challenges of running their own company. The question is, who should provide that guidance? Are mentors the ideal source of support, insights and encouragement?

Small business owners love the challenge of running their own enterprises, but at some point, they all run into difficulties. In these dark days, having someone you trust to turn to can be a godsend. It's stressful and exhilarating in the equal measure being a small business owner, but you're definitely not alone.

Looking for help might seem a little alien to many entrepreneurs who often pride themselves on their personal resilience. The truth, though, is most can benefit from the relationship with a mentor. Research from National Mentoring Day, concludes 67% of small businesses show an increase in their productivity thanks to mentoring.

Mentoring in the small business space is about more than just productivity. If the current pandemic has taught us anything, we need to connect with family, friends, colleagues and customers. Without those relationships, our health clearly suffers.

Speaking to small business owners, the use of mentoring has been widespread and continuous. Organisations like Mentorsme, The ABM (Association of Business Mentors) make locating a mentor fast and efficient. Many banks also have mentoring services attached to their small business support departments. And even a quick search online reveals many independent mentors that offer their services to the small business community.

Harvey Morton, founder of Harvey Morton Digital says: “I've been very fortunate that each person who has mentored me throughout my entrepreneurial journey so far has been a fit for me, and while I've had stronger relationships with some over others, each person who has shared their expertise with me has been able to shape me as a person in some way.”

Finding a mentor that is a good fit for you and your business is not easy, but the rewards when the right mentor is located can be manifold. Harvey’s point that having several mentors throughout your business career is important to appreciate. As an entrepreneur and small business owner, your need for mentorship will evolve and change as you and your business develop. Don’t be afraid to move to a new mentor when you feel the time is right for new perspectives.

“Finding a mentor was somewhat tricky as I wanted somebody that would understand my ambition and what I wanted professionally rather than try to steer me in a direction that they thought would be more suitable,” Sarah-Jane McQueen, the General Manager of CoursesOnline, an education marketing website that helps users find online learning courses explained.

Sarah-Jane continued: “To be more specific though, over my career I’ve been fortunate enough to have three mentors. I think you need different types of mentors for different phases of your life but the higher up the ladder you get the more important it is that that person is neutral from your current organisation and you need time to talk through problems or explore situations outside of your day-to-day network.”

Understanding what you want to gain from a mentor will help you refine your search for the ideal person. It may take some time – and probably several false starts – but the effort will be well worth it, as you could transform your thinking and your business.

Find your mentor

Mentoring can often feel like you are taking some form of training course. It's undoubtedly the help, insights and advice a mentor can give you that could refine your skills; but mentoring is much more than just learning. Many conversations with small business owners who have a mentor or used one in the past, always talk about the personal relationships that developed.

Of course, in most cases, mentoring is also a business transaction, but you are not just buying a training course off the shelf. Mentoring can be about challenging your perceptions. Or even supporting your mental health, as the simple act of talking to someone that understands your concerns, can have a massive positive impact on wellbeing, and as a consequence, the success of your business.

Says Alec Dobbie, CEO and Co-founder of FanFinders: “You need to find the right one; and that means the right one for you. You need to get on with them, but they aren’t your friend. They will and should make you feel uncomfortable sometimes, because you will need pushing. To think of them as a business personal trainer isn’t a million miles away."

The impact a mentor can have could be fundamental to the development of your business. However, as Sarah-Jane explained, you need to be able to take what can sometimes be difficult criticisms: “Being forced to honestly appraise yourself with a special focus on the things that you might not be so good at isn’t pleasant but there’s no way around it if you want to be a complete and well-rounded leader in the future. It may sound obvious, but above all else, the main thing that anyone has to do to make a mentorship work is put in the hard work. You need to give a full and proper account of yourself so that a mentor can properly assess you and sometimes those periods of self-reflection can be hard.”

Joanna Swash is Group CEO of Moneypenny, a leading outsourced communications provider, began mentoring Anton Hanley, CEO of The Lead Agency, an online lead generation company for the automotive industry.

“Joanna and Anton clicked immediately in an initial mutual fact-finding session: “We quickly established we were similar in terms of ambition, resilience, and our commitment to learn and develop and exploit the potential of our respective businesses,” says Anton. “The clear alignment of values helps to generate the mutual respect and trust that is key to a strong mentoring relationship.” After the first session, the pair conducted fortnightly Microsoft Teams sessions, which, after a few weeks, became monthly.”

Joanna concluded: “Sharing my experiences can feel therapeutic – and can reinforce my gut instinct about decisions I’ve made,” she says. “I’m very honest about my mistakes though – and that can provide some of the biggest learning for a mentee – and I’m very comfortable admitting I don’t know the answer to something and asking Anton what he thinks.”

Future support

Whether you would find a helpful mentor is, of course, a personal choice. What is clear for many small business owners, is the feeling they have few people to turn to when they do need support.

Harvey Morton concluded: “Mentoring has had a hugely positive impact on my business, and I could never imagine not having a mentor now. It's crucial for me to be able to bounce my ideas off someone with so much expertise and knowledge. I'm fortunate enough to have had mentors from a variety of backgrounds including manufacturing, IT, various service industries and creative sectors. From my first mentoring session aged 13 to my most recent call with my business coach, Helen - each mentor I've had along the way has believed in me and this has really helped to boost my confidence more than you could ever imagine.”

Domenica Di Lieto, CEO, Emerging Communications UK, also making the valid point that you too could become a mentor and help other small business owners: “Pay it back. We all need help on the way. I currently mentor two people that have recently launched start-ups. They don't have much experience and providing them with lessons I learned saves them time, stress and money.

“I will help others in future,” Domenica concludes. “It builds a positive information and support cycle that not only helps individuals, but it helps companies leading to increased employment. If every business leader, or sector expert were to provide support for others who need it, there would be a positive difference in the economy, a benefit to everybody. It is also just a good thing to do.”

Mentoring can have a practical component if you are trying to achieve a stated goal for you personally or for your business. But mentors can also be trusted advisors and sounding boards – someone that understands what it's like to run a small business.