Many moons ago when my business was still a baby, I was very fortunate to have help from business support agencies, and a fantastic business mentor called Ruth. She seemed to have the business know-how of all areas of business, and the font of knowledge for all of my questions. With her, my confidence grew and I started to round-off my business skills. Me as a designer grew into me the business owner. Cool stuff eh?
Why this was particularly valuable was at the time, I didn’t know many self-employed people, and even less that were in my field. I had ideas about what I could do, what I must do – but there were some grey areas, and some vast gaps of knowledge and experience I needed help with. The advice I had no doubt saved me money in bad investments and get-rich-quick schemes, time in poorly-thought-out ventures, and helped me on the way to getting my first clients.
More recently I was able to return the favour – Pay it forward if you like – and offer my own advice and experience to younger businesses than mine, the Start-ups in my area. I loved it, and still love it – not just meeting people in business at different stages of their professional journey, but also the kick from passing on information you know will make massive differences, and establishing links with other businesses that will support them.
Mentors are a valuable resource in business – whatever the stage you are at. Use them as a sounding board, as a checklist, or as a sanity check if required on times! I offer a number of opportunities to mentor businesses in the South Wales area every year – if you think we could work together, I would love to hear from you 🙂