It was thrilled when asked to speak at this year’s Entrepreneur Conference. Ok, it was only a short speech however it was about a recent appointment of mine. I was asked last year if I would Mentor a fellow business owner Adrian Mullins. We have met on numerous occasions and we both get a lot out of our chats. The Chamber asked if we could both go up together and do a Mentee and Mentor talk about the benefits of the Mentor program. I really enjoyed it and the 5 to 10 minutes was nowhere near long enough to get out all the great stuff I had to say about the program. One of the points I wanted to get across is it does not matter what line of business you are in to be able to help someone else. Adrian’s business is about home care for the elderly and people who need assistance in the home. My first thoughts were how could I possibly help Adrian, what do I know about home care… I ‘m a Car Dealer! How wrong I was! During our first meeting I was astounded at how similar our businesses are. It was soon evident that Adrian’s challenges are my challenges. We both employ a sizeable workforce, We both operate locally and most of all we both started our business with virtually no money.
It’s been very easy to help Adrian as I have gone through what he is going through. His business is doing very well and it will be a great success however the growth stage has its challenges. There is no textbook out there to talk you through these difficult times. That is what mentoring is all about. I had no money when I first started my business however I had people who I could turn to. The best bit of help and advice I received was” No matter how bad the day has gone, and it may feel as if your world is collapsing… Roll with the punches, because tomorrow is different day. Things are never as bad the following day. Answers come to you the following day. ..Roll with the punches! I also spoke about how mentoring has helped my business. It has allowed me to reflect on what I do and what I used to do and for some ridiculous reason stopped doing it. The highlight of the evening was Joe Murray, co-founder and director of World Stores talking about how he and his business partner set up their very successful company that now turns over approx. £75 million in online sales. A great local success story told by a very engaging and natural business leader and what I liked most about his talk is how comfortable he is talking about things he got wrong. He also left us with some great recommendations. Some nice little bite size chunks that really get you thinking.. Fantastic!
– Stefan Kadlubowski, Director MKG3000 Mazda Volvo