“A mentor empowers a person to see a possible future, and believe it can be obtained.” – Shawn Hitchcock

It’s hard to believe how far I’ve come with the help of my mentor, Sharon. I believe that this progress is linked to the relationship we have built together, which thrives from her patience, kindness, and belief in me. Because she has tailored her lessons to fit my needs and propel me in the direction I want to go, I have found our mentorship sessions to be productive, inspiring, and an event to look forward to. We also frequently contact one another online to resolve minor conflicts or challenges that I may face, and I greatly appreciate her support in helping me grow. 

With Sharon’s guidance, I have considered steps I can take to improve the experience I provide for my customers. First of all, she reminds me to always keep my ideal customer in mind, which allows me to target my audience and focus my attention. In order to do this, Sharon has provided me with a list of questions that will assist me in learning more about the people I wish to share my products with. By defining their passions, aesthetic preferences, and habits, I can customize each element of my project, which includes the advertising, packaging, and overall design of my shop. This also helped me resolve the issue of shipping I was concerned about, as I knew that my audience was people who would rather support a small business owner than a shipping company. As a result, after a discussion with my mentor, I decided to include some of the shipping cost in the price of the product. Moreover, Sharon encourages me to design and create new products that will add to someone’s life. This is because the action of constantly updating my products maintains a general feeling of freshness and ensures interest in my business. While doing this, she reminds me to consider shipping costs in order to avoid the issues I encountered with my previous product. As a result, I am now focusing on creating handmade keychains, earrings, and hairclips, which will be much easier to distribute. Most importantly, Sharon assists me in keeping communication errors to a minimum by constructively criticizing the descriptions of my product and the images I have posted. For example, it is crucial to specify the items included in the product if descriptive images contain other objects for aesthetic or comparative purposes. Keeping confusion to a minimum increases effective and engaging interactions with potential customers.

This is not to say that I have not experienced any learning challenges on the way. One of the major disadvantages of selling online is the unreliable nature of technology, and I have encountered difficulties and delays in updating or posting my listings. This can be very frustrating, as it obstructs me from improving my shop to attract new customers. Furthermore, my progress has been impeded by the lack of customers I have received. To combat this, I am not only continuing my advertising on Instagram, but also expanding to share on other popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit communities. According to Sharon, it is also important to post often on social media to engage with your audience, so I will work on increasing the frequency of my activity on these platforms.

In order to improve the quality of future mentoring interactions, I have defined some strategies I could incorporate into our meetings, which are founded in essential components in any relationship, including clear communication, organization, and goal-setting for continuous improvement. For instance, Sharon and I could establish a general framework for the meeting before we begin our discussion. This will aid us in increasing productivity by considering the amount of time we have allocated to spend. It will also enable us to be more prepared, as we can take time before the meeting to perform preliminary research on the topics we will discuss. In addition, we can strive to be more direct in setting goals for the next time we meet, resulting in a clearer vision of the future while promoting self-improvement and preventing us from falling behind. Lastly, I believe that it is important to establish the date of the next meeting at the end of the previous meeting. This simple act of proactiveness improves the tone of meetings by reducing confusion and inefficiency, creating a more calm, orderly, and productive atmosphere.

I look forward to seeing what the future will bring for me, my relationship with my mentor, and my aspirations for my business.