I can tell you how to get any successful business owner to mentor you!

It’s very simple . . . don’t ask him to be your mentor or coach. If you do, he will nearly always turn you down.

Let me explain by first clearing the air a little about online mentors and business coaches.

To me, at least, mentors and coaches are not the same thing. I realize, however, that the two terms are confused and used interchangeably online all the time.

I believe a mentor is a friend, a teacher, a supporter, and an advisor.

I believe a coach is a something different. To me, a coach is a private tutor or trainer, someone who is typically retained under contract to give one-on-one direction and specialized training fit to the needs of the client in order to get that client to a higher level of output or performance. A coach is also a motivator and a cheerleader that sees the client/coach progress as a team effort.

Certainly, I acknowledge that there is some cross-over in the roles and functions of mentors and coaches.

Why does all this matter? Let me explain my thinking here.

If you want to hire someone to help you individually in your business, IMO, you should go out into the marketplace specifically looking for a successful business owner that does paid coaching.

If you ask most successful business owners to be your mentor they will almost always turn you down. They will worry that if they become an “official” mentor:

• it will become a major time drain for them – time away from their own business
• they may not be able to provide you with what you really need
• they will let you down when they can’t constantly hold your hand
• you are just one more “iron in the fire” that complicates their business day
• named association with you may not be in their best interest
• they may not appreciate your valued time by being themselves lazy, unteachable, or unwilling to follow the advise that you are genuinely giving – in essence, they are a waste of your time.

Can you hire or pay a mentor to do that? IMO, you are confusing terms again and what you really want is a paid coach. When compensation, or contracts, or specific time commitments, or performance measures are involved, we’re in the realm of coaching.

So if you want a mentor (a teacher or advisor), here is what I suggest:

1. Befriend a wise and successful business owner but don’t abuse your relationship by expecting handholding, specific time commitments, or special “preferred” status of any kind
2. Be willing to observe how your mentor does his business without personally taking up his time. Watch and learn how he runs his business, dissect his selling system, his lead generating activities, his funnels, his web site, his email list, his newsletter, his follow-up. If you can, buy his product(s) and become his subscriber and see what he does for you, his customer.
3. Offer to help him in any way you can with no reciprocation needed (or expected) on his part
4. Cultivate your relationship in various professional ways without being a stalker, a groupy, or like a clinging child under foot. Offer to give him time in your specialty, take him to lunch occasionally (if you are nearby), give him credit for your successes, support his business.
5. Very important: don’t abuse your relationship or “expect” anything beyond friendship.

I have often heard people describe how much their wonderful mentors have helped them, but if you were to ask that mentor what they had done, they may looked puzzled . . . as though they hadn’t really done anything special for that person except to be a friend.

If you ask me to be your coach or mentor . . . I will say “No thanks – nothing personal , but I turn down all such requests.” But I am happy to talk to friends about business, my own experiences, and what I believe or have learned about best practices, tools, and approaches in IM. I even try to help strangers when I can (ever read any of my blog or forum posts?).

Is this post making sense?  I hope so.  Contrasting views are always welcome.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com

I remember vividly a debate carried on some forty years ago in one of my graduate school classes that centered on the question of whether it was a good idea to encourage students to set up and operate for-profit businesses prior to their completion of formal education.

There was a very distinct minority that took the side of believing in student run businesses. I was not one of them.

I felt that education shouldn’t be interrupted by business world training and pressures. The classroom needed full attention and focus at this critical time.

I remember thinking how risky and uncertain business creation was and that a wrong step or two could seriously jeopardize a student’s schooling because it would throw him quickly into ultra debt, maybe burdening legal problems, and possibly a lack of time to accomplish college studies.

Maybe I was concentrating too much on the negative side of business. I was looking for the pot holes and reasoning that there were too many potential down sides to student business to recommend that path to anyone.

Besides, there would always be time for entrepreneurship and taking some risk after graduation – why confuse academic learning and practical hands-on experience?

Today, my position in this debate (if there still is a debate) has changed 180 degrees – if the business is of a certain nature. What has changed to make me do an about face on the issue? The Internet.

When I was a graduate student the Internet was only a dream in some computer expert’s mind. The only kind of business was brick and mortar based and certainly much more labor and capital intensive than what is required for profitable business today.

