There’s no such thing as treading water in today’s market – either you’re moving ahead or you’re falling behind. Increasing job complexity and the ever-present threat of disruption means that decision-makers are required to keep an ever-expanding number of plates spinning. From the day to day management of your team to maintaining client relationships, monitoring your profit and loss, to benchmarking your business against others in the industry, so often decision-makers like you have their days taken away from them. In principle robbing you of the time you need to do the focused and strategic work that helps your company grow. Without this crucial work, a company can simply be adrift in the market, responding and reacting rather than leading and innovating.
Becoming that leader means being informed of your operations and key metrics (both financial and non-financial), and making the necessary business improvements to support your success.
How a business mentor can help you
A great business mentor will help you:
- objectively monitor your business’s growth and performance
- benchmark your business against others in your industry
- provide the critical feedback needed to help you achieve your objectives
- identify strategic initiatives that can add real value to your business
- expose you to new ideas and fresh ways of thinking
- shorten your learning curve by sharing freely their experience and expertise
- inspire you to be a better leader
- provide you with a better understanding of business fundamentals, including costs, overheads, and other financial considerations
- quantify the value of your business
- help you develop an exit strategy or succession plan, if needed, and
- share your frustrations and celebrate your successes.
If you’ve never worked with a business mentor before, we invite you to consider it. A broadly experienced outside perspective can help you identify the bottlenecks and pinch-points that keep your business from flourishing, helping you lay the foundation for future growth.
Potential financial support
There are many grants available to businesses in Australia and New Zealand that embark on business improvement initiatives, often providing funding that can help contribute to their business mentoring investment. Your eligibility for these funds can depend on your market, your geographical location, and the composition of your leadership team. Should they meet the criteria, organisations in industries as diverse as defence, agribusiness, aged care and FMCG, can potentially access funding to retain the services of a business mentor. Specific programs – such as AusIndustry’s Entrepreneurs Programme – vary between the two countries, and are generally geared toward strengthening businesses, including those in bushfire affected areas.
Choosing the right partner
Choosing a business mentor is a significant decision. Your mentor needs to be someone you can trust, has the experience and expertise to help you grow your business, while also helping you to grow as a leader.
A Bentleys business mentor will empower you to take control of your business, benchmarking your company against competitors and taking a data-drive, financial metric approach to your challenges. We provide you with the reinforcement you need to identify opportunities and develop strategic initiatives that move you meaningfully towards your goals.
Business-owners are learning on the job every day but imagine what you could have achieved a year ago knowing what you know now. One of the most significant benefits of partnering with an experienced business mentor is shortening your learning curve, helping you learn more in less time and making you a more effective and forward-thinking leader.
Discover who you could be and what your organisation could achieve with the right mentorship. Speak to you local Bentleys advisor today and find out how we can help you transform your business.
We, at Bentleys, are doing everything we can to help businesses come out of this challenging time in good shape.
We will continue to update our COVID-19 resource hub with important developments, so please return soon.
Disclaimer: This information is general in nature and should not be relied on as advice. It does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. You need to consider your financial situation and needs and seek professional advice before making any decisions based on this information.
COVID-19: A summary of Australia's tax measures
The governments of Australian states and territories have also released independent stimulus packages. For an overview of all Australian measures, click here.
What would you like to learn more about? How can we help you?
Read our latest insights into COVID-19
Find out about Bentleys' response to COVID-19