Supporting growing businesses : the role of business mentors

There is a need for effective support mechanisms for high growth entrepreneurial businesses, the entrepreneurs, typically, know they need help with specific challenges such as selling and fund raising and they can certainly benefit from the right type of advice. However, they are also likely to need something more extensive – reality checks on what they are doing; ‘wise counsel’ to help them with key decisions; advice on team building. Arguably the general business adviser available to them through publicly funded programmes will not provide these, nor will entrepreneurs be enthusiastic about paying a consultant when they are trying to conserve cash in their business. Hence there is a demand for a mentor, who might well be volunteering, either independently or via a public programme. It is not unusual for governments to seek to support start-up businesses through help from mentors such as successful social entrepreneurs and retired business people. These mentors can provide the business “enabling” that start-ups and growth business need but cannot afford. Although there are many approaches to mentoring there is little empirical research that examines the roles and activities of successful mentors in the small business environment. This paper aims to identify key issues concerning business mentoring and the mechanisms that participants in the process use to engage one another. It uses a programme in Queensland, Australia, as a database.