When I set up in business in Richmond thirty years ago, I relied on Mark Twain’s two ingredients for business success – namely ignorance and confidence. I made many mistakes, was not particularly focused and in retrospect I was lucky to have survived.
At that time, I had never heard of the word “Mentor” – and I’m sure if I had had one, my decision making would have been far better and I would have avoided getting involved in some rather dubious business transactions.
Some pundits say business is easy – you just prepare a plan and implement it. As you know this is not exactly true – but these sessions do make a business easier to run by making SME owners continually think about their plans and through peer pressure helping them take appropriate actions, whilst avoiding that terrible disease – procrastination.
For me, two of the major benefits of group mentoring come outside the formal sessions. Firstly, after each get-together, we gravitate to a local hostelry for some refreshments – and in an informal manner more business ideas and anecdotes can be exchanged.
Secondly, each attendee can benefit from the contacts within the group, For example, if each SME owner has on average 100 good contacts, then with ten SME owners in attendance, that’s 1,000 contacts that could help your business.
As the old adage says “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!”
Onwards & Upwards and Whatever It Takes – Norman Jackson