New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Question

I am a young man seeking an internship where I can be mentored by an experienced Christian entrepreneur.  What advice would you give me in terms of structuring the relationship and compensation?

Answer

The ideal mentoring situation should over time provide the opportunity to both "earn" and "learn", but the earning and learning are inversely proportional.  The more the intern is in "learn" mode, the less the intern should "earn" (and arguably, the intern should actually pay "tuition" for the education he is receiving from the mentor).  On the other hand, the more the intern is contributing to his mentor's business, the more the intern should be in the "earn" mode.  (see the diagram below)

Since you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you should avoid any environment where your find yourself in the low "learn" quadrant since you simply want to acquire the sufficient skills to be an entrepreneur and then move on to the next experience until you feel prepared to launch a business.  Potentially the same mentor can provide you a variety of experiences in the various disciplines of business, but all of that should take into account the fact that your ability to contribute and your earnings will change each time you change roles in order to continue learning as your contributions will fall and then rise over time with your learning and competency.  If you end up in the "mastery" quadrant of high earning and low learning, not only are you not accomplishing your entrepreneurial goals, but you will likely get bored and actually start to contribute less because your enthusiasm for your work has declined.  To avoid this situation, internships should be kept to a certain agreed-upon length of time.  (See a previous post answering a mentor's question about internships here.)

I would recommend that you consider each functional area of business and list out (perhaps on a five point scale) your current experience level, natural aptitude, and desired level of proficiency.  Here is a list to get you started:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Operations
• Finance
• Accounting
• Legal
• Human Resources
• Strategy
• Information Technology
• Service Management
• Business Communications

This will then help you prioritize the types of internships you seek.  Given all of that, though, since business development skills (sales and marketing) are absolutely critical for an entrepreneur to develop, I would recommend that you start your focus there if at all possible.

In order to get maximum the value of your internships, I would recommend that you focus on only developing skills that you will use over and over again and do not waste time trying to acquire skills that you will rarely use.  For example, as a high-tech inventor, don't try to learn enough about business law to do your own patent filing, simply learn enough to know how to manage legal resources and counselors and then seek the best advice possible that is relevant to the issue with which you are wrestling.