We highly recommend you find a business mentor because it unlocks and accelerators the growth of your business. As a CEO you are tasked with being the visionary of your company, and feedback on this kind of activity is hard to find. We can tell you that even among other business owners, you will be hard pressed to find someone who can teach you something to grow your company. A mentor is the expert’s expert, so to speak.

There are many good reasons to have a mentor, but the main reason you need one, has to do with how mastery is achieved. Often you will need to compete with those who are better than you or those who have experienced things at a larger operational scale. Think of it this way, while the food stand operator may be quite successful and turn exceptional profits, there is very little chance they could turn their food truck into a chain of restaurants without experiencing a lot of growing pains and that once exceptional profits, is now meager or gone. However, if they sought out a mentor in the hospitality industry that has operated several locations across the nation, and asked them for advice and what the common pitfalls are, we can now imagine this food truck owner successfully operating perhaps 2-3 locations. What would not work is seeking out 3 other food truck operators and going into business with them to open a series of restaurants because no one in this group has any experience operating at this level.

It is much like the apprentice working with the master, except in the case of business owner and mentor, the owner takes all the responsibility for implementing and growing their business. The mentor’s role is to keep you on track, hold you accountable and help you through tough decisions. In the end you, the owner, are responsible for your company’s fate.

If we go by the numbers, it also paints the picture that all owners need a mentor. According to the 2013 Executive Coaching Survey by Stanford University, nearly 80% of directors said their CEO is receptive to coaching. Moreover, following a survey of 200 small businesses, financial technology company Kabbage reported that 92% of small businesses said mentors directly impact growth and the survival of their businesses. Mentors spur you in the right direction and could be the deciding factor in a business’ growth.

Making the Mentorship Work

If you are still not convinced you need a mentor, then let’s go through several reasons why you absolutely need one, and what they can do for you.

1) Help you dream bigger.

What do you thin is possible within your company? How big is your dream? Without a mentor your dreams will stay small and you will likely be happy with those small dreams but will be selling yourself short.

2) Someone to lean on.

You need a mentor in business because leadership is a lonely island. As an owner you really do not have a lot of employees you can look to for the cold hard facts. In part and to varying degrees, every single employee you have is a ‘yes-man’ (excuse us for the gendered turn of phase), but we all know employees tend to agree and be on the safe side. Pushback from your employee is rare, and independent thinkers are few are far between. On the other hand, a mentor, will not hold back and challenge you.

3) An Outside Perspective.

When you are passionate about something, you become attached to it, both you and your employees for that matter. What a mentor can do is offer an opinion completely free from bias or the history of your company. Something that may seem to be the core aspects of your firm, are easily looked past by a mentor. Solutions you never considered possible are suddenly seen clearly since the mentor has been in your exact position at some point in their career. They know the pitfalls, the shortcuts and the dead ends, the path your business is on. Essential they are predicting the future possibilities of your company.

4) Networking Opportunities

As a person who already runs a company, it is likely that you have your own network within your region but perhaps expanding it further proves hard and the effort would not warrant the results of doing so. This is where a mentor can give you access to more businesses to networks far outside your reach. Since mentors exclusively deal with company owners, CEOs, and upper management, over larger geographic regions, they can parley on your behalf when they deem the connection beneficial for both parties. A mentor can also connect you with skilled freelancers, specialist and trusted service providers your mentor can vouch for.

5) Help to Build/Repair Company Culture

Company culture is hard to build and can be even harder to change once rooted into your business. Employees, managers, and even owners can become set in their ways and lack the will power to make meaningful changes. Perhaps the owners do not see they have a toxic work culture or do not know who to fix it nor the inkling of an idea of what to change it to. A mentor, with their fresh perspective, can advise you on the steps to brining about a healthy work culture within your company. They can even pinpoint employees that may need to leave the company, so this culture shift can occur.

6) A Place to Practice Management Skills

Learning never stops and your techniques to oversee, direct and advise employees and managers in your company needs to evolve with how your business scales. The way you directed employees at $1 Million dollars may not work at 5 million dollars and definitely won’t work at 10. A mentor on the other hand, can let you practice what you would theoretically say to employees and provide valuable feedback on management techniques that work better at higher plateau of business.

7) Crisis Management

When the chips are down, when you are backed into the corner, key decisions can save your business or push it close to its death. A mentor wants your business to thrive, so they are as much on the hook for its success as you the owner are. They will help find the path through the field of landmines, with ways to mitigate losses and keep the company going. A mentor seeks to save your company and rebuild it so it can reach new heights.