Mentors in the business of giving advice

Business mentors are the guardian angels of the economy, providing entrepreneurs with the insight and direction they sometimes need to stay in business or grow. Michael Herman reports.

Wednesday, March 9th 2005, 6:19AM

by The Landlord

We all know stories of technicians who leave to start a business after deciding there is more enjoyment and money in being self- employed, only to find a field of thorns rather than the highly anticipated bed of roses.

But as a growing cohort of sole traders and small businesses are discovering, walking across the field of thorns is not so bad if you are wearing jandals.

Business mentors are brought on board temporarily to help entrepreneurs jump over hurdles to growth or sustainability.

Established 14 years ago following the success of the original idea in Britain, Business in the Community (BITC) has helped around 38,000 Kiwi firms with less than 25 employees and over six months of commercial activity under their belt through a free mentoring service.

With most interventions requiring at least three to four two-hour sessions, the business experts who volunteer their time to BITC have collectively made a contribution value to the economy of more than $60 million, according to BITC chief executive Ray Schofield.

While the actual economic impact of the mentors is almost impossible to calculate because of the nature of confidentiality requirements, Schofield says 82% of the independent charity's consumers have indicated they would recommend the service to others.

Funded largely by the private sector – government funding represents about 25 per cent of all cash received – BITC is the only national mentoring organisation that is private sector funded, fully endorsed by government and free to qualifying businesses.

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