A business mentor is some who helps you develop your skills as a CEO, challenges you when you need to be challenged, and tells you to stop worrying when it’s not worth it. A business mentor serves as a business advisor (providing an unbiased 3rd party opinion on a key decision), an executive coach (helping you focus on what you want to do), and as a board member (challenging you when you need to be challenged).

I provide a business mentoring service to CEOs of small and medium size businesses going. These are typically companies with $1 million – $25 million in sales in professional service (e.g., consulting firms, education services) or digital businesses (e.g., ecommerce, media, software-as-a-service).

Most of my clients are CEOs that are exclusive or major shareholders in their companies (as opposed to CEOs hired from the outside). Many are extremely good in a few areas of business, and by comparison weaker in others. Someone who is phenomenal sales person and rainmaker, might be comparatively weaker in finance, operations, and cross-functional project management. Someone very good at getting things done (tactically focused), might not be as good at deciding what’s worth getting done (strategic focus).

It’s important to keep in mind that a business mentoring relationship is not always a comfortable one. As a business mentor, I will often push my clients out of their comfort zone — All The Time. I do this for the simple reason that it’s hard to get a company’s revenues to grow by say 50%, unless the CEO’s skills grow by 50% as well.

By definition growing a business’s revenues and profits beyond the status quo requires pushing the company beyond it’s natural boundaries. The same is true for CEOs.

To learn more about my role as a potential business mentor, visit my web page on my executive coaching services.