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Practical Versus Online Mentoring

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With so many options available for coaching and mentoring we are often asked which is best, Practical Versus Online Mentoring?

We’ve discussed why having a mentor is a critical foundational component of any start up’s long-term success. But what type of mentoring best suits you and your circumstances?

Startup mentoring can take many forms. Traditionally mentoring was always done via a one-on-one, face-to-face relationship. Whilst this is still a popular and common option, it would be remiss to ignore the option of online (or virtual) startup mentoring.

With modern technology and a myriad of ways to communicate (e.g. email, Skype or Zoom) to effective file-sharing programs (e.g. dropbox, box) through to complete online communication solutions such as G-suite, online mentoring has never been more accessible.

Practical Versus Online Mentoring

But which one is best for you? When considering your options it’s important to look at the pros and cons of both Practical Versus Online Mentoring. Below is an outline of the main advantages and disadvantages for both mentoring options:

Practical Mentoring: the pros

practical mentoring

  • Potentially a more meaningful connection and stronger rapport is developed.
  • Mentors can provide more contextual answers, supplemented with real life examples and experiences in response to queries.
  • Mentors can get to know you, your situation, development gaps & business in a real life contextual way by immersing themselves in your environment.
  • Some individuals tend to feel more comfortable and articulate in face-to-face conversations.

 

Practical Mentoring: the cons

  • Few people truly have the time to dedicate to face-to-face mentoring.
  • If you have a question that needs a quick response, waiting for either your scheduled or an ad-hoc meeting can be difficult compared to sending a quick email.
  • Practical mentoring limits how many mentors you have due to time or distance constraints.
  • Similiarly, distance and time constraints will limit who you can have a mentor.

Online (Virtual) Mentoring: the pros

Practical Versus Online Mentoring: how do you choose? We’ve discussed why having a mentor is a critical foundational component of any start up’s long-term success. But what type of mentoring best suits you and your circumstances? Startup mentoring can take many forms. Traditionally mentoring was always done via a one-on-one, face-to-face relationship. Whilst this is still a popular and common option, it would be remiss to ignore the option of online (or virtual) startup mentoring. With modern technology and a myriad of ways to communicate (e.g. email, Skype or Zoom) to effective file-sharing programs (e.g. dropbox, box) through to complete online communication solutions such as G-suite, online mentoring has never been more accessible. But which one is best for you? When considering your options it’s important to look at the pros and cons of each. Below is an outline of the main advantages and disadvantages for both mentoring options: Practical Mentoring: the pros • Potentially a more meaningful connection and stronger rapport is developed. • Mentors can provide more contextual answers, supplemented with real life examples and experiences in response to queries. • Mentors can get to know you, your situation, development gaps & business in a real life contextual way by immersing themselves in your environment. • Some individuals tend to feel more comfortable and articulate in face-to-face conversations. Practical Mentoring: the cons • Few people truly have the time to dedicate to face-to-face mentoring. • If you have a question that needs a quick response, waiting for either your scheduled or an ad-hoc meeting can be difficult compared to sending a quick email. • Practical mentoring limits how many mentors you have due to time or distance constraints. • Similiarly, distance and time constraints will limit who you can have a mentor. Online (Virtual) Mentoring: the pros • You’re not limited by time or distance constraints as you can choose from various communication tools to create an effective mentoring experience. • You can find your ideal mentor from your own or any other country. Online communication is global so you’re not confined by borders in your quest for the right mentor. • Skype, Zoom & other visual conferencing tools effectively replicate a face-to-face mentor relationship. • There’s the ability to replay recorded online mentoring sessions for further reference. • The pace and scheduling is flexible as you and the mentor can communicate as it suits each party via email. • The mentoring atmosphere may be more relaxed and productive if you’re being mentored in your home or another comfortable environment. • This option can provide quicker access to supportive information and resources if everything is online. Online (Virtual Mentoring): the cons • Both parties need reliable Internet access. • Both parties need to have adequate computer skills and be apt at using different forms of online communication. • Sometimes establishing a rapport may be difficult, especially if you have not met each other before. • Potential loss of visual cues and non-verbal communication such as body language, gestures can impair rapport. • If not well structured online mentoring can potentially be more time consuming than practical mentoring. • Costs may be incurred if new software needs to be purchased such as conferencing tools, online storage space for documentation and more. • Different time zones can prove challenging when organising online mentoring sessions. • Technology is not always reliable and can play up at inconvenient moments such as your scheduled mentoring sessions. As you can see there are many pros and cons of each startup mentoring option. However, whichever option you decide on, the most important element is your mentor. Choosing a mentor that is open-minded, experienced and who is able to help you progress whilst helping you sharpen your focus on what you would like to achieve is vital. And last but not least, mentoring, whether practical or online, needs to be a mutually beneficial relationship for both parties involved. END

  • You’re not limited by time or distance constraints as you can choose from various communication tools to create an effective mentoring experience.
  • You can find your ideal mentor from your own or any other country. Online communication is global so you’re not confined by borders in your quest for the right mentor.
  • Skype, Zoom & other visual conferencing tools effectively replicate a face-to-face mentor relationship.
  • There’s the ability to replay recorded online mentoring sessions for further reference.
  • The pace and scheduling is flexible as you and the mentor can communicate as it suits each party via email.
  • The mentoring atmosphere may be more relaxed and productive if you’re being mentored in your home or another comfortable environment.
  • This option can provide quicker access to supportive information and resources if everything is online.

