Business mentoring

[Wing Commander]

Hi

I am reasonably experienced within the sector I currently serve (run a Domestic Cleaning company), and I have been approached by someone who is basically 5 years behind me on the same learning curve I was on.

They contacted me out of the blue, asking for me to mentor them and have suggested that they would like to pay for this. The person and their business are the other side of the country so no conflict of interest in that sense.

I am happy to help, and have helped informally with other companies previously, but this is the first time it has been suggested to be a bit more formal.

Can anyone give light on the best way to approach this? I don't want it to turn into me being on the end of the phone 24/7 for each little question, but I do want to be as useful as possible. My initial thought is to suggest we set aside an hour (or another agreeable amount of time) each week, at the same day and time, and work through problems, review what was done the last week etc. And then just charge an hourly rate for this.

Does this sound sensible? Any obvious pitfalls to avoid?

Thanks

[foliedouce]

Your approach makes sense to me, I have mentored several businesses both unpaid (through Start Up Loans Scheme) and paid. On the paid side, I normally charge £1000-1500 a day (or part thereof) depending on how interesting the gig is and how much value I feel I can add.

I set up a kick off meeting to do a fact find and identify the key areas to be worked on, this is usually 1/2 - 1 day. Thereafter it depends on how much hand holding they need, I've done from 1/2 a day a week to 1 hour a week. The input required usually falls off over time.

I've always had the view that they can call whenever they want, but they may have to wait for a response if I'm not immediately available. Nobody has ever abused this, and I've never felt overrun, but it maybe trial and error to get it right depending on how needy your man is.

Good luck with it, it's very rewarding when you can help people succeed through direct ideas / input that you have made.

[StevieBee]

Used to do this as part of a Business Link (remember them?) initiative. Deal was for every paid mentoring assignment I had to provide one for free to a recent start-up. This was 'speciality specific' and mine was marketing and advertising.

Oddly, it was the free ones that I found more rewarding!

The only thing I'd say is to keep an eye on the amount of time, effort and emotion you apply. It is very easy to become a poorly paid or unpaid director of another person's company without you realising it.

[akirk]

StevieBee said:

The only thing I'd say is to keep an eye on the amount of time, effort and emotion you apply. It is very easy to become a poorly paid or unpaid director of another person's company without you realising it.

This - and more specifically - that you might be considered a shadow-director / person of influence in the business, and could therefore be seen as having some form of liability if things go wrong...

simplest way is to have an agreed approach (contract) and charge an hourly rate - make clear in writing the nature and limitations of what you will offer, and effectively get them to accept responsibility for any decisions they then make post your advice...

we often provide mentoring as a part of what we do - we make very clear that it is a self-defeating focus - i.e. the aim is to move them to a place where they don't need the mentoring, so we would expect the time required to taper off... very rewarding though