Mentor can be a big help for budding entrepreneur

Getting advice from a busy expert is difficult

A common desire for any budding entrepreneur is to learn exactly what is involved in the funding and operations process for a new entity — preferably with hands-on experience.

By Joseph Ollivier Deseret News

The entrepreneur can read about how to do it in books and talk to people about their experiences, but the best way to learn all of the nuts and bolts about how to fund and run a successful business is to have a personal mentor who has already been successful in these areas.

Therein lies the problem.

It is difficult to get someone who is busy with their own successful business to commit to diverting time to help an entrepreneurial newcomer. Which should come as no surprise. There is very little for the business veteran to gain from the mentoring process, and everything to lose.

The mentor must spend time with the less experienced entrepreneur, which means that some of the mentor’s own business duties will be neglected, and some money-making opportunities may be missed — not to mention the gnawing possibility, tucked away in the back of the mentor’s mind, that he may be giving the benefit of his wisdom and experience to someone who may eventually become his competitor.

Whether it’s an internship or a mentoring situation, it is still costly for the person giving the experience.
So how does an aspiring entrepreneur convince someone whose time is extremely valuable to spend time as a mentor?

Here are some suggestions that may make it work.

1. Send a letter of introduction to the potential mentor, explaining how valuable the experience will be for you and how you know it will be all one-sided, but that you are willing to do what every is necessary to add value to the relationship.

2. Submit a detailed resume of what skills and talents you have that may be of value in some way to the mentor.

3. Make sure the mentor knows that you are willing to do anything just to learn — wash cars, shine shoes, run errands, work from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m. — whatever. Be humble in your approach. Let your target mentor know that you are willing to work without financial compensations. This is especially important in an internship situation.

4. Create a schedule showing that the mentor won’t have to spend endless hours with you and that you are not going to ask for more time than what is necessary.

Having a good mentor with whom to work or serving the right kind of internship is worth its weight in gold. There is no substitute for hands-on experience. If you can get the right mentor it is probably more valuable than any expertise you might have in marketing, finance, accounting or human resources for your company.

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