Thoughts on Mentors

I have an organization attempting to court me into their business mentoring services.

Common knowledge states that you NEED a mentor or coach in order to be successful. The interesting thing is that the same people professing this wisdom are interested in signing you up for their coaching services.

Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

In my experience, the more expensive the service the less value it seems to add. It's lots of Hoo-RA and no practical knowledge. Also, I think paying for these services hits a point of diminished returns.

What is a business owner to do?

Well here's some better and free options as opposed to spending a fortune

1. Network with Other Successful Businesses - Make sure that you only listen to business owners more successful than you. I keep in touch with a friend that owns a school like mine but is twice as successful. You better believe that I listen carefully to everything he says. One visit to his school gave me enough ideas to work on for a whole year. Each idea added thousands to my bottom line.
2. Have clearly defined goals - Define your goals for the next year. With these goals, create monthly goals that align with your yearly goals. Finally, work off of a daily task list that is created from looking at the monthly goals.
3. Take massive action - Most people hire mentors as a magic pill for their own laziness, only to find that they still need to do the work in improving their business.
4. Be a forever learner - Reading is one of the best and cheapest forms of learning. I glean more ideas from one good business book than any other source.
5. Look for one good gem - Suspend your judgment of other peoples ideas and listen. Even if 99% of their ideas are off base that one gem may generate endless amounts of revenue.
6. Boost your Marketing efforts - Marketing is one of the best tools for boosting your income. Most businesses market themselves too little.
7. Raise your prices - Constantly look for ways to increase your perceived value to your customers. Most people vastly underestimate the amount that customers are willing to pay for a product.
   
8. Find a Niche - This relates to #7. The better you define your target customer the more you can cater to their needs. The end result is commanding a higher price point.

There's my list of eight things to do instead of paying a mentor.

Can you think of more? Please leave us a comment.

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