Why can’t a college, or even high school student create a small Internet based business while still in school? The education and skills that could be gained by the young entrepreneur, regardless of the profit generated by the business, would be invaluable upon graduation and entry into the business world.

Even if the graduate decided not to go into business ownership full time as a career choice, he/she would have the understanding and experience of what it takes to run a side business if extra income was needed.

I am not advocating that students drop out of school or not attend college if they know they want to seek a career in business ownership. Higher education is important from both an academic and social standpoint. Some of life’s hardest lessons are learned at this time. Often life-long friends and helpful habits are established pre-full-time-employment.

But a small student run business is easy to create, very inexpensive, and could lead to a great education in entrepreneurship if it is executed and run with balance and attention to academic priorities.

Gaining the proper balance between business and school could be a challenge for most young people, especially if the business was actually profitable. But the lesson learned from the experience would be invaluable.

Balance in life, especially between business and home/family concerns is one of the toughest lessons a small business owner faces. Learning that lesson early on in one’s business career would be a very good thing!

This might be the perfect situation for a mentor or business coach (formal or even informal) with experience in setting up profitable businesses to take the student under his/her wing and provide the guidance necessary to help the student get going in online business.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com

How do high school and college students learn to become entrepreneurs?

Does the current public school system do an adequate job of training young people to become business owners?

Years ago I made a new friend in Chris Elliott who found my blog and decided to subscribe.  Chris was a high school senior about to make a choice between colleges and was interested in entering the business world after school was completed.

Chris reminded me that there was a legion of potential small business candidates among us – the future business leaders that will blossom in the coming generation. Most of the attention I pay to solo business owners goes to those who have a wealth of knowledge and experience under the belt.  Chris was eager to learn, bright, and anxious to dive into operating his own business someday … hopefully, sooner than later.

Really and practically, there is no logical reason why young online business owners can’t follow their dreams, and even thrive in today’s online business environment. In fact, it will become harder and harder to distinguish the age of the business owner as time goes on because the demographics of the work force are changing significantly.

There was a time not long ago that conventional wisdom taught us all to land a good job with a solid company, build up tenure and longevity, move vertically through the ranks with a progression of promotions, accumulate personal wealth through saving and investing in a 401K, and retire at 65 with a pension and a nice little savings nest egg to spend in the golden years.

Oh, how times are changing!  The old way of working for one company all one’s life is probably gone forever for almost everyone!

Solid companies are going bankrupt, being folded into mega multi-nationals, and experiencing downsizes in employment and reductions in employee retirement packages, even for the company elite.  Pensions are rapidly disappearing as are golden parachutes for long-time tenured employees and management.

Entire industries and marketplaces come and go at a blistering pace in today’s economy. The ride is dizzying and the stakes are high for anyone that steps off the curb into the business fast lane.

It’s amazing to me that the curriculum in most high schools, and even in colleges (to a lesser extent), barely includes education and training in small business development. With the number of new small businesses popping up all over the globe now and in the near future, it seems to me that our educational system is letting our young people down in many ways.

Small business development education is typically a hands-on, learn as you go, on-the-job training type of learning. But there is a set of basic business principles and skills that could very effectively be taught to young people, regardless of the business subject, that would help them avoid common pitfalls and learn the “correct” or accepted methods of business operation.

Young people like my friend Chris are hungry for helpful information. They recognize that their life’s path probably won’t be set or controlled by a large corporation. They want help, guidance, and information now that will allow them to chart their own course and succeed and profit from their own ideas and hard work.

I am continually amazed at the strength, creativity and resourcefulness of today’s young people. As I look at them, and compare what I see to my own carefree (more like careless) attitude when I was in high school, I have every hope and reason to believe that the world will be a much better and kinder place with the coming generation at the helm.

Before it’s too late, and as we prepare to hand the business ball off, it’s my hope that successful entrepreneurs with a wealth of personal knowledge and experience will step forward and offer their insights and wisdom to next wave of entrepreneurs standing in the wings soon to be taking center stage.

Ask yourself the question:  What can I do to help a young person get ahead in life and business?  Can I be a mentor or coach to my own children/grandchildren in finding their own unique career path as they exit the public school system?  Going to college may not be the very best option anymore (as it used to be) for graduating seniors.

I would be interested in your take on this subject.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com