Your business is your baby and your brand is its carefully developed personality. As a business owner you should be very careful about how you put your brand out there – what channels you use, the language you use, the causes you choose to support, etc. However, sometimes when you are so singularly focused on creating a successful business and brand you can become stuck in one way of thinking. Before you know it, you have tunnel vision and you aren’t able to see a variety of possibilities and opportunities you are missing out on.
One way to avoid tunnel vision is to work regularly with a business mentor. A business coach is great, but a mentor is a relationship that you foster that is mutually beneficial – not financially based as a professional service offered. Globally, 93% of small and medium sized business owners agree that having a mentor can help drive business success. The sad part is that only 28% of business owners actually work with a mentor.
Working with a mentor will help you to change your mindset and approach to both your business and your brand, which can give you a fresh perspective on the opportunities you may be missing for your brand. A mentor is someone who has already paved their own path, someone you can learn from their mistakes.
In terms of branding, a fresh perspective will help you critically question the decisions you are making with your brand so you can have more control over how your audience perceives you. Discover what is working and what isn’t working based on your mentor’s knowledge of the industry and your target audience.
If you have a mentor that has turned on a lightbulb for you in terms of your brand, I would love to hear about it. If you are looking for a mentor that will be able to help you in your specific industry, Canadian Small Business Women is a great place to start! Find someone who is in your industry or a related industry and ask if you can ask them a few questions about how they got to where they are now. Every relationship starts with a conversation!
Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.
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