 

Online (Virtual Mentoring): the cons

  • Both parties need reliable Internet access.
  • Both parties need to have adequate computer skills and be apt at using different forms of online communication.
  • Sometimes establishing a rapport may be difficult, especially if you have not met each other before.
  • Potential loss of visual cues and non-verbal communication such as body language, gestures can impair rapport.
  • If not well structured online mentoring can potentially be more time consuming than practical mentoring.
  • Costs may be incurred if new software needs to be purchased such as conferencing tools, online storage space for documentation and more.
  • Different time zones can prove challenging when organising online mentoring sessions.
  • Technology is not always reliable and can play up at inconvenient moments such as your scheduled mentoring sessions.

As you can see there are many pros and cons of each startup mentoring option, Practical Versus Online Mentoring. However, whichever option you decide on, the most important element is your mentor. Choosing a mentor that is open-minded, experienced and who is able to help you progress whilst helping you sharpen your focus on what you would like to achieve is vital. And last but not least, mentoring, whether practical or online, needs to be a mutually beneficial relationship for both parties involved.

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6-reasons

6 Reasons why you need Startup Mentoring

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A common question we often hear is: “Why do you need Startup Mentoring?”

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

(Donald Rumsfield, 21st USA Secretary or Defense)

Many start up founders tend to believe that hard work, determination and sacrifice are enough to ensure a successful business. However, the reality is as an entrepreneur, you are on a unique journey, in often, unchartered territory, dictated to you, not by what you think, but what the market needs or desires.  So, no matter how hard you work, how many hours you sacrifice or how passionate you are, there are times when you will hit a roadblock, where you simply will not know what to do. At times you will second guess solutions  and times where you will make lots of mistakes as part of your learning and discovery process. There will be times when you seek comfort in those that have already walked the journey.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to talk to, to relate to, someone that has understands your pains and challenged? One that has actually been on a similar journey before you and can help you with the pitfalls and and can ultimately help guide you to your destination.

Whilst hard work and determination can take you far, they are simply no substitute for the knowledge and expertise that comes from someone who has already walked your entrepreneurial path.

So then the answer is clear. The ideal way to move forward, grow and learn as an entrepreneur is by finding a Start Up Mentor. Having the right mentor or mentors around you, who can guide you forward, is a critical foundational component of any start up and instrumental in ensuring your start up grows and moves towards long-term sustainability and success.

What exactly is a Start Up Mentor?

A mentor is defined as an experienced and trust adviser. A mentor can be referred to as a coach, guide, confidant, counsellor, consultant and more.

In particular, a Start Up Mentor is someone who has already travelled your entrepreneurial path and can share their expertise and knowledge with you – the hindsight, the mistakes, the success and more.

A mentor:

  • Already knows the consequences of your decisions before you make them – because they’ve lived them.
  • Understands your business journey and is here to help you through it.
  • Helps you take a step back and see the big picture, breaking the inevitable cycle of being caught up in the daily rigmarole.
  • Holds you accountable for your actions.
  • Pushes the bar higher, whilst instilling confidence and faith.
  • Shares their value system, which is invaluable in creating a healthy start up.
  • And so much more!

 

why you need Startup Mentoring

 

Why do you need Start Up Mentoring?

Now, you can see what a mentor is, and what they can do. But the question remains, why does your business need Start Up Mentoring? Here are our 6 top reasons why! 

 

  1.  Industry Knowledge is Invaluable

A mentor who has experience in the same industry would help you understand the difficulties of doing business and the varied nature of the market and industry you are dealing with. They are able to share their industry insights, its main players (the Big Gorillas), the barriers to entry and how the “game” is played. As mentors they have already mastered and achieved success in the same space as your start up, experienced the highs and lows,  so they are ideally positioned to share their insights in a practical manner.

  1. They’ve Already Walked Your Path

It’s ideal to receive Start Up Mentoring from someone who has succeeded in their entrepreneurial journey and lived to tell the tale. Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with mentors from large corporate organisations, entrepreneurship is a different beast.  Start up enterprises have different resource constraints and it takes a certain type of character to be an entrepreneur; one that is resourceful and resilient, (among other characteristics).

