Mentoring

One of the challenges our members face is in accessing supportive, affordable expertise and advice about aspects of green enterprise.

Most of our members are happy to share their expertise and help other members with their green enterprise ideas. Much of this happens informally and for free at Green Enterprise meetings and in the pub afterwards, but at times someone is looking for more than this.

In order to help members mentor each other, here is a suggested protocol for members to use.

Green Enterprise Mentoring protocol

If you want help:

Pick your mentor either by talking to them at a meeting, or from the list of Green Enterprise Members. The information in their member’s profile will let you decide who to approach. Using the "search" box for likely key words may (or may not) be helpful

Agree the topic on which you want help, their fee rate and how much time you want. I suggest starting by booking 1 hour (ie allowing 15-30mins preparation, 30-45 mins mentoring).

The choice of fee rate is up to the mentor, but as guidance, I suggest setting a members' rate somewhere in the range £30/hour-£100/hour. You may of course be willing to do a trade, if your mentee can help you in some way.  If you’ve not done much mentoring before, I suggest setting your rate at the lower end of the range.

Preparation for the session:

Email your mentor with a description of the issue on which you want help, and the relevant background info. This should not be more than a couple of sides of A4. The Mentor reviews the information and replies, suggesting a few questions you should think about in preparation for the session. 

Agree the time, place and duration of the session.  Skype video conferencing can work quite well for short sessions. Agree the payment method.

Running the session

As mentor, keep the session focussed on the topic and the questions you set.  Don’t let the mentee barf on (or barf on yourself). Your personal experience can be very useful to your mentee, but remember that asking thought provoking questions can be as useful as formulas for success

As mentee, it’s your responsibility to take notes, and to make your own decision about whether or not to act on the advice of the mentor.

Follow up

As mentee, if the mentoring was useful, say so....  It'll help encourage your mentor to do it again! 

Remember to keep a record of what you spent, because you may be able to offset it against the profits of your business (even if it will be a while before you expect to make any)

Legal.

Note that neither Green Enterprise Community nor the Mentor accepts any liability for errors, omissions or inaccuracies in any advice given.

Feedback

If your mentor was useful you can tell other members and the world so by leaving a comment here...