How we decide the custom plan for your mentoring program
Working together with a business mentor to set your business up for long-term success by making it sustainable and more profitable is a big step. It is not only very exciting but probably also a bit scary because of the monetary investment.
And if you are anything like me, there is a lot of research that goes into committing to a project like this. From figuring out what you need, researching the costs, figuring out who would be the best mentor, then postponing to think it over a bit more and then finally taking the jump with the right mentor.
But every business mentor will have their own process, packages and experience that they will bring to the table. So not all of them will be the right fit for you.
So, today I wanted to share more about the mentor program that I offer and how we come up with a personalised plan for your mentoring program as every program is tailor-made.
If you want more information about what is included and who the mentor program is for, you can scroll to the bottom of this article or find more information here.
Step 1: Book a Consultation call
The first step is to book a consultation call for the Mentor Program. In this call, we talk about your business, what you offer, what your goals are, your struggles and what you want to get out of the Mentor Program. We will also discuss the program and the time investment for you just to make sure that the expectations from both sides are clear.
Why the call?
This service requires a significant investment from you, the business owner. It's not only the monetary investment but also the weekly time investment with the sessions but also with the required homework in between the sessions. I want to make sure, my mentoring program is the right service for you.
When we both agree we want to move forward with the mentor program there are first a couple of formalities like a contract and the invoice but after that, the fun will begin.
Step 2: The strategy call
Because each mentoring program is custom made we first need to have a clear understanding of where your business is right now. Therefore the first session is a 3-hour strategy call. Topics for this call include;
+ Your big vision for the business: We want to know what your big dreams are and what is at the heart of your business. Where do you want to be three months from now? Where in 3 years from now?
+ Your business model & product suite: Here we dive into the services you offer, the pricing and the profitability of your business.
+ Productivity: We want to understand how you’re spending your time, what your client experience looks like and how you are using your project Management and Client Management Systems
+ Ideal Clients: Here we’re looking at who you are working with and are going to identify who your ideal clients are and how to reach them
Step 3: Action plan
The next step is to create the plan for the mentoring program based on what we talked about in the strategy call. There are 2 weeks in between the strategy session and the second session where I will work on a concept plan for the program.
During this call, we will go through the suggested plan and make adjustments where necessary and agree on a plan for the coming 9 sessions. With this plan, it is clear what topics we are going to work on each session and in which order we’ll do this.
However, this does not mean this is set in stone. I think it’s very important to still have flexibility in the program in case something comes up that has priority or if we need to spend more than 1 session on a particular topic.
So what could a program look like?
Let’s have a look at an example.
The goals: Learn where to focus time and efforts, streamline client process, increase pricing, work less
Something that I hear often from my clients is that they are working a lot more hours than they want. So instead of stopping with work at 4/5/6 PM, they grab their laptop after diner and work on weekends just to finish their client work. So their ultimate goal is to work fewer hours without compromising the revenue that they are making.
To make this happen I would advise looking at your profitability, optimising where you spend your time and a monthly review process to adjust course when needed, in combination with optimising your client process, workflows and updating your Project & Client Management systems.
When turning this into a mentor program, this is what it would look like:
FOCUS 1 // FOCUS TIME AND EFFORTS
+ Your big vision for the business: We want to know what your big dreams are for your business. Where do you want to be three months from now? Where in 3 years from now?
+ Productivity: We want to review how you’re spending your time. From there we’ll look at what tasks can be eliminated, what can be automated and where you need to spend less time because there is not enough return on your time investment.
+ We’ll look at what your ideal week looks like and what the best way is to spend your time to reach your goals.
+ Create a monthly check-in process so that you learn how to evaluate what to focus on next and evaluate what is working and isn’t so that you’re able to adjust the course.
+ Project Management system: Set up or work on improving your PMS & create workflows for repeating tasks to save time.
FOCUS 2 // STREAMLINE CLIENT PROCESS
+ Evaluate current client process: Gain an understanding of what your process looks like now including emails, contracts, proposals and invoicing.
