Investing in Others Through Mentoring

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After getting your business started one the best things to do is invest in others through mentoring. As a business owner, investing in others can help you continually refine your skills as you teach others. According  to Entrepreneur.com, mentoring is termed as “educational and/or professional development support provided by experienced colleagues“.

Just think about the impact that you can have on the world by just choosing to mentor one person. Then that person might choose to mentor two more people and so forth. When you mentor, you are giving a gift that can keeps giving. It can also be a way for your to strengthen your business with associate that you could potentially outsource business projects to.

Mentoring can be the lifeline to survival for a business owner. You never know without asking. Try looking around you to see if there is someone in your network who may need a little bit of help to direct them to success. Just by investing time and knowledge into this person you just might help them become successful.

For those who want to become involved in a mentoring program or to start your own, I compiled a starter list of organizations where you can find more information about mentoring.

• Office of Women’s Business Ownership (OWBO): States on their website that they exists to establish and oversee a network of Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) throughout the United States and its territories.
• SCORE: The explanation shared on their website about their purpose is that SCORE is made up of  ”Counselors to America’s Small Business” is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).
• Mentoring.org: According to their website, for more than a decade, MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership has been working to expand the world of quality mentoring. MENTOR believes that, with the help and guidance of an adult mentor, each child can discover how to unlock and achieve his or her potential. MENTOR is widely acknowledged as the nation’s premier advocate and resource for the expansion of mentoring initiatives nationwide.
• Mentoring Program (governmental grant): The federal government has create a grant program for those who want to start a mentoring program for children (invest in our future). On their website, they state that assistance is provided to promote mentoring programs for children with the greatest need. Grants are provided to programs that: (1) assist such children in receiving support and guidance from a mentor; (2) improve the academic performance of such children; (3) improve interpersonal relationships between such children and their peers, teachers, other adults, and family members; (4) reduce the dropout rate of such children; and (5) reduce juvenile delinquency and involvement in gangs by such children. 

Do you have a favorite mentoring program that’s not shown here? Please feel free to share more details about the mentoring program.