What are the Benefits of Having a Business Mentor?

The short answer? The benefits can be vast, if you pick a good mentor! But let's dig into it a little deeper...

I’ve had mentors in business that I have paid thousands to, and mentors who were in my network who I didn’t pay a penny but would happily let me buy them lunch and pick their brains whilst we eat.

I think the best thing you can do if you’re starting out is to identify and reach out to some business owners in your local community and offer to buy them lunch. Explain that you want to learn about what it takes to build and run a business and you’d love to hear about their personal experiences and lessons learned along the way.

Everyone in business has made a tonne of mistakes (especially the most successful), and it’s much better for you if you can learn from the mistakes of others rather than having to go through the often painful process of trial and error yourself.

And THAT is the big benefit of having a business mentor as an entrepreneur; you basically let other people make the mistakes for you and learn both what to do and what not to do so you can apply that in your business.

There’s just no need to re-write the rulebook on entrepreneurship. What’s the point in making the same mistakes hundreds of other people have already made and learned the lessons from?

So, find people who have already achieved the things you want to achieve and go learn from them. What did they do wrong? How did they course correct? What did they do right? How did they build on their successes to create a profitable and sustainable business? Ask those questions of any time-served business owner, and repeat that process 10 times and you’ll probably gain more meaningful and practical knowledge about how to run a business than if you spent 4 years at university studying for an MBA (and no, that’s no joke).

In conclusion, the big benefit of having a mentor as an entrepreneur is being able to take advice from credible and knowledgable people on the best route to the achievement of your goals.

It’s the same as going to school and learning from specialist teachers in each subject. It’s the same as hiring a personal trainer to help you achieve your health and fitness goals. It’s the same as your parents teaching you how to walk.

It’s the skill of being humble enough to admit that you don’t know anything in the grand scheme of things and that there’s probably someone out there who knows a damn sight more than you do for every single subject in existence.

It’s about fast-tracking your progression towards that line you’ve drawn in the sand called ‘success’ - it’s about using the resources available to you to help you reach your goals in the shortest amount of time possible, and with the least amount of effort possible.

A good mentor will help you achieve all those things.

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