Hello again,
This blog is different as it is all about other businesses.
A couple of years ago, I was approached by a local Chamber of Commerce to be a business mentor for a small local business. I was flattered and surprised. But mainly, I was perplexed as to why they had asked me. I did not consider myself as having any special talent for business and couldn’t see how my experiences could translate over to others.
Well, I was wrong on all of those ideas.
Several mentee companies later and I am happy to report that I really look forward to spending time with the companies I now see. It’s not really that I have experienced exactly what they are going through – all businesses have their own unique issues to overcome. I think it is more of a case of at least I have been going long enough to have survived all sorts of disasters and have come through it all with a sense of perspective that the mentees find useful. Or I hope they do anyway.
The other aspect that I find useful is that for an hour at a time, I have the opportunity to help someone out and when I describe how I am handling something similar to their struggle, it often happens that they too have ideas that I can bring to bear on the situations that I am handling.
Some business mentors have a very strict method of going about it. I prefer to chat through things and focus on one main issue at a time and then track it from meeting to meeting, checking progress as we go.
Why not help out another business local to where you live? Too busy? No time? Don’t know who to contact? All these and other excuses are just that. Give it a go and see how you get on. After all, what do you really have to lose?
Have a good weekend. Kind regards, Roy Lewis