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Starting a Business Part 3: Power Team and Mentors

Listen to your power team

We have all fell victim to stubbornness and have been so dead certain that what we believed was correct and that our idea is perfect but then asked someone and they have identified massive gaps in your plan. My rule of thumb is if you cannot explain what you are doing without being embarrassed to say so then you are doing the right thing. You need to have pride in what you do as running a small business is not easy and if you are aiming to turn the business into a national or global thriving business then you need to make sure you can say it out loud and you can tell someone or a room of people what your business is and what it stands for.

Influence others and help where you can

I had a friend who recently approached me about starting a car mechanics part time but he didn’t know how to start it. He also knew nothing about mechanics except he assumed they had an easy job. He came to me with the idea of renting a garage hiring two mechanics and was estimating to make £500 gross everyday. First thing I did was looked at his figures and identified he had missed out a marketing budget. He failed to understand a few leaflets/flyers and having a website is not enough especially for a new business to get customers. I recommended he look into mobile mechanics first to reduce the initial & recurring payments of a fixed location garage to help the budget. I then carried on to ask why he wanted to run a car mechanics seeing as he was a painter & decorator by trade. He proceeded to tell me that when ever he takes his car to get repaired at any garage they don’t seem interested and don’t look like they need work, so it looked easy to him. I then proceeded to ask him what happens when your mechanics are both off sick or when yourself or a mechanic accidentally break a bone, what time will you leave work that day? How much would that ruin your reputation as a new start-up garage. I told him the thought process was great but look for something that’s more scalable and less investment heavy such as an online business.

Power team

In different fields a power team can be seen as different people. For example in a property business, a local power team will be your estate agent/letting agents and accountants. You will need to identify who these people are in your industry. For most online businesses and start-ups your team will need these key players and they may be the same person:

• SEO Marketer
• Web Designer
• Your copywriter

If you do not have a team starting like this then are you going to do the work yourself? These are the key people to an online business and if you don’t know who they are by name then you are missing them and when you need them because your website has gone down you will have to ring a new service provider and explain your situation and your business before you can even get them to take a look, that’s even if they are available to see you straight away where your power team should be ready to serve you almost instantly and should value your business relationship.

it’s never too early to contact your power team and find out who fits your needs best. It’s better you build the relationships now so they can help you and guide you which will help you win the planning stage of your business before you launch.

Business Mentors

Now not everyone will have access to a mentor and if you have to pay its normally very expensive, but is a mentor worth it? Yes! A mentor can stop you wasting hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds. If you have access to one then ask them if you can go work with them for free for a week part time so you can learn their day to day business life and help develop your mindset.

This will help you be more creative in the running of your business and you have now gained someone you can ask “but why do you do this?”. They may also be able to show your simple systems they use to run the business such as a business diary.

Business Mentor Characteristics

if you don’t have someone available to mentor you then look for these following characteristics in a person:

• Intelligent
• Identifies with risk and knows how to manage it (risk mitigation)
• Someone who is not scared to tell you the truth and their opinions – this is very important
• Someone who is an entrepreneur in your field or similar
• A problem solver
• Kind and thoughtful of others

These sorts of people don’t come around often so keep them close they will be more than willing to help you.

Without blowing my own trumpet I feel like I described myself but there’s a reason I am telling you this. My friend approached me asking me to help him with property he didn’t know how to progress and get things moving into investing, well safe to say we are now purchasing houses together. When I helped my property business partner propel in his field I wasn’t looking to learn I was looking to help him and that’s when I discovered a whole new opportunity that was available to me. So helping others really does lead to a better life. There is websites avaliable online that may be able to assist you with your search for a business mentor for example here is one I found after a quick google: Mentors Me

To do for this chapter

• Write down who you need in your power team
• Contact 3 different companies in these fields to see experience and gut feeling (look for energy, someone who gets excited about what they are talking about)
• Work out your mentor and learn about them and their business
• Suggest to your mentor 5 key points he could do to help improve his business – Research the ideas and make sure you have figures and facts to back up your evidence, Having real life problems to solve is like training for when you launch your business

Other Chapters Available in this eBook

• Starting a Business Part 1: Research & Develop your idea
• Starting a Business Part 2: Preparation & Registration
• Starting a Business Part 3: Power Team and Mentors
• Starting a Business Part 4: First Client