All start-ups have to grow through rough patches before attaining glory. Cash flow problems,  marketing issues, people issues or simply better business management issues are part of the startup growth story. These challenges often discourage entrepreneurs and many times result in good business ideas coming to an untimely end. To empower new entrepreneurs and help them overcome these challenges, mentoring websites like ours offer startup mentoring services. Thank you for visiting, let’s get you started!

Business mentoring sessions are meant to help you tackle business challenges. While the solutions provided for each entrepreneur may vary, most of these mentoring relationships aim to tackle those related to business management, productivity, slow growth, employee hiring or attrition, lack of customer engagement, or even workplace atmosphere.

Here are the topics you should discuss with your mentor. 

6 Topics to discuss with business mentors

Your story and the mentor’s career

A career story may sound like a simple discussion but holds a plethora of life lessons. This topic isn’t a one-way street. Instead, both you and your startup business mentor need to engage and share experiences. This helps build trust between you and your mentor. Telling your career story isn’t a pitch to buy or invest in the business. Instead, it’s about understanding the ups and downs that each has faced and it’s more critical for you as a small business owner to know how the mentor has faced and overcome challenges.

A discussion about a career story can be especially beneficial for you as an entrepreneur. It can help you understand the ups and downs of the business world and how your mentor can apply his experiences to solve your business issues.

Your skill SWOT 

Starting a business requires a wide array of skills. Since the initial team is small, sometimes it’s just you hence quite naturally you wear several hats while testing waters. Amidst all this, it can be difficult to identify which skills are currently lacking for which you need to get additional manpower or set up a mechanism to ensure you are able to focus on your best skills. As an outsider, your business mentor for startup will be able to give you an unbiased view.

Ask your mentor to do a SWOT analysis to understand your strengths and what you currently lack. The solutions will be in improving some skills and adding some manpower or adopting technology to get better results. The solutions might not always be to your liking but then that’s the way for your business to grow faster. Discussions regarding you and your team skills can help you with your hiring and also help you attain your goals optimally.

The pragmatism of your business goals

Any top business coach will tell you that long and short-term goals have a critical role to play in business success. You should prepare your version of short and long-term goals to discuss these with your mentor. 

As a new business owner, you may have huge motivation to set goals but achieving these is a different story altogether. Discussing with your mentor will help you redefine these goals to plan a better and realistic path to success. Your business mentor’s experience and knowledge will come in handy here to help you define your personal and business goals in a manner that makes them more achievable. 

You should have productivity and goal-setting discussions regularly as they will help you become a better business manager.

Feedback on your business decisions
Discussions or review meetings to understand the results of decisions taken are extremely important for your business’s growth, as well as your growth as an entrepreneur. While you may be completely in charge of all the decisions taken for your business, having regular feedback sessions will help you understand how a mentor views the outcomes and if they could have been different. 

Feedback sessions will help you understand the progress of your business and whether you are heading in the right direction as planned. You can also understand whether your business growth mentor sees any challenges in the future in your decision-making style. Be ready for an objective assessment and constructive criticism.

Business growth
Most businesses have several metrics that help them evaluate current business growth and if they are in line with planned projections. As a new business owner it’s possible that you are not looking at the metrics properly or analysing it all in an incorrect manner. You may evaluate the growth of your business by how fast you reach your goals without considering the impact on many aspects of your business. 

A discussion with your mentor about your business growth will help you evaluate your business strategy and undertake timely corrections. Over time as the mentee – mentor relationship evolves you will be able to assess your growth objectively and take independent decisions.

The Reason for the Business Story
Each business has its own story. As an entrepreneur, you identify a gap in the market, develop a product to solve the problem, and then launch it. This is also the story that you will tell your investors, partners, and your initial clients. The question is that despite the hard work, the sweat and toil are you good at conveying this story and that you can successfully take your business idea to unicorn status. This requires experience and expertise, something which a business mentor brings to the table. Without an interesting business story and a strong business plan to turn the story into a reality, you may find it difficult to take advantage of opportunities that come your way.

This makes it important that you have the perfect business story and the means to convey it to those who matter and in a convincing manner. Discussing your business story with your startup business coach will help you understand the lacunae which the mentor will help you fill. Your business mentor will help you prepare the perfect business pitch making it believable and trustworthy.

As you navigate your business mentoring sessions, these six topics will help you take advantage of the mentor’s experience and advice.  Starting a business and then expanding is no small task and having a business mentor on your side can only lead to success. 

Are you seeking Business Coaching or Mentoring Services to start your business?

Working with a mentor to learn the most effective strategies to grow your business can be helpful. This is precisely where Jupiter Business Mentors can make a difference. The platform connects mentors to the start-up community in UAE so that you can take advice from experienced professionals. 

Avail of the special offer – 90 minutes of free sessions with any six mentors on the platform.