The Value of Small Business Mentors and Advisors

Posted by: Neil Callanan

I've been lucky enough to take part in the Kauffman Foundation's Fasttrac program, which is essentially a 10 week boot camp for startups. One of the key components of the program is the guest speaker each week. These speakers come from a very wide background, but all have had success (and potentially failure) in starting a new businesses. 

We're about half way through the program and the same piece of advice seems to ring true each week; the value of mentors and advisers. Nearly every person who has spoken has mentioned the value of getting an outside look at their direction, ideas, and progress on a regular basis.

The reasons are more effectively documented here, here, or here; but for what it's worth, I've found my mentors particularly helpful in the following areas:

• Focus - When starting or running a business, it can be tough to stay focused on the items the move the needle for your business. A good advisor will politley help shift your focus away from the day to day, and on to big-picture bottom-line impacting conversations.
• Progress -  Often, businesses to get caught up in movement rather than momentum. A good adviser will keep you focused on progressing the business forward.
• Humility - It can be easy to convince yourself and your team that everything is rosy. A good mentor isn't scared to give you a good slap back off your high-horse.
• Experience - A lot can be learned from the past successes of an adviser. Even more can be learned from their failures. Their experiences can help you avoid making the mistakes that are bound to arise.

As new & small business owners we often find ourselves so entrenched in our business, that we forget to stop and get some outside perspective. A good mentor or adviser(s) can provide that outside view that we the business owners, cannot compensate for with hard work or intelligence.