As an entrepreneur, you face challenges and uncertainty every day. With these come new opportunities to learn and grow. While entrepreneurship is exciting, it can also become overwhelming if you’re working through challenges alone. Alternatively, when entrepreneurs are paired with mentors, high-impact results follow because even when a challenge is new to you, it’s likely another entrepreneur has faced a similar problem in the past. This is why the heart of Endeavor’s innovative entrepreneurship model is our world-class network of mentors. Let’s take a look at the top four ways mentorship can improve your local and global business.
1. Global Connections
Global connections can help grow businesses more effectively. At Endeavor, we match mentors from our global network to entrepreneurs based on goals, needs, and interests. These mentorship relationships are personal, ongoing, and provide entrepreneurs with inspiration and support to maximize business outcomes. For example, Endeavor Entrepreneur Joey Rivera, CEO of the Rivera Group, utilized the expertise of a global panel of top Endeavor mentors when presenting his company’s growth challenges. The mentors on the Global Acceleration Panel provided Joey with guidance, enabling him to articulate a focused vision for the Rivera Group’s next path and the ability to optimize the business strategy towards an ambitious, new goal.
Joey Rivera of Rivera Group
2. Local Connections
In addition to building a global network, mentorship strengthens local connections while impacting business outcomes. For instance, executives from SkuVault, an ecommerce warehouse and logistics software company, utilized the local partnership between Ernst & Young (EY) and Endeavor to resolve a discrepancy in the company’s reception between enthusiastic warehouse operators and less interested financial teams, that sometimes resulted in lost sales. A team of EY advisory professionals put their heads together to better understand the underlying issues and offered strategic recommendations on SkuVault’s sales techniques and processes. As a result of this local connection, SkuVault was able to improve sales and deliver a higher value solution to its customers.
Andy Eastes and Slav Ivanyuk of SkuVault
3. Improved Financial Strategies
Mentorship and the relationships it brings significantly improve financial strategies and outcomes for entrepreneurs. Endeavor’s Mentor Capital program, for example, offers Endeavor Entrepreneurs an opportunity to receive feedback from experienced mentors on their fundraising strategy, pitch materials, and term-sheets through ongoing one-on-one support. The results create better capital raising outcomes for the entrepreneur and fuel business growth.
4. Expert Advice
Access to expert advice from business leaders who have years of experience is invaluable for entrepreneurs working through new and challenging pain points in their businesses. Endeavor Advisory Boards are strategically created for entrepreneurs to provide in-depth counsel on the challenges and business efficiencies the entrepreneurs face. In effect, Advisory Boards serve as a “global board of directors” for their entrepreneurs, meeting quarterly with them to provide feedback on business and organizational challenges. Kyle Green, co-founder and CEO of HANDLE, presented concerns at his first Endeavor Advisory Board about his company’s market-based strategy as well as questions related to funding. His advisors worked to advise him on strategies for team building, developing a repeatable business model, identifying and measuring key metrics, and preparing for a capital raise. Kyle summarizes the process best: “The expectation was that I would get good feedback, but my Endeavor Advisory Board has been far more impactful than I initially thought. Everyone has blind spots, areas where you just need more depth of thought. The opportunity to work with and learn from my Endeavor Advisory Board has been invaluable.”
Kyle Green of HANDLE
Mentorship: Accelerating the Path to Success
It’s clear mentorship can positively influence entrepreneurial businesses in many key areas and in a variety of ways. At Endeavor, our world-class network of mentors works with entrepreneurs to create high-impact results locally and globally.
For more on Endeavor’s Impact in the Louisville region and beyond, see our ‘Impact Report: Volume I’.
