Offering Mentors a Place on Your Corporate Board

Starting a new corporation puts you in charge of your own destiny. Success is largely based upon planning, knowledge, and effort. Because the challenges that confront an entrepreneur are perpetual, finding someone who has traveled that road before you is extremely valuable. This is why finding a mentor will avoid being lonely at the top.

Experienced entrepreneurs want to help you. They enjoy the trials of a new corporation, whether or not it’s their own business. Finding a good mentor vastly increases the likelihood of success. Most new corporations deal with similar issues. So effective mentors share common characteristics.

Mentors should both demand excellence and permit plenty of latitude for an entrepreneur to experiment. The leadership of a mentor involves keeping you focused. Mentoring involves helping an entrepreneur monitor spending and measure results.

One of the essential contributions of a mentor is serving on your corporation’s board of directors. This links the mentor’s advice to company activity. The mentor sees mistakes as they occur and provides input about possible courses of action.

Most of all, a good mentor acknowledges sound judgment and questions poorly constructed ideas. Mentoring aids an entrepreneur in finding ways to improve cash flow and obtain expansion capital. Mentors know which opportunities are wise and which ones divert from the vision for your corporation.

A mentor is often an angel investor in your corporation. This may occasionally lead to confrontation. But disagreement is often the health of an organization. It provides assurance that all angles are considered. In fact, a mentor with a financial stake has even more reason to help you succeed.

It’s wise to have a mentor…or several of them. Their wisdom gives you a clear picture of the path to success. Frequent board meetings involving mentors are likely your greatest advantage. They challenge you to make the best decisions by providing an outlet to defend your ideas. You then have assurance that you possess all the right answers before you act.