Start Your Business the Right Way

by Tony Ritchie on / No Comment

Category: Mentoring Questions

Tony-RitchieSPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Tony Ritchie, Management Mentor, Mentors.ie

Many people throughout Ireland are looking to set-up a successful company or business. Some simply want to find methods of operating their current business that have been proven. Mentors.ie is one of the best offerings when it comes to the corporate governance of businesses. It utilizes the idea of a mentor in this process. Mentors have long been valuable resources when it comes to one’s personal life and professional life.

Mentors.ie pushes this concept to the next level. Through its staff of experienced and qualified individuals they offer businesses everything that they need to succeed. The staff is composed of veteran executives and non-executives. Each brings their own experience in the corporate world to the table. Through the use of their experience business owners are able to better organize their businesses.

Mentors Fill Roles

Mentors can be used to fill a number of roles for businesses. They can function as Chairpersons, Non-Executive Directors, Consultants and more. Your board will require diversity in order to function properly. Mentor.ie has this diversity when it comes to filling your roles.

Mentors Share Expertise

You will discover that the mentors at Mentor.ie are equipped with a lot of expertise. They have experience dealing with a variety of issues. This expertise can be put to good use in your business. Businesses will have access to this knowledge when it comes to strategy goals. Defining strategy or re-defining it will play a role in the ultimate success and performance of your business.

Mentors Face Challenges

One very important thing that mentors provide is assistance when challenges arise. There will be challenges at times that must be dealt with. Mentor.ie applies an approach that has worked well in many industries. Looking at business, people, sales, operations, and strategy is a good approach to effectively starting your business.

Mentors.ie is one of the most unique approaches to use when starting a business. The resources offered here are proven to succeed. Having help to plan a winning strategy, you will help you see a transformation in your business operations. Mentors offer a variety of expertise that will apply to your own business model.

David Parkinson, HR Mentor for Mentors.ie

by Micheal O Callarain on / No Comment

Category: Human Resources

David Parkinson, HR Mentor at Mentors.ie talks about why mentoring is so important for SME businesses, and how his 40 years experience at the executive level in HR offers a solid sounding board to Mentors.ie clients.

Top Five Signs You Need A Business Mentor

by Micheal O Callarain on / No Comment

Category: Mentoring Questions

Often SME owners hesitate to bring in a business mentor, wondering if it’s right for their business. They may be strapped for time and energy at work, and wonder how they can add one more meeting to their day. Or, they may feel that they have a handle on their business, but are feeling awash in a sea of uncertainty about the direction their company should take in the future, and concerned that their business will stagnate. They ask themselves (and us) “How do I know when I need a business mentor?”

Sign #1: Your business has flat lined. Whether your business is seasonal or relatively unencumbered by consumer trends, business cycles have both peaks and valleys. If your business is in a state of suspended animation, a business mentor will bring fresh perspective and provide an experienced sounding board for new ideas, helping you get out of a corporate rut.

Sign #2: Your business is in the midst of rapid expansion. The opposite side of stagnation is explosive, uncontrolled growth. You may feel excited by the potential of your company’s growth, but fearful that it will runaway on you. Incoming revenue and outgoing resources are flowing at such a pace that you often lose track of the big picture, or wonder if the growth you’re experiencing is sustainable. A business mentor can help you focus on the core goals that you’re striving to attain and provide guidance to avoid major pitfalls that you won’t foresee when you’re in a flurry of growth.

Sign #3: Your product or service is threatened. Threats can come in many forms – a new or expanding competitor, the encroaching obsolescence of a product you’ve offered for years, or the emergence of a newer technology. When faced with a declining projection for your company’s revenues, often SME owners go into panic mode, freezing in uncertainty or worse yet, making snap decisions. Business mentors can provide you with the experience you need to restructure your product or service offering, advise you as to marketability of new products of services, or work with you on complimentary revenue streams you may not have thought of.

Sign #4: You feel alone and overwhelmed. Unlike larger corporations, small businesses tend to have flat hierarchies, and small business owners bear the burden of leadership with few internal resources to draw upon. They may feel the lack of a trusted advisor who understands their business, but who isn’t tied up in office politics, or who is fearful of delivering an honest assessment of the company’s performance. A business mentor has the advantage of getting to know your company’s profile, but is still able to provide objective advice, based on years of relevant experience that you need, but can’t afford to hire on a full-time employee basis.

