What’s mentoring?
Why should you want a mentor?
Maybe you thought about using a business mentor before but decided against it for one reason or another.
Perhaps you thought a mentor’s contribution wouldn’t improve your company’s performance enough, considering what you might pay them. Possibly you believed mentoring was mainly for bigger businesses than yours or that available mentors may not understand your specialist functions. Maybe you didn’t know where to find a mentor, didn’t have time to employ one or simply disliked the idea of an outsider telling you what to do.
But, whether you’ve considered mentoring or not, there’s now a large and growing body of independent expert evidence that it works.
For example, research among companies by Warwick Business School, for the UK government’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, has found that:
This research also revealed that, among companies which had used mentors, 44% reported a turnover increase in the previous 12 months, compared to only 23% which didn’t.
Other reputable evidence suggests mentors can help companies secure benefits such as improved:
That positive picture was echoed in the Warwick Business School survey’s qualitative research, which revealed that companies “were largely very satisfied with the advice and support they had received from their mentors.”
In addition, the Federation of Small Businesses has found that 70% of such enterprises that used mentors survived for five years or more, while only 35% of other companies existed that long.
What do we offer?
Why should you choose us?
That Warwick Business School survey identified the main qualities small and medium sized businesses wanted from mentors.
These included:
We easily tick all these boxes. Our lead mentor, for example, is a former Technical Director of a major construction company, with over 30 years’ experience in the sector and considerable expertise in areas such as value engineering, cost management, procurement, contractors, design management and information technology.
Net Zero Consulting therefore understands the challenges you face as a business owner or leader of your organisation. By providing an impartial view, our mentors can encourage you to look at your business or organisation with a fresh perspective and with a clear focus on sustainability and ways to reduce your carbon impact on the environment.
Sometimes, this is all that’s needed to identify opportunities for growth.
How does our service work?
Your mentor stay in regular contact with you through emails, phone calls or meetings.
But the exact nature of the relationship is flexible and up to you. It could be relatively informal, consisting of periodic phone calls or visits to your site. But it could also be more formal, involving monthly meetings, which have agendas and minutes. The choice is yours and we’ll tailor how it works to suit your requirements.
