Mentoring for Social Entrepreneurs

I'm giving away a limited number of mentoring sessions for social entrepreneurs.

Every social entrepreneur needs mentoring from time to time, right? Yes, I mentor social entrepreneurs, but I also seek out mentors for my personal, business, and leadership growth. That’s why I’m giving away a limited number of one-on-one mentoring sessions. Click here if you want to register.

Mentoring is one of the fastest ways I know to get results. It accelerates your personal and business growth so that you can get results faster. Mentoring synthesizes the lessons learned by others, condensing knowledge into useful insights. When done right, mentoring provides a structure that you can follow. And, mentoring gives you a systematic process that you can use now and over time for consistent results.

For social entrepreneurs, it can be particularly tricky to pick the right mentor, one that understands your unique needs. Mentoring social entrepreneurs can focus on four areas: Personal Growth, Social Impact, Business Growth, and Leadership. It takes all four elements to succeed as a social entrepreneur.

In my one-on-one mentoring calls, I let you pick your area of focus. Not everyone needs support in every area. So, we’ll focus on the areas that will make the biggest impact.

Mentoring Social Entrepreneurs for Personal Growth

Social entrepreneurship starts with a social entrepreneur. The best leaders know themselves the best. And personal growth starts with self-awareness. I have several tools to help you to become more self-aware. True confession, I have struggled with this one myself, so I have a lot of practice at getting better at this. Personal growth might also include self-management, our ability to manage our emotions and behaviors; social awareness, our impact on others; and relationship management, the foundation of success in any initiative. Personal growth might also include learning new skills or gaining new confidence.

Mentoring Social Entrepreneurs for Impact

Just as any business has to niche the market, social entrepreneurs must niche their impact. While the UN Sustainable Development Goals are a great framework for thinking about development, not many social enterprises can “wipe out global poverty.” A lack of focus on specific, achievable impact goals can dilute your effectiveness. Sometimes social entrepreneurs need mentoring to help them focus on one specific impact area and plan how to get there.

Mentoring Social Entrepreneurs for Business Growth

Here’s the thing social entrepreneurs don’t often say out loud to others: If I’m worried about money, I can’t focus on my mission. I know we don’t always like talking about money, but the honest truth is, we need the dollars to make a difference. A social business is, in the end, a business. Businesses survive and thrive from sustainable, profitable growth. Social businesses have a social impact only when we sustain the business, create profit and grow.

Obviously, there are nonprofits that are doing well and doing good. And yet, they must grow a sustainable source of funding to create an impact. So, in a sense, money and mission are never totally detached.

Mentoring Social Entrepreneurs for Leadership

If you hope to scale your impact, and therefore your business, at some point you have to multiply your efforts by leading others. Communicating, coaching, creating a culture, and other key skills begin to take priority over your technical know-how. You must learn how to attract, recruit, grow, manage, motivate, and lead others. I often see this as a bottleneck to growth for startups, moving from a team of cofounders to a team of teams.

Ready, Go

If you want to register for one of the complimentary one-on-one mentoring spots, you can register here: https://cultureshift.com/strategy/.

I look forward to hearing your story and helping you to succeed.