As a young entrepreneur, I’m constantly seeking the support of mentors. Theses mentors don’t need to be women and they don’t need to be extremely successful; they just need to take the time to provide feedback and advice. I consider anyone who takes the time to sit down or have a phone conversation about my projects a mentor.
WomenEntrepreneur.com has provided me with such a great group of mentors. The other woman bloggers on this site have been so helpful in providing me with advice and guiding me in many aspects of my business. Nina Kaufman is the expert in all things law-related, and I was lucky enough to meet Rachel Herrscher (Press Pass blog) at the Stevie Awards. I did have an interesting sit-down meeting with Lena Katz (The Creative Capitalist blog) in Los Angeles. Anyone who knows Lena or reads her blog knows how busy she is. The fact that she was willing to sit down with me spoke for itself.
Lena provided me with some great feedback about my site. Her main concern was my packaging. Her point was that I’m packaging myself as a “professional intern,” which doesn’t say much about where those internships have taken me. She said I need to state clearly that I can help students not only obtain internships but also help turn those internships into successful job opportunities.
Lena also gave me a good lecture on presenting myself as “Lauren Berger who has a company called Intern Queen” rather than presenting myself to companies as “The Intern Queen.” She spoke of the importance of professionalism and the need to present myself in a professional rather than student-like manner.
She also referenced the need to “go with what is working for you.” She said that if one idea isn’t working or needs to be tailored for a specific client or company–fix it. Or put it aside and go with another. These ideas and pointers might sound like common sense, but when you are running a business from one set of glasses it can be hard to take them off. It’s great to have a fresh perspective on things.
Since my online networking opportunities have been so beneficial I decided to reach out to the Women Presidents’ Organization. It has a chapter in Los Angeles and, although I’m not in the $2 million range at the moment, I thought there could be some great mentorship opportunities. I also contacted a great amount of business owners whom I read about in a recent issue of Entrepreneur magazine. I reached out about mentorship opportunities and told them I admire what they’ve done. I actually got a decent amount of responses and people willing to meet with me or have phone conversations.
So for all of you aspiring entrepreneurs–get some mentors. They help.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 7:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.9 Responses to “Mentors Really Do Help!”
Leave a Reply
November 28th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I’m always surprised when people are willing to take time out of their lives just to help me out or give me a little advice, but I shouldn’t be as I am always willing to help some one as well. I think when you’ve done a lot and learned a lot (especially when it was the hard way), you want to share what you’ve learned so others don’t have to make the same mistakes.
C. Worrall
November 29th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Dear Lauren,
Great post and one I totally agree with. Being on both sides of the mentor fence throughout my career I know how important the support and encouragement are and how valuable the exposure to another professional’s experience can be.
I love your story and wonder if you might be interested in writing an article about it for WE Magazine for Women? I am publisher & editor in chief and we generally have at least one article on the topic in each issue. You can check out the latest issue as well as other information on our blog at www.wemagazineforwomen.
You can email me at heidi(at)wecai.org.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Heidi
November 30th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Hi Lauren,
Great article…I agree with your advice about finding mentors. You don’t have to go the often lonely road of womentrepreneurship alone…so many seasoned women who are ready to help.
Best of luck to you in your career.
Heather Allard
www.themogulmom.com
December 5th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Aw! You wrote about me. And I didn’t even know…
Seriously, though, how’s the repackage of the book query coming?
December 18th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Should women become entrepreneurs?
January 14th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Lauren,
This is a message that all women need to read. We don’t seek out mentorship enough as we build our businesses. What I have also learned is that we need to have mentors of 3 different age groups - one older, one about the same age, and one younger. The older mentor can share life experiences that help to guide us down the road. By having a mentor who is about the same age, it’s an opportunity to encourage each other along the path toward success. A younger mentor helps us to be in tune with the needs, wants and perspectives of the generation behind us. I can honestly say that this advice has been very helpful to me as an entreprenuer.
CWT
February 13th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Lauren:
This is an excellent article and I think it is very important for women to find mentors. On this topic, I work for Global Entrepreneurship Week and we will be creating an active opportunity for youth worldwide to engage with entrepreneurs. I encourage you all to look into the initiative and participate in the activity to be held in November 2008: www.unleashingideas.org.
Best,
Kristina
March 1st, 2008 at 8:47 am
I stumbled onto your Blog accidentally thru Rich Woman. Wow! I couldn’t agree more about mentorship. I will say one thing though….MEN can be great mentors as well. You get to hear from the other side.
I am a Mother of three, I have a full-time job, I Coach a business executive with Strategy Planning, Execution and People Planning…. I find it very rewarding but I also learn FROM him.
You should keep a journal…write down the positive things as well as the negative things that you learned or observed about yourself, the people that work for you or Interns that you place. That will help you in building your business.
I TOTALLY agree with Lena in presenting yourself as “Lauren Berger who has a company called Intern Queen” rather than presenting myself to companies as “The Intern Queen.” As women, we find it hard to use our NAME. Use it….It says you are confident in who you are and what you are doing.
Good Luck!
Beena
March 27th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Great Advice ! The biggest mistake a budding entrepreneur can make is trying to do it all, all alone! Here’s a place to find a home business mentor for those success-minded innovators, who want expert help and guidance: http://www.home-based-business-development-center.com/home-business-mentors.html