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Where can I find a mentor to help me take my business to the next level ?

I have a C corporation in the beginning stages of development in Washington state. We are a licensed tier2 Marijuana producer and have made our first sales. What we need is capital to compete and to modernize our equipment and to purchase the land where we currently hold our operation. We are looking for 600,000.00 to 1.4 million. Where do I find a business partner that can deliver, be my mentor and take this company to the next level?. Everybody talks a good game, but very few can deliver, or the terms are very harsh with the only person that makes money being the…

Filed under: Business Development: angel investing, Mentorship

3 answers • 10 years ago

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Mark Rogers, Entrepreneur. Angel investor. answered:

I have had a lot of experience of being mentored and mentoring. I think you should separate the search for a mentor from the search for an investor. A mentor should be a disinterested guide to life and business. An investor is going to look at you and your business as a way of buying a retirement condo! They want different things. A mentor wants to feel valued, to feel that they are helping to build something of value, to feel appreciated. You find such a person by looking for people whose expertise you think is useful (in Meetups, or conferences, or via LinkedIn) and politely approaching them to ask their advice. You will need to talk to a lot of people this way. Once you find someone with whom you "click" then you can see if the relationship develops from there. Investors are a whole different ball game. They want to see evidence of competence, capital, talent, cashflow forecasts. They don't want to hear that you are struggling, that you have dilemmas, that you need advice. Don't mix the two! Feel free to ask me more :-)

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Peter Donlevy, Team builder & transformational leader world-wide answered:

Let me start by saying that I agree with Mark. You must separate the search for investor(s) and a mentor. The terms have been harsh because you are currently asking the investor to take all the risk while you come along for the ride. The way your describe it the investor must put their capital at risk then (mentor, i.e. tell you how to run the business) while you provide presumed sweat equity.

My second observation is that you say you have sales. What are your current profit margins? What is the competitive landscape? Other marijuana sellers in your area? Do you have a differentiator? You should be growing and selling as fast as you can with the resources you have and putting every dollar into a down payment on the land. When the down payment is above 20% you should be able to find at least a hard money lender.

If you can't grow doing the above. I recommend that you keep your lic. and withdraw until you can draw up a business plan and have it vetted by several potential mentors. Then finalize the plan and march forward.

Alternatively sell the license.

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Cauvee [call-vay], Here to help you scale! answered:

First things first I'd say to get very clear are you looking for a "business partner" or are you looking for a "mentor." Two different things.

If in the US there's non-profits, incubators, Etc. to find mentors.

www.score.org is a free service for US citizens and I would start there.

Keep in mind that your product is marijuana so I would request a mentor in the states it's been legalized. I would look into the community for marijuana and see what business networks exist for the product. Hope this helps.

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