Are you missing something?

By Fiona Boyd |

One of the best decisions that David and I have ever made was to find ourselves a mentor to help us refine our business approach and also to help turn our nascent Arts Hub business into something more substantial.

When it came to getting Arts Hub out of the blocks, David and I were pretty confident and competent, after all we had spent over a decade each in corporate environments and then several years leading numerous projects at our arts management consultancy. As far as a project went, we could break it down to its component bits, set targets, apply resources and deliver. However, once Arts Hub was up and away, we found we had no real experience in working together on the growth of a business.

Growing a business is a very different thing to managing a project. For a start, it’s an ongoing process and the timelines are much longer. With the projects we’d been managing, the longest went for no more than a year, and once the deliverables were met, we were finished and indeed had to cast around and find the next project for the business.

When you’re growing a business, you might run various stages as projects, but ultimately there’s no goodbyes, so it’s in your very best interests to make sure all your systems and processes are as tidy and clean as possible – and you can’t be sitting around thinking, well our end date is this, and at that time, we’ll be out of here. If it’s your business, then you’re not really out of there until you sell or close it down.

In the first year of Arts Hub, David and I found ourselves arguing about the most ridiculous, nit-picky small things. Which is the sort of thing you do as consultants, worrying the last little bit, getting the detail and the results absolutely spot on. But when you’re running a business, nit-picking and arguing about small stuff can really hold you back and is extremely divisive when there are two of more of you sitting in the leadership seats.

Without a mentor, your entepreneurial journey can appear never-ending.

So mid 2001, as we neared Arts Hub’s first birthday anniversary, David and I decided we needed someone to come along on the journey with us, someone who had plenty of life and business experience and who would want to guide us as to what to put our energies towards and what to let pass us by. Basically we were tired of trying to snap up every opportunity that came our way and wanted some knowhow and insight into what we were really about and what that meant and how it could help us stick to the knitting of the Arts Hub business as it grew.

We commenced a search for a Chairman. Now, not having recruited a Chairman before and being incredibly clear amidst the wreckage of the dot-bomb landscape at that time, we understood before we started that finding someone who would agree to Chair the board of a small online company would be difficult. And we were not wrong. Admittedly we just started where we started and wrote letters to various people whose public style David and I agreed that we liked. Most didn’t respond, though we still have on file several letters from notable Australians who passed on the opportunity but wished us well anyway. But at the time, we noted that our dream Chairman would be the then Chair of the Australia Council, Dr Terry Cutler.

How did we know this? Well, David and I would read the speeches he gave at arts events, conferences, launches across the country (usually published in The Age or on the Australia Council website) and by his writing and communicating style, and also by the shape and depth of the ideas and concepts expressed, we just knew we wanted this deep thinker and achiever as Chairman of our company. However, there was an obstacle, while Dr Cutler was at the Australia Council it was unlikely he could have a role with us – that would constitute a conflict of interest between the commercial world (Arts Hub) and the world of subsidised art and would not be a good look.

So for another year David and I continued our quest to recruit a Chairman, writing intermittent letters to those who came onto our radar as possible or likely leaders for us. And as good fortune would have it, Dr Cutler moved on from his role at the Australia Council and we had our chance to pitch to him.

The long and short of it is that for several years, Dr Cutler has been David and my mentor for business, but also at times for life in general. And to give you an idea of what skill level might be required to fulfill this task, have a think about what it would be like to brainstorm with two hotheads, one a purist technologist, the other a purist communications theorist – and to come to meaningful conclusions that all are comfortable with on a regular and ongoing basis. I’m pretty sure Dr Cutler during the fastest moving times of the Arts Hub rollercoaster, found us at times overwhelming but it was clear that he also found the experience energizing, and his commitment fuelled us towards greater unity as a team, and towards making better and more refined business decisions.

Without Dr Cutler I know I would not be where I am today with so many options available to me and the luxury of being able to decide what I will and will not be involved with. Without Dr Cutler’s guidance I wouldn’t have uncovered for myself that what really interests me is content and content businesses and the arts – and that most other avenues of business do not hold excitement for me – though I have been known to go a bit nutty over funky streetwear products from time-to-time. That said, I can see a time when I sit on boards and share a ‘content-focussed’ view of the world with a group of people with very different outlooks.

Having a mentor has made the world of difference for both David and I and I often describe finding Dr Cutler as the missing link in our partnership. There’s a limit to which any team can self-organise without a leader, and it is at that point you need to refer and listen to someone with more experience and who is invested in helping you get to where you want to in the most elegant way possible.

I’ve met several entrepreneurs recently who have all the hallmarks of the entrepreneurial mindset that David and I had when we set out on our search for a Chairman – working excessively hard, super long hours, doing all aspects of the business, gaining a level of recognition and success but not enough to recompense the extreme effort to achieve it; feeling like they’re gaining ground but not quickly enough. If this sounds like you, then stop and think for a minute. Is there a better way? Could you grow your venture faster and better if you had a mentor to talk to, to help you let go of activities that aren’t a good use of your time, to introduce you to potential investors and partners for your product or service, to help you widen your mindset yet still keep to the company’s original entrepreneurial vision?

If your answer is a firm ‘yes’ then the time is right for you to find your own mentor and to refresh your view of your business and to light a stick of dynamite under its growth. Scratch the surface and most guru entrepreneurs and outstanding individuals have or have had a mentor. How many of you knew that Richard Branson was mentored by Freddie Laker or that David Beckham is mentored by Bobby Charlton, or even that Alexander the Great had Aristotle as a mentor?

The entrepreneurial journey is not one you must do on your own. If you feel there’s a link missing in your business, then it’s time to find yourself a mentor.

Photo: flickr Chiara Marra

Fiona Boyd and David Eedle explain in more detail their mentoring relationship with innovation expert Dr Terry Cutler in their book about the startup, growth and sale of the Arts Hub business – Niche Content Millionaire.

Niche Content Millionaire is a downloadable eBook that tells you the true story how we made millions from subscription content and membership websites.

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