All successful entrepreneurs will tell you that the road to building a thriving company is rarely a straight line. There are always challenges, obstacles, and periods of self-doubt that must be overcome along the way. However, according to entrepreneur Adam Zahr, finding the right mentors can help accelerate your progress and allow you to scale your business in a more efficient manner.
Adam is the founder of Zahr Management, a consulting firm that provides strategic guidance to growing companies. Through starting and scaling multiple ventures of his own, he has gained invaluable experience in leadership, operations, and navigating the natural ups and downs that come with entrepreneurship.
Recently, Adam broke down three key strategies he has employed to effectively scale his businesses in an accelerated fashion: recruiting top talent, maintaining financial literacy, and enlisting mentorship.
1. Recruit the Top Talent
Adam’s first piece of advice centered around the caliber of team you build. He emphasizes spending “all of your time and energy on recruiting absolute A-players.” Don’t waste even a second looking for low-skilled candidates who will be a drain on resources. Instead, seek out top talent – individuals who are self-motivated and capable of taking work off your plate without constant oversight.
This allows an entrepreneur to maximize their most precious asset: time. Rather than micromanaging under-qualified hires, you can delegate impactful work to professionals and let your superstars shine. It also ensures higher quality output across the board. As Adam states, the goal is to hire people who “will take all of the time off your hands and not need the instructions you think they will need.” Only recruit top talent if you want to scale efficiently.
2. Understand Your Finances
The second piece of advice focuses on money management – specifically becoming financially literate. Too many founders lose control of their companies by relying solely on accountants and bookkeepers to grasp the financial health of the business. But as Adam points out, if you are not engrossed in understanding profit and loss statements, cash flow, and balance sheets, then “you are not even in control of your own company.”
Being fluent in the numbers allows an entrepreneur to make truly calculated strategic decisions based on real data, not best guesses. They can see exactly where dollars are coming from and going at any time. Adam recommends business owners become deeply familiar with key financial reports so they know “what your business is doing night and day.” This financial transparency enables more rapid scaling by eliminating guesswork from important operational calls.
3. Leverage Your Mentor Network
Finally, Adam stresses the importance of cultivating mentor relationships throughout your entrepreneurial journey. Having an “on-call” advisory board you can reach out to for timely guidance makes a massive difference when tackling obstacles. Experienced mentors have “been there and done what it is that you’re striving to achieve,” providing priceless perspective accumulated from their own successes and failures.
Rather than figuring everything out alone through trial and error over longer periods of time, tapping into your network means accessing answers “in a much quicker way.” It cuts down the learning curve immensely. While relationships take time to build, Adam claims the investment eventually saves entrepreneurs from wasted dollars and, crucially, months of their irreplaceable time. With expert support, your “road to success is a lot shorter than anticipated.”
Practical Steps Towards Accelerated Growth
Putting the three tips of recruiting top talent, embracing financial literacy, and leveraging mentors into action can help any entrepreneur overcome self-doubt and accelerate meaningful scaling of their business.
Some practical next steps towards implementing these strategies include:
- Audit your current hiring criteria and job postings to attract only proven stars
- Schedule recurring financial training sessions to ensure continuous learning
- Meet with your accounts team at a minimum monthly to review reports line-by-line
- Create a grid of potential mentors in your network and schedule initial calls
- Build your advisory board through introductions from existing mentors
- Formally enroll in an entrepreneur mentorship program
- Carve out time weekly for mentor questions and ongoing guidance
While the path is rarely linear, committed application of proven success principles shared by experienced founders makes navigating inevitable challenges much smoother. With the right team, financial clarity, and mentorship, entrepreneurs can take their ventures to accelerated heights of growth and profitability. Staying teachable, hungry to improve, and willing to leverage outside wisdom are traits of all great business leaders.
Learn more about and connect with Adam Zahr by visiting his Instagram.
