Mentorship has become a ‘buzz word’ in small business circles in South Africa, however very few business owners can actually point out a mentor who is guiding them on doing business.
According to Sanjeev Orie, CEO of Value-Adds at FNB Business, the main challenge is differentiating between a business mentor and a role model.
“A role model is a person that someone looks up to or wants to be like. A mentor is a person who helps or provides guidance to achieve specific business objectives. Small business owners need to understand the concept in order to realise the value it can bring to growing their enterprises.
Interestingly, mentorship is increasingly being practiced within corporate South Africa, to facilitate skills transfer and close the knowledge-gap. We need to replicate this approach in the SME environment by partnering leading entrepreneurs with emerging ones,” says Orie.
Key considerations on working with a business mentor:
What is the first step to finding a business mentor?
You need to establish your business’ identity so that a business mentor can help develop it further, as opposed to expecting the mentor to do everything for you. If you are clear about what you want, a mentor can provided guidance to realise your objective or goal.
Where to find a business mentor?
Nowadays, there are a number of mentorship services in the market which could be accessed at a cost. However, there are also established or retired entrepreneurs who are increasingly dedicating their time to work with emerging entrepreneurs.
What to look for in a business mentor
This is a very important step because choosing the right mentor can make or break your business. In an ideal world, a business mentor should be someone who has achieved success in business because they will be speaking from experience but you also have specialist mentors who have made a career out of providing mentorship services. Look at a person’s track record and decide where you would need their assistance.
Does a business mentor have to be someone you know?
It is always a bonus if you get to pick a business mentor you know. However, the important factor is to be realistic about how that person could help you and your business. This should be a business rather than an emotional decision.
Is it possible to work with more than one business mentor?
Yes, but you need to ensure that you benefit from each mentor’s strengths and not try to evaluate or compare one’s advice against the other. The fewer mentors you have the better, because taking too much advice could also be counter-productive in decision making.
Sanjeev Orie concludes that, even though mentorship only became a ‘buzz word’ over the last two decades, history shows that the concept has long been in practice. “We have seen mentorship successes in family-run businesses, across industries such as retail or farming, where children are guided by their parents on running a business. Business mentorship is a concept that has valuable business potential and one which can benefit South Africa’s efforts to boost entrepreneurship.”