Furthermore, a “start up is not a company”, but an organisation that is looking to become a company.  It’s not a 9-5 occupation, it’s a role that encompasses your entire being: from your experience, to your mental & physical health to constantly pushing yourself past your comfort zone. So having a mentor who understands this unique journey, and help remove you from your confirmation bias, in other words, helping you gain personal insight to enable to “know, what you don’t know” is invaluable.

  1. Network Effect

One of the biggest challenges most entrepreneurs face is a lack of professional contacts. Therefore a mentor with strong connections in your industry and within the entrepreneurial ecosystem is invaluable and worth its weight in gold, as will help open many doors. A mentor can leverage their connections, helping you to form strategic alliances, joint ventures, attract potential investors, customers and more.  Sometimes these networks would take years for the entrepreneur to build. 

  1. Provide entrepreneurial strategy

A mentor will help you identify your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to provide you the entrepreneurial strategies, and even fine tune your business model; discovering improved ways of doing business or new revenue sources, to help you grow your business. 

  1. Visionary Problem Solver

Two key elements for a start up are finding creative solutions to current problems AND help focus the entrepreneur and keep them aligned to the goals and objectives of the business.  A Startup Mentor will be able to help you find solutions for problems your business may face either via their network, expertise and knowledge – whether it be funding, technology, market access or organisation culture.

  1. An Objective & Honest Reflection

A Start Up Mentor will hold a metaphorical mirror up to your venture, objectively assessing the state of your business as it is, as well as the direction in which it is headed. They will identify what’s right or wrong with your business and encourage you to take corrective action. A mentor will help ask you the tough questions to make you really think about how to improve things in your business and continue with your best foot forward.

So how do you find the right Start Up Mentor for you?

It’s important to remember that you can’t force a mentorship – the relationship needs to be genuine and authentic, which is why finding the right mentor for you is sometimes half the battle.

You need to be careful and diligent when choosing a mentor for your start up. One mentor might not have all the elements you are looking for. You may need two or three mentors with different areas of expertise guiding you.

But where do you find a Start Up Mentor? Perhaps through your old work networks or friends? Or maybe you want to try connect via social media to someone you’ve long admired professionally from afar.

Or perhaps you can ask us. At Start up Mentoring we have a supportive team of mentors who have the expertise, knowledge and ability to help you along your entrepreneurial path. Our team has happily lived to tell the tale and are here to help you.

Find out more at Start Up Mentoring today.

 

tips-cubes

Startup Mentoring 15 Top Tips for Entrepreneurs

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Startup Mentoring understand there are so many things to remember when it comes to start ups, yet it’s impossible to be across them all. In business, it’s inevitable that many lessons are learnt along the entrepreneurial journey, that’s why having a support network of people who have ‘been there, done that’ is invaluable.

At Startup Mentoring our team of experts can help you jump the hurdles of business with ease. And to help you start off on the right foot, here are the top 15 things you need to know when starting a business!

1. Trust your gut instincts, (but do not ignore the facts): Being successful in business is often a mix of facts & instinct. So while it’s important to be across facts & stats, it’s equally important to develop a gut instinct that you can trust. Quite often this develops over time, with experience.

 

2. Learn how to identify market opportunities: Do your research so you can identify trends and know where money is being spent. Speak to 30-50 potential customers, before you invest money, to help you identify any potentially profitable market opportunities.

 

3. Be a learning machine: The entrepreneurial journey is a never ending learning process. Develop insights into your industry and competitors so you know how to best differentiate yourself among the pack.

 

4. Business plans are over rated: Have a vision and follow it and instead spend that time finding your ideal and most profitable customers.

 

5. Money is important BUT it’s not the only thing that matters: Know your values and core purpose. As the old adage goes ‘if you do something that you love, and make money from it then it will never be work”. Knowing your “why” will definitely keep you going through tough times.

 

6. Dream big and aim high: Aim to be the best (top 20%) in your field, globally; do it well enough and the money will come.

 

7.Find and learn from your customers: Ask potential customers what they need, collect some customer insights, develop your solution, acquire feedback, refine and so on until you land on a solution they value.

 

8. Be prepared to pivot and change your idea: (or even throw it away if you have to), until you start making sales. It’s at this point you have the beginnings of a business model.

 

9. Learn how to build a competitive advantage: Do something that’s rare, unique and hard to replicate. This will give you an edge in your market.

 

10. Learn how to sell: If you can’t sell you will never succeed, as initial sales are built on trust and likeability.  People will generally only buy off you if they like and trust you.

 

11. Understand your numbers: Focus on developing your costings, price points and market positioning. Focus on your profit margins and don’t discount, as price wars are seldom won over the long term.

 

12. Work out how much it will cost to acquire a customer: Sometimes the cost of getting a customer exceeds the value that you give them. So understand how to get a customer, how long it will take and how much it will cost.

