Page 9 - BusinessWest May 16, 2022

realizing their vision and their dream, and they’re learning about themselves and gaining the tools they need to be resilient.”
Elaborating, she said that entrepreneurship can be as isolating as it is challenging, and, as Schmidt said, these business owners need to know that they’re not alone. And beyond that, they need to understand that what they’re expe- riencing — the fears, the self-doubts, the seem- ingly endless hits to their self-confidence, are not unique.
with startups, mom-and-pop businesses, and some looking to get to the next level, and, because of his background, he’s often asked for advice on creating a website.
But his broad advice to entrepreneurs comes in many flavors, including that aforementioned counsel on failure, why it should be expected, why it’s normal, and, most importantly, why it shouldn’t bring an end to one’s dreams of owning their own business.
Overall, he said he advises those he men- tors to work smart — and not just
ers are and what need is being met by their prod- uct or service.
“I try to force them to think about what it
is the customer really wants,” said Schmidt. “Because often, a businessperson will want to do something that they want to do, and it might not be what the customer wants; if you have a busi- ness, it’s all about the customer, it’s not about you.”
Miguel Rivera, co-owner, with his wife, of Rewarding Insurance Agency in Holyoke, and another mentor in the EparaTodos program, concurred.
“Many people don’t have a target market,” he explained. “You ask them who their target mar- ket is, and they say ‘everyone.’ Then I try to teach them that their clients are not ‘everyone’; they must identify who their target market is so they can do the right marketing.”
When asked what they enjoy about mentor- ing, all those we spoke with said there are many kinds of rewards.
One obvious one is the satisfaction that comes from helping someone or some group take an idea and turn it into something successful.
BELLAMY SCHMIDT
“I force them to realize that they’re not alone, that they can rely on their mentors to help them. That creates a sense of comfort; it’s not me against the world — I’ve
got people who have my back.”
hard, although that is critically important as well.
“There’s a combination of working hard and working smart that has to happen,” he explained. “You can’t just work hard, you have to be smart, too. And ‘smart’ just means paying attention to what’s going on around you.
“We tend to have tunnel vision on what we’re trying to do — whatever that may be,” he went on. “If it’s a product, you may have tunnel vision on the product itself,
“They need to understand that they’re not the only ones struggling with this,” she went on. “And that’s why I say that I normalize their experience.”
Rewards Program
Over the past decade or so, Cole has been a mentor for several of the agencies that are now part of the region’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, including VVM, EforAll, SCORE, the Small Busi- ness Administration, and others. He’s worked
when you have to think about things like how are you going to go to market with that product, or organize the business itself — how many people need to be hired, how much is it going to cost? There’s a difference between having a product idea and a business, and the difference is that most people have ideas that are expensive hob- bies when it’s all said and done — it’s not really a business.”
Schmidt agreed, and said he stresses the importance of understanding who one’s custom-
“The first day I went to work after college, my new boss said to me something along the lines of ... ‘the most important thing I get out of my job is a sense of accomplishment from helping move young people along in their careers and watching them grow,’” Schmidt recalled. “As naive as I was, I thought that was kind of a ridiculous answer. But as I matured, I realized how right he was; there’s a tremendous sense of accomplishment when
you see
someone
Mentors
Continued on page 40
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