If you read my articles regularly you will know that I am a big advocate for the value to be gained by using a business mentor or coach but, in the UK at least, that appears to put me in the minority.
A recent study by the Federation of Small Businesses suggests that only around 23% of SME owners in the UK use this type of support to help them overcome business challenges and achieve their growth plans.
This compares to a 2023 report by SCORE, a US based business mentoring service, that suggested around 70% of small businesses in the US actively engage with a mentor or business coach at some stage of their growth cycle.
That gap is enormous. But why the disparity?
In the US, the use of mentorship / business coaching is viewed as a sign of ambition: it is seen as part and parcel of having an entrepreneurial approach.
In the UK, it feels like the reverse is true. Seeking the support of an external third party to achieve business success almost appears to be viewed as a sign of weakness; that the owner doesn’t have all the answers and is therefore not up to the job.
With that mindset, it is easy to see how business owners are reluctant to invest in something which, at best is perceived to be non-essential, and at worst has the potential to undermine their authority.
This mindset can however lead to “tunnel vision” and ultimately be very damaging, and very costly.
One of my favourite quotes is the one attributed, apparently erroneously, to Einstein, that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
Wherever those wise words came from, the right mentor can provide the key to breaking the cycle of repeated unproductive behaviour and be a game-changer when it comes to a business achieving its full potential.
In the US, where entrepreneurs routinely work with a mentor, 70% of businesses survive beyond the magic 5-years that everyone talks about. In the UK, where mentorship is much less common and entrepreneurs prefer to “go it alone”, this figure falls to around 40%.
This isn’t all about ultimate success or failure. A research report by the Association of Business Mentors concluded that over 64% of SMEs that had engaged a mentor had increased revenue and profit and 72% said it had led to an increase in mental health and confidence.
That begs the question, are business owners in the UK right to view investing in mentorship as a sign of weakness and/or an unnecessary expense?
If you are still not sold on the value of mentorship, the good news is that you can “try before you buy”. You don’t have to go the whole hog and engage a business coach on a 1:1 basis to get some of the benefits and the cost doesn’t need to be eye-watering to deliver results.
Below are six low cost, quick-start tips to allow you to dip your toe into the world of mentoring:
Tap into local networks
Chambers of Commerce and local Enterprise partnerships often run free mentoring schemes
Use digital platforms
Join on-line communities like Enterprise Nation or the British Library Business which offer virtual mentoring.
Try a peer group
As a franchisee, you have a ready-made peer group so make sure you actively engage in whatever peer-to-peer forums, masterclasses etc. that your network runs. Remember, you are all doing the same things and facing the same challenges, the difference is how you approach them. If someone in the network has already overcome a particular challenge, why not learn from that rather than wasting time reinventing the wheel?
Network support
They might go by a variety of names but every franchise network has a team of people responsible for franchisee performance. Reaching out to them and asking for an independent business review is not a sign of weakness; it is an indication that you are actively looking at better, more efficient ways of doing things to improve your business’ performance, and they will welcome that.
Corporate mentorship
Look for programs from large corporates (often banks) that offer mentoring to small companies and start-ups to help them raise brand awareness. In the case of the banks, this will normally be offered to start-up businesses when they open an account but you can still access it as an existing business, you just need to know that it’s there.
Government Schemes
Explore initiatives like the Help to Grow: Management program, which pairs SMEs with experienced mentors with only a modest investment
The above list is not exhaustive and does come with the health warnings that free doesn’t always mean good and one size doesn’t fit all. So, if something isn’t working for you, don’t be put off; try something different.
It would appear that our US counterparts have found a proved pathway to success through mentorship which we in the UK are, for whatever reason, reluctant to tap into.
Perhaps it is time to embrace mentorship and let it help us unlock faster, smarter growth.