 

13 .Develop your team: Learn how to build your team as you go along, share ideas with people (but don’t give away too much) and keep networking for potential talent.

 

14. Be prepared to fail: Entrepreneurship can be a tough game of trial and error, but if you don’t try, you will never succeed. The test of a successful entrepreneur is their ability to bounce back (resilience) many times.

 

15. Continually develop yourself personally: Don’t over or underestimate yourself. A mentor or business coach who has experienced the blood, sweat and tears of a start up is an invaluable resource and sounding board for you.

 

 As you can see there is a bit to remember when it comes to start ups! That’s why the importance of a mentor and supportive network can never be underestimated as they greatly increase your chance of long-term success.

Startup Mentoring

Startup Mentoring

As Oprah Winfrey once said

“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. Life is already filled with enough people who want to bring you down.”

So the question is who will you surround yourself with?

At StartUp Mentoring our friendly team of mentors have the expertise, knowledge and ability to help you along your entrepreneurial path. We’ve “been there, done that”, and are here waiting to help take you higher and make the most of your start up.

To find out more about how StartUp Mentoring can help you, contact us today.

Remember to follow our facebook page here

Join our FREE THINK TANK Meetup Group here

 

 

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Starting a business checklist

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Are you new to business? To help you get started, the Australian Government has developed a Starting your business checklist covering many of the basic issues you need to consider.

The checklist contains a series of questions to guide you through the various stages of your business, including before you start, when you start, when you buy and when you run your business.

When you start a business

When you buy a business

Running your business

Article first appeared on :

www.business.gov.au

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7 ways a Mentor can help you succeed

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Here are seven reasons having a mentor is important.

1. Gain experience not shared in books.

Experience is a very expensive asset — yet it’s crucial to business success. There’s only so much about a person’s experience you can gain from books. It’s an unstated truth that most authors do not feel comfortable revealing everything about themselves in books. Some personal experiences may be too intimate to be shared, yet how they dealt with it can help an inexperienced entrepreneur’s career.

Mentorship is one guaranteed way to gain experience from others.

2. You’re more likely to succeed with a mentor.

Research and surveys prove that having a mentor is important to success. In a 2013 executive coaching survey, 80 percent of CEOs said they received some form of mentorship. In another research by Sage, 93 percent of startups admit that mentorship is instrumental to success.

Your chances of success in life and in business can be amplified by having the right mentor. The valuable connections, timely advice, occasional checks — together with the spiritual and moral guidance you will gain from having a mentor — will literarily leapfrog you to success.

3. Network opportunities.

Aside the fact that investors trust startups who are recommended by their friends, a successful mentor has an unlimited network of people who can benefit your career. Since they are already invested in your success, it only makes sense for them to let you tap into their network of people when the need arises.

This is an opportunity you cannot tap into if you do not have a mentor.

4. A mentor gives you reassurance.

It has been proven by research that a quality mentorship has a powerful positive effect on young entrepreneurs. Having someone who practically guides you and shares your worries with you — often placating your fears with their years of experience — keeps you reassured that you’ll be successful.

Self-confidence is very important to success as entrepreneurs. A 2014 Telegraph report revealed that having a high self-confidence contributes significantly to career success — more so than talent and competence. Mentors have the capacity to help young founders tap into their self-confidence and see every challenge as an opportunity.

5. A mentor will help you stay in business longer.

When you imagine the number of businesses that fail, you’d wish a lot of business owners had mentors. According to SBA, 30 percent of new businesses may not survive past the first 24 months, and 50 percent of those may not make it past five years. However, 70 percent of mentored businesses survive longer than 5 years.

6. A mentor will help you develop stronger EQ.

Does maturity bring about a higher EQ in entrepreneurs? Emotional intelligence is crucial to entrepreneurial success. When a young entrepreneur has a more mature and successful mentor who advises them, they are likely to have greater control over their emotions.

We all know that a quick way to make a business fail is to mix it with emotions or make crucial decisions based on emotional feelings. Situations like this can be curbed as mentors will help show you how to react in given instances.

A story on Business Insider reveals how Schmidt worked with then inexperienced Page to manage the affairs of running a fledgling startup. An inexperienced CEO often makes decisions based on emotions, but one with a mentor like Schmidt is able to overcome critical hurdles by making smart decisive judgments.

7. Encouragement.

Enduring the consequences of failure on your own can set you back and impact your productivity. In hard times, having a mentor will help you keep your head high. Young entrepreneurs often deal with depression when they are unable to meet their goals and expectations. The impact of depression on entrepreneurs is often underreported. But entrepreneurs without mentors bear the brunt the most.

A mentor who has experienced the highs and lows of running a business is in the perfect position to give positive and soothing words of advice to you when things refuse to go your way. And not only do they have the right words to share, they would also have ideas to help you navigate your way to success.

This article first appeared on www.entrepreneur.com