mentor

Last month I had the opportunity to speaker to a group of entrepreneurs at the NY NOW Show at the Javits Center. I spoke about branding with the emphasis on how branding is not just about a logo plus some business stationery. Branding focuses on messaging, a target audience and a few more steps. There’s more about it in my presentation slides.

The one hour talk ended with another 45 minutes of questions. As a speaker, it’s always nice to get lots of questions. We talked about branding case studies and my favorite topic, how to get your business started online. What do you think of my website? What do you think of my products?

One of the ladies who was still in the development phase of her enterprise, asked about finding a mentor. They had questions about how to get into retail and how to find salespeople. I passed on a good piece of advice once given to me. It was constructive criticism from one of my clients. He said, “Michelle, you don’t ask for enough.” What he meant was I don’t ask for help often and I don’t ask what people can do for me.

This is the snippet of wisdom I handed off to this young lady. It’s good advice. Ask for help. Help can come in many forms. IT may mean an introduction, answer a question, or finding someone who will let you run an idea by them, and of course, manpower.

Mentorship is a wonderful thing. A mentor is someone who you have a relationship with for the sake of getting advice, learning, and receiving general guidance. They are an experienced and trusted adviser. My mentors happen to be my good friends the same way many of my clients are.

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines wrote about the importance of a business mentor. “It’s always good to have a helping hand at the start. I wouldn’t have got anywhere in the airline industry without the mentorship of Sir Freddie Laker. Now, I love mentoring young entrepreneurs”

Mentors are not necessarily experts in everything. They are knowledgeable or experienced in a few skill sets or industries. They have one or two specialized areas of expertise such as raising capital, ecommerce or asset management.

There are many articles in business journals on how to approach and ask someone to be your mentor. They make it sound like asking someone to prom; nerve racking and risky! This has never been an issue for me. My mentors and I found each other, we are fortunate.

Mentors remain with their charges; they do not abandon them when things go off the expected course. Being a mentor can be challenging at times. It is not all about introductions and coffee meetings. It can mean long hours of working together. Taking on the responsibility of being a mentor means standing up your charge when their ideas are not easily accepted.