Business is all about building relationships with people. If people start thinking that they can do it alone, then they are on a slippery wicket. It will not take time for them to drown. You need people to guide you, help you, and work with you.

You also need people to invest in your business. Finally, you need some healthy competition as well in order to succeed. This explains how to find mentors, investors, and friendly business owners.

Each of these relationships is important. We shall see the importance of connecting with mentors, investors, and other business owners through the course of this blog. Let us acquaint ourselves with the roles of these sections of people and acknowledge their contribution in the success of a start-up enterprise.

Mentors:

A start-up enterprise needs someone to look up to for inspiration. We would like to draw your attention to this anonymous quote. “We all need someone who inspires us to do better than we know how.” This quote summarizes the role of a mentor in one single sentence.

Who qualifies as a mentor? A mentor is someone who has genuine interest in your growth and success. He or she has seen it all in their lives and would like to guide you through your journey in this business world. They see the spark in you and help you achieve your goal. These are the people who instill the hope and conviction in you thereby enabling you to climb the ladder of success. Hence, mentorship has an emotional attachment to it as well.

Therefore, acknowledging their contribution towards your success is very important. This is because knowingly or unknowingly, you have depended and benefited from their guidance. Hence, it is imperative that you remain in constant touch with them. The beauty of this relationship is that it allows you have an emotional bonding with them. Therefore, it pays to share their happiness as well as sorrows.

Mentorship is a mutual relationship. Just as they have a selfless motive in wanting you to succeed, you too have the responsibility of maintaining healthy relations with them. They are the people who you can turn to in your hour of need. This relationship gets cemented further if you are able to help them in their difficulties as well. Therefore, the key to this relationship is in maintaining the emotional quotient. This is more of a psychological relationship than a business oriented one.

Relationship with investors:

Capital or Investment is the most significant factor for the growth of the business. Investors provide this sort of financial assistance. Therefore, it makes business sense to reach out to these investors and create conducive conditions for them to invest in your business. This is a purely business oriented relationship as compared to the emotional one you enjoyed with your mentors.

This is also a mutual relationship of a different kind. Just as you need them to fuel your growth, they also need you to help them park their funds and make a profit in the bargain. The question of everyone’s mind would be, “Is it easy to seek investment from such people?” One has to agree that it is a tough task. It would be great on your part if you exhibit the following traits.

• Patience: This is the biggest virtue of all. Remember that it is practically impossible to strike the right kind of deal immediately. However, one should exercise restraint. Displaying a sense of patience is very important while seeking investment. They are the people who are going to invest in your business. Being impatient is akin to digging your grave.

• Follow up on investors: Your business is not the only thing on your investor’s radar. He or She has other important things to do as well. Hence, it is your duty to follow up with them in the right manner and at the right time.

• Conviction: You should have the conviction to succeed in business. If you have the conviction, they have the money power to help you realize your goals. Therefore, you should be able to arouse an eager want in them to invest in your business. This is a good way of connecting with them.

• Catch up with them: Maintaining constant interaction with your investors over different channels of communication is very important. It could be at an official, personal, as well as at a social level. Invite them to partake in your celebrations when you succeed. This is one beautiful way of acknowledging their contribution towards your success.

• Keep them in the loop: The investors have a right to know what is happening with their money. You should keep them informed about the utilization of their investment in the right manner. They have the right to ask questions. It is your duty to answer them to the best of their satisfaction.

Maintain healthy competition with friendly business owners:

Unless you have competition in any field, it is very difficult to grow. You will start to stagnate after reaching a certain level. Maintaining steady relationships with your peers is very important. These business owners can provide you the requisite competition for your mutual survival.

How do you remain connected with your peers? There are various ways of doing so at every level.

• On the business front: One should ensure that the competition should be healthy. The business conferences and meetings should be the right place to cement your relationships. The more you evince an interest in their methods of doing business, the better it is for your growth. At times, you might have to work together to achieve a common goal. One should follow the maxim, “United we stand, Divided we fall.”

• On the social front: The social media is a fantastic interaction platform where you can maintain excellent relationships with other friendly business owners. You have the channels like ‘LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.’ that enable you to strike the right chord. Social media marketing is one of the strongest tools in business today. Using it to your maximum advantage is advisable.

• On the personal front: You must have heard these words while you were in school. “Birds of the same feather flock together.” This statement is absolutely true as far as maintaining friendly relations with your peer business owners are concerned. Invite them to your parties and celebrations and make it a point to attend theirs too. You stand a great chance of finding new contacts at such gatherings.

Concluding Words:

We have just seen the different ways of connecting with three different classes of people, the mentors, investors, and other friendly business owners. It does not cause you any harm to walk the extra mile to cement a beautiful relationship. Maintaining successful relationships with such people can help you in your business and allow you to achieve your objectives.

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