Professionals should never underestimate the importance of mentorship. It is a powerful tool in any professional field. Building your career requires plenty of hard work and independent thinking, but turning to a mentor for guidance can also play a vital role. You can easily see the value of mentorship in the credit field, as making the right decisions can profoundly impact the health of an entire company or organization. Ask any great credit managers where they learned their trade, and they will tell you stories about the great credit managers they shadowed. 

The Importance of Mentorship: A Popular Approach

Let’s turn to some statistics to highlight the popularity and value offered by mentorship. A National Mentoring website provides the following stats –

• Among those who use a mentor, an impressive 97% consider that mentor to be valuable.
• Businesses that use mentoring last at least five years in 70% of cases. On the other hand, companies that don’t engage with mentoring see a survival rate of only 35%.
• With an eye for their bottom line, 55% of businesses believe their profits increased thanks to mentoring.

 The role that mentoring can play within a specific organization or department will vary. Still, the results speak for themselves – mentoring works and is worthy of your time and attention. Also, if you have an experience to share, setting some professional mentorship goals can help focus your efforts on sharing what you have learned with a whole new generation of professionals in the home furnishings credit field.  

Meeting the Needs of Credit Professionals

The advantages offered by mentoring amplify in a challenging field like credit management. The specific demands placed on those in this industry, receiving advice, and guidance from someone more experienced, are invaluable. When you think about what makes a great credit manager, experience is always something that moves to the top of the list. Of course, you must spend time on the job to get experience, but it’s possible to accelerate your credit education by working with a mentor who has seen it all before. For the young credit professional, regularly working with a knowledgeable mentor could be a career-changing experience.

Filling the Niche

At the Furniture Manufacturers Credit Association, we love to facilitate mentorship between our members. Not only do members have access to other credit professionals with wisdom to share, but those mentors have experience in this narrow market niche. Managing credit for a home furnishings and accessories supplier is a task that differs significantly from credit management in other types of organizations. By joining the FMCA and tapping into what this focused community offers, members can maximize mentorship’s impact on their credit career goals.

A Welcoming Community

To gain access to a friendly, experienced community of credit professionals in the home furnishings and accessories industry, join the Furniture Manufacturers Credit Association (FMCA) right away. In addition to building meaningful relationships with others in this business, you’ll also gain access to tools like collections services and credit reporting. For more information, contact us, and we’ll be happy to help. We look forward to serving you!