Looking for an apt business mentor is like entering a relationship; you look for certain qualities that lead to a successful partnership. In this case, you have to find someone who can understand your ideals, cater to your needs, and would want the best for you.

Step One: Identify your needs

First and foremost, you should identify the kind of mentoring your business requires. A business has several aspects, each one different from the last, so you should examine them separately.

You may come across several problems in areas such as public relations and marketing or perhaps you want to seek for leadership mentoring that can help expand your enterprise. Also, you might be pondering on selling your business.

Mentors for the said aspects (and a lot more) are widely accessible. Recognizing your own capabilities will help you further in finding the right business mentor. List the things you can and cannot do and specify if you are good or extremely good at doing them.

Furthermore, examine your business and take note of proposed ventures that may need a little boost in order to be launched. Concerns regarding operations (that are yet to be improved) should be listed down so you can discuss them with your business mentor in the future.

After acknowledging such difficulties in your business, it’s now time for you to choose the appropriate business mentor for the job.

Step Two: Find the Best Candidates

The question is where? An instinctive thing to do is to scope your own network. You may already be acquainted to somebody who can serve as an effective business mentor to you and your company. Or maybe, a friend of yours can refer a suitable colleague. By asking people from your own network, you’re already broadcasting to the world that “Hey! I’m looking for a business mentor.”

If this endeavor proves to be unsuccessful, you can also consult agencies that can provide business mentors. They can give you a list wherein you can choose a mentor possessing qualifications suited for the job in hand. You can also try to searching for business mentors via the Internet. This can provide you with a wide range of viable candidates to choose from.

Step Three: Choose the RIGHT business mentor

Finally, it’s now time for you to choose your business mentor. But before making the big decision, be sure the one you would choose owns the level of expertise you are looking for, holds experiences applicable to your company, and knows referees that you can talk to. Also, make sure to consider if you can work alongside the person.

Work between you and your future business mentor will entail intimate working relations and trust so you should feel easy and comfortable around that person. It doesn’t matter if you’ve found the perfect business mentor (CV wise) but if there’s tension going on between the of two you, perhaps it would be wise for you to think twice if that mentor is really the right one for you.

A vital yet critical factor in the expansion of a business is selecting the appropriate business mentor. Recognise your deficiencies, learn as much as possible about the problems, be open minded and accommodate ideas that can be useful in the future.