Sign #5: You’re preparing an exit strategy. Perhaps you’ve decided that your personal goal is corporate acquisition, you’ve found your interest is in a different industry than your current business, or you simply don’t have the drive to carry on with your current company. Regardless, you want to move on, but you want your company to be transitioned to new leadership without going under. A business mentor can help you strategize over next steps, prepare a blueprint for your company’s change in ownership, and help you define what role you’re looking for in your next endeavour.

There are dozens of reasons why SME owners use business mentors every day, and these are just a small sampling. If you’re faced with a company dilemma or just wondering how else a business mentor could contribute to your success, contact us today.

Bursting At the Seams

by Micheal O Callarain on / No Comment

Category: Mentoring Questions

With today’s economy, it may seem foolish to think of businesses that are thriving so wonderfully that they can’t keep up with demand. And yet, the quarterly earnings reports of certain businesses (McDonalds, grocery chains, auto repair chains, etc) show that there are industries which benefit, in fact thrive, during a global recession.

If you’re fortunate enough to be one of those business, congratulations!  And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, your inbox is overflowing, and you have more resources than time, consolations.

Financial success can often be as hazardous to business owners as financial failure. When demand exceeds supply, the SME business owner is kept scrambling to produce inventory or provide services with limited resources. Often small business owners must weigh long-term growth against infrastructure costs, and hope they get it right, or face overheads they cannot sustain during leaner times.

All businesses operate in cycles – revenues go up when demand is high, and revenues go down when demand wanes. How do you manage the ebb and flow of your business?

One of the key elements for successful long-term planning is having the experience to recognize business cycles, and to manage flexible internal resources for both the ups and the downs. If this is your first or second ride on the upswing of revenues, you may feel elated and at the same time you can’t decide where to invest your profits to improve your business… or even if you have the time to develop a plan beyond the next quarter!

Business Mentors provide the stability you need in such situations, with the ability to recognize the business cycle, your company’s needs for growth, and provide sound advice on how to reinvest your earnings. When you’re feeling both elated and slightly terrified at where your business could go in 2011, this is the time to hire a business Mentor.

- Cheers, Mentors.ie

Business Mentors vs Business Coaches

by Micheal O Callarain on / 2 Comments

Category: Mentoring Questions

A SME business owner asked me the other day “What’s the difference between a business mentor and a business coach?” It took me a bit of thinking to come up with a good analogy to explain the difference, until it occurred to me that nowhere is there a better illustration of the difference between mentors and coaches than in a school environment.

Think of your football or rugby coach – one who was a sports-loving motivator who somehow managed to pull the best from the team by swinging wildly from censure to praise – “You’re awful! We’ll never win with that kind of effort!” to “Alright, team; we’re going to win this. We’re better than them.” Hate them during training and love them for games, but the message from him was almost always a barking order or call-to-action that left us scrambling to comply, without always knowing why it was we were complying. Your coach was someone you wanted to obey, whom we wanted to show us the path to winning.

Your mentor, on the other hand, is a contemplative person with limitless enjoyment of his work and unending insight, seasoned with decades of experience. Rarely does he ever give an order, and often turns out a thought-provoking question. “Have you thought of…?” and “Have you considered…?” are the most common starts to conversations and you invariably find yourself thinking about questions as you walk away. They understood the background and how you operate in day-to-day life and their comments spur you on to create your own goals, your own solutions,  and your own path to achieve them, building skills which you can apply to your immediate problems and carry with you to tackle future challenges. Your mentor is someone you want to be like; someone whose success and acumen you hope to achieve.

Business coaches and business mentors have the same goal – they want you to succeed. Their methods vary, however. Often business coaches are the ones who say “Follow these steps, do this and that to achieve your goal”. Business mentors, on the other hand. say “I have the experience, you have the drive; let’s put them together to achieve your goal and make you into a better business person for the future”.

Ultimately, leading a SME isn’t a team effort – it’s an individual one. There’s a place for both business coaches and business mentors, but if you are the man or woman at the top, a Mentor is the person you want by your side.

- Cheers, Mentors.ie

 

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