Business Mentor / Advice

[richofwombwell]

Where would one turn to find such a person? Im at the point where having a mentor would be very helpful now.

I am building up capital and wanting to reinvest it in growing the business further but would like to find a mentor to get advice on all areas really !

 

[Ashley_Price]

Are you looking for a mentor (someone to approach for advice when you need it), or a coach (someone who takes a more interactive role in helping you with your business)?

 

[Clinton]

I never bought into all this mentor nonsense.

Yeah, yeah, I know the word on the street is that, if done properly, getting a mentor is the best thing since limited liability was invented. And that you haven't arrived till you have a mentor. Next step: Get a life coach. And a personal trainer to tell you how far to run today (!). And, if you're American, don't forget, you also need a therapist on speed dial.

But anyway, some people think a mentor would be cool. Fair enough. I recommend not choosing someone who advertises themselves as a mentor. That's pretentious b*llshit. Find someone in business whom you respect and admire. Follow them on farcebook, click Like on their twaats, sign up to their weekly sales pitch, er, newsletter. Get on their radar and make sure they feel kindly about you.

Then ask them if they'll mentor you.

Remember, you're asking someone who's very busy to give up their time to help you for free. Don't ask silly questions that are better suited to Google.... or questions that are more suited to professional, paid advice. (Yes, based on what I've seen out in the real world and from speaking with people, most business owners seeking a mentor are really cheapskates looking to get quick free advice on a tricky legal / financial / other matter instead of paying for it like everybody else. Don't be one of these clowns.)

Better still, find someone who knows their sh*t and give them a stake in your business. Give them a reason to help you.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Sometimes you do just need someone to bounce ideas off - but then that's why you come to UKBF, there are going to be lots of people available to answer almost any question you can think of.

 

[richofwombwell]

Thats it really someone to bounce ideas off. Im at a stage now where I have capital building up and need to look at the best ways to invest it into the business. Im very new to running a business and its hard in my industry especially to find people to bounce ideas off due to the very nature of competition within the industry. Im not sure if its a coach or just someone to bounce ideas off at this stage !

 

[webgeek]

Step one - get your website sorted. Having Lorem Ipsum on your about us page, and a homepage of chaos is something you don't need a mentor for - you need a web designer/developer.

You looking for free advice? Pay someone for their time, flat rate per hour? A joint venture partner who can bring some resources (like marketing, development, PR or sales) in exchange for a % of revenue?

 

[tony84]

Im with Clinton, not that I am rich. I have my business which I started when I was £7k in debt 3-4 years ago. There are now 3 of us and we are doing fine.

But I am pretty head strong. I only do something if I think it is right. I could have 15 people telling me I am doing something wrong and unless I can be convinced to see their point, I would need to land on my face to change my opinion.

The reason for that is I have been told countless times I am doing someting wrong or the wrong way etc but I have made it work. Sometimes I am wrong and I learn from it, othertimes I am right and occasionally I am wrong but get lucky.

My thoughts on anything in life is that you will only learn from your own mistakes.

There is nothing wrong with askiing for help, but ask on here. You will get 10 different answers from 10 different people, and it will make you think. Getting one person to help will get you one answer.

dont be afraid to Fk up, it happens to everyone.

 

[richofwombwell]

The website is currently an ordering portal in use by some of my larger clients. Exactly the help I'm looking for that's the question. Where would I find someone to pay for their time? Where would I look for a joint venture partner etc.

About me getting changed as we speak. Again the website is not for advertisement / new business its an order portal that changes layout dependent on the customer logging in.

 

[richofwombwell]

True, I really want to take staff on but I have no idea from where to start! I want to expand sales then get an admin member of staff in when the workload is sufficient. I just need advice on where to start from a protocol point of view. Past experiences of taking sales staff on, the common pitfalls and what's best to avoid from the get-go. That is just one of many questions I have to ask.

 

[webgeek]

Before someone buys from you, there's a distinct chance that they're going to go to Google or Bing and search for your brand name or domain name. What appears on page 1 results will determine their impression. What happens when they visit the site will determine the lion's share of their opinion about the brand.

You could post a tender here and point out that you're looking to buy a couple of days time from someone, spread over the course of several days/weeks, and spec out what you'd like a hand with and the types of questions you'll have. You will likely get several responses. As to whether they know what they're talking about, that's another matter.

You could post a thread, like you've done here asking for a hand, give a bit more detail about what you've done and what you'd like to achieve, then work with a few people, see whose personalities you mesh with, and who you don't and then see where there's room for mentoring or possibly a JV of some sort.

For example, there's some excellent web developers on here, some great inbound marketers, some outbound/interruptive marketers and salespeople, accountants and much, much more. Each of them could potentially bring huge gains, provided it's sound advice and acted upon properly.

Personally, my background would probably lend itself mostly to helping you with building an online presence, establishing a couple of solid inbound traffic channels, planning and executing content that would be useful and well ranked. I've worked on projects like inoot.co.uk, ukgamegear and a number of other consumer ecommerce sites (under the 2geeks.eu domain), plus a lot more B2B projects ranging from managed VPS hosting to accountancy training and professional services (as carbide media).

Identifying the target buyer personas, where they consume information, getting valuable content in front of them, syndicating it socially, optimising it for search, extending the reach via list building / email nurturing drip campaigns, setting up the rank tracking, analytics and search console for monitoring effectiveness - basic inbound marketing 101 from start to finish - that's something I've done every day for a decade plus.

Wanna chat? Shout!

 

[profitxchange]

How well do you know your big clients? might you be able to get an intro to see if they will share their expertise with you? There are good impartial and experienced mentors out there - and I agree with earlier do not go for the one's that advertise. talk to customers/suppliers and see if they have used one and go talk to them.

 

[Mr D]

May be worth going to business meetings - chamber of commerce, FSB etc. or industry body if you have one.
Not mentoring as such but benefitting from other people and their solutions to their problems.
And of course forums like this - where can often find problems that can be avoided or ideas that can be investigated.