Loichinger Advantage

I was recently invited to join other business owners in an entrepreneurial mentoring process - MERLIN mentors.  The Madison Entrepreneur Resource, Learning and Innovation Network (MERLIN) is a Madison-based corp of volunteers who have masterfully started and managed new ventures. These mentors use their skills, experience and enthusiasm to guide emerging entrepreneurs in early stage ventures to boost the potential of business success.

Similar to my participation as a judge and mentor for the Governor’s Business Plan Contest, it’s my turn to ante up.  I was compelled to share and believe in the future of this initiative for a variety of reasons -

• This has been organized and launched by a group of very successful business entrepreneurs, not consultants or business advisors.
• MERLIN is following the lead of MIT and it’s highly successful mentoring initiative, instead of starting from scratch.
• Unlike some related initiatives, MERLIN mentors are still actively engaged in their businesses, offering timely and well-advised mentoring.
• Finally, unlike the one-to-one relationships I have seen work well, I like the team mentoring appoach that MERLIN will offer.

Please don’t misunderstand me, entrepreneurs who are starting and growing businesses in the state have a broad base of resources available to them:  Wisconsin Entrepreneurial Network, UW Small Business Development Centers, Wisconsin Angel Network, Department of Commerce Business Wizard as well as many other resources.

Bottom line, if i were starting or growing my business today, I would definitely apply for MERLIN mentors.  Regardless which entrepreneurial opportunity an entrepreneur reviews, each of them generates value and they should all be operating at full capacity.

• Business is too complex and dynamic for any one person or management team to keep up with the changes taking place.
• Business entrepreneurs need to identify and focus on the core competency of their organization (nanotechnology, technology enablers, medical imagining, business consulting) and surround themselves with other outside advisors or staff who have a different.
• Owners need to carve out a minimum of 5% of their time to step out of the business they run, to see how all facets are working together and how they can best position themselves for the future.
• We are all best served by finding transparency in business relationships where we can be truly open with someone else.  If we cannot speak to the issues that really concern us and deal with the brutal facts, our success is limited.

One sentiment was quickly shared among the sixty mentors willing to give of themselves for others - I wish this was around when I started the business!

Tags: core competency, Entrepreneurship, marketplace, mentoring, organizational growth, Strategy

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Entrepreneurship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.