+ Update client process: Update workflows to cover each step of the client process from inquiry to asking for feedback
+ Client Management system: Set up or work on improving your client management system so that you can give the best client experience possible but can save time doing it
+ Templates: Create templates (emails, client questionnaires, how to give feedback instructions) to improve the client process
FOCUS 3 // PRICING & PROFITABILITY
+ Business model & product suite: We’ll dive into the services you offer now and how to create a product suite that will set you up for the future.
+ Profitability: Here we’ll review the pricing and the profitability of your business and make sure you’re not just getting paid for the hours it takes to complete a project.
Step 4: The weekly sessions
Based on the action plan, you’ll know upfront what we’ll be working on each week. But we start each call with a quick check-in on things are going, if you’re getting closer to your goals and if the topics that we had planned to discuss are still the most important ones.
Then we’ll continue with going through the ‘homework’ from the past week and then we’ll discuss the topic that was planned for this week.
What this looks like depends on the topic:
It can be that you had to execute something that we talked about in the previous session. For example; a workflow in your project management system. Then I’ll make sure I had a look at it before our session to see if it was done correctly and you can ask questions if you ran into something while setting it up. If everything is clear, we’ll continue with the planned topic for that week.
Or you had to research or collect information about something we need as a base for the next session. For example; you had to track your time in between sessions so that we can determine where you can automate, delegate or eliminate. We’ll take the data you collected and work through it in the session to label each task and discuss the next steps to take (which will then be the homework for the next time)
So now you know what the process is of deciding the topics for your mentor program. Here's a quick reminder of what is included and who it is for.
What you'll walk away with:
+ 360-degree business review that looks at your goals, your business model and product suite, the pricing of your services and the profitability of your business, how you’re spending your time, what your client experience looks like and how you are using your project Management and Client Management Systems.
+ Custom plan based on the review that gives you a clear framework to reach your goals
+ Recordings of our 1x 3-hour strategy call and 10 x 60-minute implementation sessions so that you can revisit anytime
+ Assignments for in between the calls so that you see progress straight-away
+ Email support in between the weekly calls to ask questions or feedback to keep you moving forward
The Mentoring Program is for you if:
+ You love working with your clients. And there is nothing more important for you than making your clients happy. But as a result, you’re also working evenings and weekends and every project is making you feel a bit more burned out.
+ You know you’re undercharging because you lack confidence in yourself. So while you’re always busy, your financial goals seem further away than ever and you’re not making the profit you need to sustain your business.
+ You know that you need more structure, better systems and updated workflows. But your clients take up all your time so you need a plan to optimise and streamline without sacrificing your revenue.
+ You have taken general courses and have been part of memberships and group programs. You've got a lot out of it, but now you're stuck because these general strategies don’t work for your design business.
+ You're at a stage where you don’t need more information, you need a second pair of eyes on your business, a clear and actionable plan and support with the implementation.
+ You have the time to implement. In between the calls, there is 'homework'. This means that you will need to implement the topic that is discussed in the call. The program is built in such a way that everything builds on top of each other. So if the implementation is not done, the program can not continue. This part is crucial to me as I don't just want to share my knowledge and experience with you. But I want you to start seeing progress while working together and for you to be able to ask questions after you tried implementing. So there needs to be time to implement. How much time it takes depends on the topic but ranges from 30 minutes to 2 to 3 hours per week.
The Mentoring Program is not for you:
+ If you're expecting the Mentoring Program to be a magic solution for all your struggles. The program will be the first step of your journey to fast-track your results but you won't reach all your goals in 3-months. After the program, you will need to keep putting in the work, evaluate what is and isn't working and adjust your strategy to keep moving forward but in the program, I will give you the tools to do this.
+ If you're just starting out and don't have a website, have not worked with clients before or have an unclear vision for your business. The Mentoring Program works best if you have been in business for a while, have a steady stream of clients but just not enough time to work on your business as we’ll work based on what is already there.
Does it sound like this mentoring program can really help you to transform your business to be more sustainable and profitable? If so, apply for your mentor program by clicking the below button*
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