Business Advice

Mentoring For (Sm)all Business Growth

8/12/10

By Brian Chernett, Founder of The Academy for Chief Executives (ACE)

On November 15th, 2010 at the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced “a new 40,000-strong network of business mentors and called on more businesses to join up.”

According to the announcement, he “wants to see as many business people as possible sign up to mentor new and growing businesses. To make it easier for people to get the mentoring help they need, the Business Secretary outlined the Government’s plans for a new single network of mentoring providers. This network of experts will help start-ups, growing companies and businesses...

...seeking financial mentoring.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “The best people to advise new entrepreneurs and existing businesses are those who have already started and run successful companies. Mentoring is a very effective way of promoting start-ups, higher productivity and growth amongst established businesses, so I am delighted to announce this new network.

“I also want to encourage more businesses to sign up and offer their support and guidance. We need as many successful mentors as possible to guide the next generation of entrepreneurs and businesses.”

As the founder of a highly effective network of business groups where mentoring and coaching are amongst our key toolset, I understand the power of business mentoring and applaud the Government for taking this initiative. The Academy for Chief Executives has been offering business support for 15 years. Our toolset includes not just mentoring but coaching, advising, even, when the occasion requires it, instructing or helping business leaders and entrepreneurs.

The announcement doesn't detail how the service will be delivered. That will need to be developed. A good mentoring service of the sort that Vince Cable seems to be proposing needs people with experience of making start up and early stage businesses work. They will need to... continued on page two >

Rate

Bookmark

Advertisement

Advertisement