What is a coach, or mentor, and when would we need to use one?

 In 2013 I was accepted into a bursary program at GIBS, sponsored by Goldman Sachs. It was advertised on Radio 702, and I applied at the very last minute, for the very last cohort to be offered in South Africa. This was a very exciting and exclusive program, offered only at GIBS for the whole of Africa, and for women-owned SMMEs.

 

Not being very optimistic about the outcome, I was super excited when I was notified that I had been successful in my application. I arrived at my first day fresh, exhilarated, and totally wet behind the ears. The next few months would be a whirlwind of being schooled in business. Not business the way that we have always done it. The same methods of marketing. The head in the sand kind of accounting that I was so fond of. It was intensive. It was thorough. It was a mini MBA that taught me everything I had been doing wrong for 12 years, and showed me exactly how I should be doing things.

 

As a small business we are fond of finding what we cannot do. We don’t have budgets for professional staff. We cannot afford marketing the way we see our big business competition do. So we make excuses. This is why our turnover doesn’t grow. This is the reason our profits are not showing what we expected. But what we forget is that every single business started small. As an idea. As a concept. As a person.

 

And how did this shift for me? At the end of our theoretical portion, we were assigned a group coach. So 7 of us had a coach for round-table discussion, and for one on one sessions. Having different feedback, firstly from peers in business, and secondly from somebody who has had dealings with hundreds of other small businesses, was an invaluable gift for me. I started seeing a coach monthly.

 

I outgrew many of them, as my needs changed, and my focus and experience did. But through each step of the road, my coach has held my hand. Helped me realise exactly what I need without ever telling me, just letting me work it out myself. Help me find solutions. Get access to contacts I would never have thought of. Coaching has become a part of my every day life. Relationship coaching, business coaching, wellness coaching, money coaching even!

 

Through this period of growth, I met my first official mentor. I realised that I had many of them along my journey. People who had made big impacts, and who had grown and assisted me, without ever realising what they were adding to my life. People who had been there, done that, and were walking the walk I had always dreamed of. My mentors have never been in the same field of work as me, but they have all been women in business. Older. More successful and established. Who just see through the nonsense, who can suss out a situation quickly, and assist you to become your best you with very little fuss and a whole lot of love.

 

Coaching and mentoring are such an integral part of business, and of life, for me, and so being able to coach and mentor has become a wonderful gift that I am able to share and use to assist other small businesses in their journeys to betterment. My advice would be that all people who are self employed should be seeing a coach at least monthly to keep them focussed and on track. It is easy to tell ourselves white lies and become complacent, but in a world Post-COVID, can we really afford this any more?