Business mentoring: the importance of learning from the experienced

If you regularly browse LinkedIn, you've probably seen countless proposals for business mentoring, some even promise ambitious results. But is it worth investing in this service?

This doubt often arises because many are afraid of dealing with a coaching service, which has a negative reputation in the digital marketing market.

However, today we will understand how this type of mentoring works, its advantages and tips to help you choose a good service. So, if this is exactly what you need, keep reading!

What is business mentoring?

If at any time you have found yourself thinking about the challenges of your business, without knowing how to solve them, know that this experience is very common in the industry.

This is because, no matter how well planned the business is, demands and challenges arise on a daily basis that go beyond the initial strategies, and therefore, it is natural for the manager to feel slightly lost.

In general, the biggest problems faced by companies involve people management, market positioning, product launches and data analysis. So, no matter how skilled the entrepreneur is, dealing with all of this may not be easy.

Business mentoring is a service in which an experienced professional evaluates the business model and then proposes improvements to resolve points of failure.

Since they are not connected to the day-to-day running of the company, this professional is better able to assess things carefully. In addition, their vast experience helps to overcome challenges that are new to the entrepreneur, but old to the market.

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What are the advantages of hiring a business mentor?

At the beginning of this content we talked about how many entrepreneurs are afraid of business mentoring because they think it works like the famous coaching strategies.

However, above we explained that this type of service works as a kind of analysis with personalized improvement proposals.

So, although some professionals who sell this service use an approach focused on a “miracle method”, not all proposals on the market are like this.

That said, in the case of seriously offered tutoring, many advantages are observed, such as:

• Identifying points of failure: Sometimes the company faces difficulties in evolving and cannot locate where these obstacles are. With business mentoring it is possible to have this answer.
• Creating a functional business model: Miracle methods don’t usually work because each company must have its own business model. That said, with good mentoring you can find something that really works, thus allowing you to stand out in the market.
• Locating market opportunities: If you often struggle with plans for your next steps, know that good mentoring helps you identify opportunities for growth and positioning.
• Projections for the future: As important as current plans are, it is necessary to think about the future of the business. The good news is that an experienced professional can help you find these answers.

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Signs You Need Help From an Experienced Professional

When it comes to business mentoring, not all entrepreneurs agree that they need this service.

This is usually because they think that if even those involved in day-to-day life cannot solve the problems, how could an outsider?

But, as we saw previously, it is precisely this general vision that favors the opening of vision to new solutions and opportunities.

That said, if you still need reasons to consider the service, here are some signs that indicate you need help from an experienced professional:

Your company always suffers from the same problems

Experiencing a problem is perfectly natural, but it is normal for the business to identify the issue and create strategies to solve it once and for all.

So, if your company often faces the same problems over and over again, it is a sign that there is a flaw in this analysis. In this case, business mentoring helps exactly with this issue.

The company's talent retention is low 

Good professionals often leave companies when they notice that they have chronic problems that are difficult to solve.

Therefore, if you have low talent retention, this is an indication that your business does not offer good prospects for these professionals.

In this case, good business mentoring allows you to resolve the issue, since in addition to identifying points of failure, it allows the brand to be positioned and evolved, which becomes better seen in the market. 

Many projects stop halfway or end in failure.

Many managers think that innovation is the key to success, but there is no point in always innovating if the team does not usually finish any proposed ideas.

In general, this problem occurs due to a lack of team alignment and inadequate conditions for completing projects.

So, if this is happening in your company, it is a sign that an experienced professional could help align things.

Tips for hiring the service

At this point you already understand that business mentoring is not proof that your business is doing badly, but rather a commitment to improving processes.

But for it to really work, it is important to hire the right service, since the market is full of incredible proposals, which in practice do not change much.

Therefore, we will see below 3 important tips for this selection process:

1. Identify your business's needs 

Before hiring a business mentor, it is important that you carry out a good analysis of your business.

This is because, without this step, it is difficult to understand which approach would really work for your issues.

And, it's a classic: for those who don't know what they want, anything goes. So, without knowing what you want, you will attract professionals with generic promises that don't solve your problem.

Therefore, before starting the search process, carefully evaluate your business and see where you need help.

This way, it will be easier to find professionals who work exactly with the issues that bother you.

2. Look for a professional with references 

If you want to avoid the “all promise, little result” mentors, it’s important to hire someone based on references.

This is because references ensure that those who have already hired have actually seen improvements in their businesses, which guarantees the cost-benefit of hiring.

This reference does not always need to come from colleagues, sometimes reports on social media and even proof of the professional's own results are already good sources.

3. Check if the proposals are viable for your company

In the mentoring and methods market, it is common for marketing approaches to lead us to believe that we need a certain service, which is not always true.

So, be careful not to believe that your company has HR problems, for example, just because someone sells “successful teams” mentoring.

What we mean is that you must pay attention to the real needs of your business, in order to find proposals that truly meet them.

In addition to ensuring improvements, this attention allows you to save money, as you don't need to spend on unnecessary services.

Lecture or business mentoring: which is the best strategy?

In addition to business mentoring, there is another service that tends to help a lot in this matter of process improvements, and in this case we are talking about lectures.

Lectures are meetings in which a professional who is a reference in his/her field presents a specific approach with the purpose of changing the viewer's perspective.

This type of experience can be very interesting for changing the company's organizational culture, or even for learning about new trends and products on the market.

But, for those who need special care and treatment focused on day-to-day business, the talk may be superficial.

Therefore, the choice between these two services should be based on your needs: if you are looking for new knowledge, a lecture is better. If you need special attention and technical analysis, mentoring is more suitable.

Finally, now that you know the advantages of business mentoring, what do you think about investing in this service to facilitate the evolution of your business?

Read also: How to Grow Your Career in 2025: Tips for Professional Success – The Administrator.

Roberta September 9, 2024