Becoming an NEA Mentor
Our mentors are drawn from various enterprise sectors and have
been selected for their ability to connect with people and offer
support in a non-directive and empathic way.
By establishing quality mentoring relationships with supportive and
committed mentors in the local area, it is intended that:
- Participants will be supported to acquire greater knowledge of their chosen sector
- Mentors will provide additional support to that already available through agencies such as Glasgow's Regeneration Agency, the Business Gateway Network and Job Centre Plus by, listening to, encouraging and supporting the participant to identify and overcome barriers and challenges associated with the early days of self-employment.
- The participants will further be provided with a non-judgemental environment to raise concerns, air new ideas and to make sense of other issues relating to the development of their business
- Participants will be assisted to devise their own strategies for developing and growing their enterprise.
Our New Enterprise Allowance Mentors work side by side with their mentee(s) during an 8 week pre-startup period and for up to 26 weeks, once the mentee has started trading.
The ability to encourage and support the mentee to develop skills in areas such as marketing, selling, handling finances, how to build sound customer relationships and using social media is invaluable but a mentor should also be:
- A role model
- A sounding board
- Someone he/she can trust
- A source of information and advice
- A motivator
- A person to coach me through the challenges of starting up in business
What can mentoring do for the mentor?
- Provides an opportunity to further develop key skills such as listening, coaching, advising, action planning and evaluating
- Offers an opportunity for the Mentor to learn from the Mentee in areas where the Mentee has more knowledge or experience
- Gives an insight into different ways of working
- Ensures the Mentor keeps up to date with developments in his/her own field
- Gives an opportunity to contribute towards economic regeneration and economic regeneration
- Gives an opportunity to give something back to the City and business community
- The prestige of membership of an elite group of memberships and opportunities to network and build relationships within this group
- A 1/2 day of mentoring training
- Satisfaction in knowing you have made a difference to someone's life
- Greater appreciation of the issues facing those starting a business today