Why Help to Grow: Management offers a business mentor

For many small business leaders, the opportunity to work with a business mentor is a key motivation for joining the Help to Grow: Management Course. 

A business mentor is someone with years of experience that can act as both a sounding board and a guide, providing invaluable support for less experienced leaders and senior managers. That experience can come from a very different business sector and still prove crucial.  

This was the case for Brandon Shiels, Managing Director of Compassion First Home Care who was mentored by Hilary Fern who successfully founded and sold a financial services business. ‘It's very easy for me to feel quite secluded when it is just me and the laptop in a room. I’m second-guessing what I'm doing and my decisions to grow the business. To have the reassurance of a more experienced business person has been incredible.’ 

As a result of what he learned in the Help to Grow: Management Course and the counsel he received from Fern, Shiels was able to approach financial planning for his business in a new way: ‘It's very reassuring to have a clear financial forecast that shows the financial viability of the business. Having clear visibility of the return-on-investment and the break-even point gives me a lot of confidence in the decisions that I am making, and the recommendations that I give to the board. I wouldn't have reached this point without Help to Grow: Management and the mentoring I received.’ 

For individuals trying to understand how to scale their organisation, a business mentor can be invaluable. Brandon is a perfect example of this as the course gave him the confidence to lead and grow.  

To get a mentor’s perspective, Help to Grow: Management spoke to Rosemary French. French was awarded an OBE for services to women in business. She also actively mentors on the Help to Grow: Management Course offering insights from over 30 years of experience as a Managing Director. 

French claims that although startups are typically excited about a vision of the future, there are often cases of ‘ambition over sense.’ This is where a mentor can prove invaluable.  

The topics covered in a mentoring session should not be pre-ordained but agreed between you and your mentor. They might help you work through your very first business plan, how to launch a new product, how to structure your organisation ready for you to exit the business, your personal leadership style, or how to shape your mission, vision and values. It depends where you and your business are on your journey, what you need support with, and what is the priority to address first.  

Mentoring isn’t always about the mentee learning new ideas or concepts. As French says, business owners and decision-makers are just as likely to be looking for the opportunity to validate their ideas, or sense-check their direction.  

The Help to Grow: Management Course includes 10 hours of mentoring. How you use those 10 hours of mentoring is entirely up to you. 

You might want to focus on specific challenges that you are currently experiencing, or you may want to take a deeper dive into some of the modules on the course to understand to apply learning from the course content to your business. Mentors reported that the modules they assist with most commonly are helping business leaders implement a business plan and assisting in the creation of a business vision and mission. 

In short, almost all questions related to your business can be vocalised with your mentor. You will get most from your relationship with your mentor by being open and honest about your leadership or business challenges.  

As our alumni Shiels commented, having a plan that has been discussed with a business mentor can provide a way to better monitor finances, increase confidence, and ultimately a company’s profitability. This is a sentiment that is echoed by French.  

‘Business plans are absolutely key in business development and Help to Grow: Management is brilliant at giving SMEs the tools to grow. It really helps leaders understand why they're writing a business plan. 

‘They drive your business and can adapt. Without a business plan, you haven't got any structure and there's no security, no structure,’ says French.  

Creating a growth plan can be daunting, however, Help to Grow: Management and its mentors have helped thousands of businesses develop meaningful plans that help business leaders hold themselves accountable. 

If you are looking for a mentor, Help to Grow: Management is an option you should consider. Once you have enrolled for the course nearest to you, you will be given access to the Help to Grow: Management Mentoring Platform that enables you to find a mentor match. 

Once your mentorship has been confirmed, you will begin working through your ten hours of mentoring in a flexible manner that best suits you and your mentor.

You can find out more about Help to Grow: Management and the mentoring it offers here.