A HAMPSHIRE-based entrepreneur has joined a national effort to support small businesses as a mentor to “give back”.
Broughton resident David Bailey, who left the corporate world after 30 years, will become part of a network of volunteer mentors to support small and medium-sized (SMEs) as the UK faces more struggles with the cost-of-living crisis.
David is just one of more than 3,000 business leaders who have signed up to the scheme.
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The scheme, called The Help to Grow: Management Course, offers senior business leaders one-to-one support from an experienced business mentor including 50 hours of leadership and management training across 12 weeks, with the government covering 90 per cent of the costs involved.
Training is delivered via a national network of over 50 Business Schools including Strathclyde.
David said: “I thoroughly enjoy business and the challenge of beating the competition and improving performance for the benefit of everybody in the company.
“During my career, I've had a lot of support from colleagues, mentors and coaches, and I've seen the difference it's made to me both personally and in the businesses performance.
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“It's also incredibly rewarding to see individuals develop and grow as a result of mentoring support.”
He continued: “I hope the course is actively used by a large number of companies throughout the UK, with staff participants from many levels of the organisation taking part.
“The overall result should be the upskilling of individuals, managers and leaders with a highly effective toolbox of management processes and practices.
“Ideally, those tools will enable the people to secure increasing levels of market share, while making their businesses more robust and operationally effective.”
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Emma Jones, founder of small business support platform Enterprise Nation, part of the consortium of businesses contracted to recruit mentors to the course, said: “It’s been so incredibly humbling to see high calibre leaders including hundreds of independent business owners, with the human strength and humanity to step forward and offer their own time, experience, and knowledge to support the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs.
“The Help to Grow: Management Course online platform will allow businesses to find the perfect match for their business so they can start to put what they have learned into practice.”
In exchange for offering their time and experience, the mentors receive significant value in the form of industry-recognised mentor training, access to qualified content, networking opportunities with other mentors and the possibility to join a national effort aimed at supporting the growth of the UK economy by increasing small businesses productivity.
Those interested in becoming a mentor can find out more at enterprisenation.com/help-to-grow-mentor.
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