How a Business Mentor Can Grow Your Business

1. How a Business Mentor Can Grow Your Business

2. Business mentoring is a fast growing industry, much like the coaching industry. Business coaching started around the late 1990’s when it first appeared and printed business magazines started writing business case studies about the industry. Business coaching has become a huge industry while business mentoring is now following suit. Governments like the Australian one has numerous state based business mentoring programs. Business mentors are different to business coaches or sometimes it can be the same thing. Where they differ is that a business mentor has owned their own business and often been in multiple businesses over decades whereas a lot of business coaches haven’t owned a business or only one, small one previously. Whether you are better to consider a business coach or a business mentor is up to you and your current stage of business growth.

3. A business coach tends to be better suited to a start-up or small business with a few employees. A business mentor can work with businesses up to larger companies of eleven figures usually due to their experience in that arena. A business mentor can assist with growing your business in a number of ways. Usually marketing isn’t their strongest area of mentoring, however it depends on the mentor as many are excellent in marketing. Marketing and finances are a bit like water and oil. They don’t go together very well and never fully mix smoothly. There is a tendency for business mentors who are strong in marketing to not be experts in finance and vice-versa. There are exceptions though so keep your eyes out for those rare business mentors who can go across both spaces. Marketing is arguably the most complex, diverse and challenging areas to learn in business. An example of how much this is true is seen on the popular Australian ABC Show called Gruen where a panel of 4 marketing experts discuss and debate effectiveness of big brand advertising. It’s quite common to see disagreements on the show between the marketing experts.

4. If marketing experts can't agree on what’s effective with marketing, what hope does the average business owner have who has little to no knowledge of effective marketing execution? Experience has no substitute in business and a business mentor with either experience in marketing, experience in finance or both is a very valuable resource for your growing business. Often a business mentor has experience in taking smaller businesses to becoming much larger businesses, from 6 figures to 11 figures or beyond. If you remember back when you first started out in business and how much there was to learn, the next stages of growth are the same. There is a constant need to learn about all aspects of business and what better way to do so than engage someone who has ten or twenty or more years of experience with growing businesses?

5. An Example of Where a Business Mentor Can Assist An important role in a service and manufacturing business is pricing or quoting or tendering. All of these tasks require a good understanding of costs of sales, especially labour time required on jobs. Initially the business owner will fill this crucial role, however the business grows beyond around eight to ten employees the business owner will find it hard to fill this role on their own. This means an estimator will need to be hired. Estimating is a crucial role in a business because the role is about determining fine line between being too cheap and losing profitability and being too expensive and missing out on sales due to competitors winning them at lower prices. There are key ingredients for a business owner to consider when delegating this important role, which include an understanding of; • The ideal personality/behaviour of the estimator so their aptitude suits the role • The minimum gross margin sale price to aim for • What gross margin to aim for on different products/services • How to determine if the profit margin on the estimate was too high or too low • The conversion rate goal to aim for from estimates given to estimates won

6. The process of hiring an estimator is a complex one and it can literally make or break a business, costing it hundreds of thousands in income and/or net profit per year. This decision is one of many that a business mentor can assist a business with as it moves into the ‘management phase’ of growth with five employees and beyond. Whether you want to grow your business faster with more sales or increase your business profit margins before growth, a business mentor can assist you with hiring employees, creating systems, setting sales prices based on margins, advertising, marketing, selling and even obtaining finance and grants from the government. For these reasons and more an experienced business mentor is a worthwhile considering for your growing business.

7. TIM STOKES Business mentor Sydney | Business mentor Brisbane Profit Trans4mations Phone: 1300 7 STEPS (1300 778 377) Phone: +61 7 3194 0477 https://www.profittrans4mations.com.au