Mentors needed: You too can help

Tony Collins.

If you have been a business owner or involved in business for more than a few years, there is a good chance you have developed a whole range of skills and experiences that make you much better at what you do now than when you first started out.

Typically these capabilities have been acquired informally through day to day experiences and mistakes or through some form of formal training to gain specific skills that have helped make your business a success.

Let's be honest about it. The mere fact a business operates for any period of time in what is a dynamic environment influenced by so many factors over which the business owner has no control means the owner has been doing something right.

During that time there was probably someone or some people who supported you, who acted as a sounding board, provided business advice and helped keep you focused on your end goal.

Imagine how much more difficult your task would have been without that support and if you did not have any support imagine how much you would have appreciated someone to help you.

Often the support may not have been particularly complicated or earth-shattering but there is so much a business person needs to know to ensure business success and it is amazing what your learn along the way that would be useful to others.

This experience that has been picked along your journey to become successful in business could help other businesses grow and thrive.

The benefit of you using your skills and knowledge to help others is that it strengthens the business community and economic wellbeing of the area you operate in.

You contribute to creating employment growth and can reciprocate the business support others in the community have provided for you.

Northland business people often undersell their ability and talent. Their modesty often leads them to the mistaken belief that they do not have the skills to help others. We would love to talk to you about how you can become a business mentor and help other businesses prosper.

Your experience gives you the skills to mentor and we can provide you with the framework to do it which ensures that those businesses that need support receive it and your time is put to the best possible use.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in then contact us at NZ Chambers of Commerce Northland.

- Tony Collins is the Northland Chamber of Commerce's chief executive