On Business Mentorships, Pt 1

Recently I was talking with a friend of mine who runs a small salon. She mentioned she was looking for a new business mentor because of her frustrations with the one that she has.

For example, her current mentor doesn't follow her on social media. She explained that it was a way for her to know that her mentor was taking an interest in her business success since that's what she was paying her mentor to do. Another example was that her mentor made a lot of assumptions about who she is as a person and about her personal and professional relationships. Lastly, her mentor didn’t ask her any questions about her working experiences prior to owning this particular salon.

She said it felt like her mentor was more interested in having a mentorship business rather than in providing mentorship.

Before becoming an artist, I spent many years working in higher education in student success. I provided structure and accountability, used rubrics and metrics to help students prioritize and create effective, successful schedules, and even helped them get into the right frame of mind when things got difficult (including how to deal with competition from other students or demands from family members that did not coincide with the student’s goals).

I see paid business mentorship in much the same way. We want somebody to help us prioritize and stay accountable to our schedule, help us get into the right frame of mind when things become difficult, and to provide the tools and experience we need to stay on task. It's like having both a guide and a cheerleader because doing that on our own can be exhausting. So, it's always nice to have somebody with experience on whom we can lean when things get tough.

The past two years has seen an increase in small (online) businesses and thus business mentorship because people are looking for effective guidance. I wish my friend luck in finding the right fit for her.