Involving people outside of your business to bring in additional skills and experience should not be overlooked.
Not only will they bring new abilities into your team, but also very importantly a fresh perspective, new ideas and helpful contacts.
But who exactly are you able to involve in your business and what role can they play?
The terms Mentors and Non Executive Directors tend to be used interchangeably, but they are different roles.
A Mentor is someone who will help to guide you as an individual through their own experience and knowledge. They may also be a Mentor for your business in the sense that they are helping you with business issues. But predominately they are focused on you.
They are not “life-coaches”, that’s again a different role and one that appeals to some, but not all people. But rather business mentors.
Non Executive Directors, NonExecs or NEDs are focused on the company rather than you as an individual. Again they will bring skills, experience and contacts that will assist your business, but they are not there primarily to mentor you as an individual.
The NED is a legal director of the company and increasingly in this age of corporate responsibility for the actions of a company, have an important role (especially in large companies) of being a check & balance for the board of directors.
Although traditionally used in the larger corporations, NEDs can also be extremely helpful for smaller businesses, bringing valuable assistance from very experienced executives that normally you would not be able to afford to hire.
You can find Mentors and Non Executive Directors in the Company Partners database. Simply register as a Entrepreneur looking for a Mentor (if you are already registered, you can alter your details to include this in the My Account section - under "membership goals"), and then you can search our database of potential Mentors.
Whether it is a business Mentor for you, or a NED for your company, it is a form of resource that is affordable and will make a big difference to your success. See our additional pages that have more detail on each of these:
How Mentors can help you run a business
How Non Execs can help a business
