10 Pieces of Advice for All Business Owners
You may remember a time when someone handed you some piece of career advice that you took a little too lightly. Looking back, you may have wished you followed it and avoided some of the business challenges you faced because you didn’t.
Having a business mentor early on in your career can help you retain and actually listen to some of this advice, so it sticks. According to MicroMentor, businesses that had mentors increased their revenue by 83%, while non-mentored organizations only achieved a 16% revenue growth.
Below, 10 members of Forbes Coaches Council discuss that one piece of business advice they wish they had followed early on in their career and now share with all of their clients. Here is what they shared:
1. Understand The People You Lead
Leadership is personal. To get the most from those you lead, you must understand the five dimensions that drive them, their inspirations and aspirations. These dimensions are profession, relationships, community, finance and wellness. A leader must understand these authentically to truly engage and maximize output. – Kevin Wright, Aeriis Insights Group, Inc.
2. Seek Mentorship
Find a mentor as early in your career as possible — someone who will encourage you to believe in yourself, to help you devise career goals and a pathway to success, and who will honestly tell you when you’re ready for the next big move (or when you’re not) and help you prepare for it. -Jan Molino, Aspire Ascend.
3. Connect Emotionally
To dig and learn about emotions, how we impact each other and the way we long for connection. Emotional connection is the single most powerful motivational force in our brain. When we are connected, we take risks, collaborate, innovate and address challenges together. Nothing grows people more like emotional connection. We are not just social animals, we are homo vinculum, we are the ones who bond. – Lola Gershfeld, Level Five Executive, Inc.
4. Show Customers Who You Are
The most important thing that any entrepreneur can do is raise their status in the eyes of customers and prospects. – Clint Arthur, Status Factory.
5. Nurture Your Relationships
I wish that earlier in my career, I had realized the importance of maintaining relationships. A simple no-brainer, right? However, life is in the habit of throwing curve balls your way and when other, more pressing issues bombard my already hectic day, I put off staying connected to tomorrow. Then I find that my tomorrow gets put off for yet another day, and days become months and months turns into years. – Arlene E.Donovan, Turning Point Coaching LLC.
6. Map Out And Believe In Your Vision
One piece of business advice I wish I had followed earlier in my career that I now share with all of my clients is to make sure you map out and truly believe in your vision before you share your vision. So often, due to the excitement of a new venture, we are pulled to share our vision in its infancy stage. This leaves us vulnerable to others who are either reshaping our vision or crushing it .- Lisa Guice, Lisa Guice Global-Vision, LLC