From the time you were born, you’ve had a mentor.
Your earliest mentor was whoever filled the roll of mom or dad. They kept you alive when you couldn’t move an inch on your own.
As life progressed, they showed you how to hold on to things, helped you learn to walk without falling, and taught you how to get at least most of the food into your mouth when you ate.
A mentor is defined as an experienced and trusted advisor.
While it takes many of us several years to realize it, we couldn’t have made it to the age of “grown up” without the mentorship of our parent(s).
As is so often the case, business mirrors life a lot in this respect.
It’s hard to build a consistently profitable business without an experienced and trusted advisor by your side.
While mentorship is pretty much a given in life - no one tries to push their parent out of their life, claiming “I got this” until at least their teenage years - people often struggle with the concept in business.
The urge to go it alone, with the help of a few books, courses, and seminars, along with a strong dose of the common sense and wisdom you’ve acquired as an adult, probably comes largely from the fear of failure.
If there’s no one “overseeing” your business, no one will know when it does fail the way all your friends and family warn you it’s going to.
Another big reason people opt out of mentorship is the fact that it usually costs money, and how do they know if it will be money well spent?
When you’re first starting, money is always something you’re trying to conserve. And knowing who to trust with your money can feel like a crap shoot.
If you are serious about building a consistently profitable business (and really, why bother if you’re not!) then mentorship should be on your “must have” list.
A good mentor is the fastest path to a profitable business. This is true for several reasons.
1. Experience
There is really nothing more valuable than experience.
A good mentor can help you accomplish something in 6 days that it may have taken you 6 months of trial and error to figure out on your own.
Having the benefit of your mentor’s mistakes is invaluable.
She’s been down the road before. She can lead you over and around the potholes you would’ve fallen in up to your head if you’d travelled the road alone.
2. Objectivity
Your mentor isn’t emotionally involved in your business the way you are. This gives him the advantage of being able to advise you without the clouded judgment you’ll bring into this venture you are so rightly passionate about.
Your mentor’s objectivity can help talk you off the ledge when you're nervous or uncertain about how things are going.
One of the greatest things about your mentor’s objectivity towards your business is that it allows him to help you get clarity.
You’ll often find that a good mentor tells you a lot of things you already know, if you’d just stopped to think about it. You simply needed someone who could view the picture rather than be in it, to point out these obvious yet crucial points.
3. Encouragement
You may be thinking you don’t need a cheerleader, but you’re wrong.
In most cases, the majority of your friends and family think you’re having something akin to a mid-life crisis, or may be just down right crazy for chasing this dream of your own business.
Entrepreneurship can be very lonely. And, especially in the beginning when the expenses always exceed the profits, it can feel very defeating. What if your friends and family were right?
Your mentor knows exactly what you’re feeling. Remember, she’s experienced, she’s felt it too.
You’ll be surprised how many days her encouragement is what gets you through the day without quitting.
4. Accountability
This is the first time you’ve been your own boss. As glorious and freeing as it is, it’s also hard to get used to.
Yes, you should write up a sales letter for your new product. But what happens if you don’t?
Well, nothing. You can always do it tomorrow.
You won’t be fired, you’ll have no one to explain your procrastination to, there’s simply no immediate repercussion for putting it off today.
No matter how excited you are about your new business, you’re going to need some accountability to get it all done, and that’s a perfect role for your mentor to take on.
A good mentor will gently yet firmly nudge you down the path quicker than you’d ever walk it alone.
5. Investment
We’ve talked about how mentorship is good because of the objectivity your mentor provides, but that doesn’t mean he’s completely neutral when it comes to your business.
On the contrary, your mentor is very invested in you and in your success. More invested than anyone, other than you.
First of all, you’re paying him at least something, so it’s in his best interest that you get results so you’ll keep paying and recommending him to others.
But more than that, a good mentor is someone you actually like and have developed a positive business relationship with.
At this time when you may be feeling very alone and isolated from friends and family in your business adventure, your mentor is your partner, and will be just as dedicated to your success as you are, if not more at times!
Finding Your Mentor
So mentorship sounds great, but how do you go about finding someone who possesses all of these great qualities.
As a reader of the KidsPartyCharacters.com blog, there’s a good chance that your mentor is sitting right under your nose if you are a stay at home mom looking to start a business, or an entrepreneur looking for additional income opportunities.
Cheryl Jacobs, founder and owner of KidsPartyCharacters.com is a serial entrepreneur, which means she’s started more than one successful business. She has all the qualities of a solid mentor.
And, she’s decided to help jumpstart a select number of new business owner’s careers by offering memberships to KidsPartyCharacters.com.
With membership you get an exclusive territory in which to book parties, the right to use all of our 200+ unique costumes, access to our casting director and acting coach, and business training and support from Cheryl and the team at KidsPartyCharacters.com.
If what you’ve read today resonates with you at all, if it’s made you realize how crucial mentorship is to your business success, and how much easier that success would be with a mentor, get on the phone with Cheryl and let her help you decide if a KidsPartyCharacters.com business is right for you.
With her years of experience, Cheryl will talk you through your situation and help you get clarity around your desire to have your own successful business. You can book your friendly, no-pressure chat right here on our website at KidsPartyCharacters.com.
Keep up with all the fun we have making magical parties by connecting with KidsPartyCharacters.com right here on Facebook too.
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