[Alt. text: A picture of an online entrepreneur working on their tablet to build their business with the help of Darren and Mike.]
Hiring a business coach or mentor can help a small business in many ways. A business coach, consultant, or mentor will help you with these things listed below, among other things:
- Strategic planning
- Helping develop and grow your business from the ground-up
- Offering expert advice, new perspective, motivation, and feedback
- Fill up knowledge or skills gaps in specific areas
- Secure funding
- Networking and making valuable connections in the business world
However, before hiring a business mentor or consultant, a business owner needs to consider exactly what he is expecting to achieve from the process. For example, the term business coach or consultant is commonly assigned to professionals who work with a business for a short period of time and help it with short-term and specific developmental goals.
On the other hand, a business mentor is someone who works with you long-term and will commonly oversee a number of different aspects of your business.
Now, these terms are not set in stone and are often used interchangeably. It is useful to know the differences as they are commonly understood (and applied) in the industry in order to make an informed decision when you are looking to engage external help and guidance for your business in the form of a business coach or a mentor.
Later in the article, we will discuss, through the example of the online mentoring duo Darren and Mike Dream Team, some of the ways in which a dedicated business mentor can help small businesses hit the ground running.
Before that, however, let’s have a quick look at some of the disadvantages you may potentially face when engaging the services of a business coach.
Cons of Hiring a Business Coach
First of all, hiring a coach will incur extra expenses. And if your small business is already facing difficulties managing its finances and overall budget, appointing a business coach (short- or long-term) may prove difficult.
Your vision as to how to scale your business may not always be in sync with the evaluation and subsequent suggestions of the consultant. Accordingly, you may not be ready or willing to incorporate the changes your mentor/consultant advises for your business.
Hire the Right Coach, like Darren and Mike, at the Right Time
[Alt text: A picture of business documents on the ground with a phone on the calculator app, as a business owner tries to understand their expenses.]
Although we have talked about some of the common disadvantages of hiring a business coach, finding the right fit isnt difficult.
First thing, you need to be crystal clear about when and why you want to hire a business coach. Establish your requirements and know exactly what you want to achieve through the help of a business coach.
Also, take into account the state of your budget and decide whether now is the right time to work with a coach, like the Darren and Mike Dream Team duo, or if you should wait for a more favorable occasion later.
The next step is to find the right business mentor for your needs. Get referrals from your business network, look online, and basically, research your options well and make sure to pay attention to two primary things.
First, does the business coach have the right kind of experience for your present requirement? You may need support for accounting, digital marketing, strategic planning, and developing leadership skills, to name but a few. So, ensure the coach you’re going for has adequate experience and expertise in your specific niche.
Secondly, set up a consultation with the coach, and during the meeting, try to find out whether there is a good personality fit between you and the person in question. See if he or she is a good listener and whether they can provide some good insights for your small business, even during this initial conversation.
Darren and Mike Online Business Mentorship Program
Darren and Mike, the dynamic online mentoring duo based in Vancouver, Canada, has already made a great name for themselves by helping hundreds of small and independent entrepreneurs set up their online business endeavors and by setting them on the path to success.
Before focusing full-time on their mentorship roles, Darren and Mike (often referred to as the Darren and Mike Dream Team) had already found huge success in their online MLM marketing business.
This experience of starting an online business from scratch and achieving success had equipped them with valuable insights into the various fine nuances of the many different online business models and the business world in general.
How The Darren and Mike Dream Team Can Help
Launching a Business
For independent entrepreneurs, this is often the most intimidating step. However, once you subscribe to the Darren and Mike digital business mentorship program, the duo will help you set up your venture by offering valuable knowledge about the initial systems and the tools and technologies you need to get going.
Darren and Mike, online business experts, will also help entrepreneurs choose the right online business structure and model, will write up a business plan, and chart a route map for the businesses to follow.
Scaling Your Business
Once your business is on the rail (keep in mind that you can join Darren and Mike Online Business Mentorship course no matter whether you are a total novice or if you already have your business up and running), the next step is to look for ways to grow.
Darren and Mike will help you in this endeavor by looking deeply into the current state of your business, identifying the strength and weaknesses in structure, and by providing accurate guidance with regard to areas that have scope for improvements.
You’ll also get to learn how to identify the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of your business, and this knowledge will help you accurately measure the growth trajectory of your particular venture.
In addition, Darren and Mike digital business will also help you with several key areas of running an online business. These include:
- Adopting a proper and up-to-date digital and social marketing strategy
- Time-management abilities
- Hiring principles and how to build a great team
- How to strike the right work-life balance and thus avoid stress and /or burnout
Importantly, the duo also helps all the participants in the mentorship course (past and present) with follow-through via their weekly live mastermind sessions.
Finally, as Mike Dreher mentioned in a recent interview, the mentorship program has already built a worldwide Darren and Mike Dream Team Community, comprised of hundreds of online small business entrepreneurs who have benefitted from Darren and Mike’s program.
And members of this community maintain an active forum where anybody can post their particular problems, issues, etc., and often these issues will be resolved through the help of the other community members and without needing any intervention from Darren or Mike at all.