Angel investor and business mentor Mark Lyttleton works with enterprises across all industries, providing not only financial and strategic support, but personal advice on managing the considerable stresses involved in establishing and scaling a business. This article takes a closer look at business mentorship, examining the benefits from the entrepreneur’s perspective. The attached infographic contains some interesting statistics about business mentorship in the UK today.
A business mentor is an individual with business experience who is willing to act as a trusted confidante to founders over an extended period of time. The objective is to provide advice, counselling the founder from a fresh perspective, and helping them to stay focussed on their long-term goals for the business.
According to data from Jupiter Business Mentors, 93% of young entrepreneurs recognised the value of interacting with a mentor who had been there and done it before them. Jupiter Business Mentors’ report also revealed that 80% of businesses that received mentoring saw long-term growth, success, and business revenues, doubling their survival rate compared with non-mentored businesses. Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, the attached PDF explores the key differences between business mentoring and coaching.
Globally, business founders who have received mentoring from a successful entrepreneur are three times more likely to achieve business success and become top performers themselves, according to a report from Entrepreneur. Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page received mentoring from Eric Schmidt during the early stages of their business, while Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg received mentoring from none other than Steve Jobs.
The impact of business mentoring is evident from a report published by Kabbage, Inc., whose research suggests that 92% of small business owners believe that mentorship has a direct impact on business growth and survival. In addition, according to Kabbage, Inc., 89% of small business owners who did not have a mentor said they wished that they did. The study also revealed that 61% of individuals who own their own small businesses mentor others, with 58% specifically mentoring younger entrepreneurs.
Mentors act as navigators, guiding the entrepreneur and helping them to see the route to success. They provide an unbiased view and development-driven attitude, helping founders to access investment and mark major milestones.
Mentors help inexperienced entrepreneurs by offering the benefit of their own, usually considerable, entrepreneurial experience, providing constant guidance and sound advice to founders as and when needed.
The embedded video takes a closer look at the various funding avenues open to new businesses.