Margie Maccoll
During small business month in May and just ahead of national volunteer week, Business Mentoring Noosa (BMN) is putting the call out to the Noosa business community of the not for profit group and the assistance it’s voluntary team of experienced businessmen and women provide.
Simply Print business owner Brett Morris joined BMN in December 2019 and has found their assistance “invaluable”.
There’s very little Brett Morris doesn’t know about the printing business.
After completing a printing apprentice he began in 1980 in Toowoomba, Brett moved to Brisbane gaining experience in big printing presses as a machinist, printing everything from supermarket brochures, railway tickets and coasters to the 1988 Bicentennial Diary, Expo 88 programs and Rolling Stone magazines.
Since 2001 Brett with his wife Carey and son Brad have operated Simply Print, establishing one of Noosa’s most trusted and reliable printing service providers.
Before he joined BMN he was feeling in a “bit of a rut” with his business.
“I felt I wasn’t seeing what was happening outside of Simply Print,” Brett said.
“It’s just great to get out of your business bubble. You get a bit isolated and it’s good to have another set of eyes on it.
Brett has since enjoyed input from five mentors, each bringing something different to his business.
“They never tell you what to do,” Brett said. “They have a look and suggest things.
“When you join they normally give you two mentors.
In the past few years his mentors have enabled Brett to improve his business in various ways such as helping him perfect his elevator pitch, write a mission statement and better prioritise his workflow.
“Each mentor has different things they focus on, some budgeting, some finance,” he said.
“Now I’m just more confident.”
Brett makes a note of issues to discuss and meets once a month with his mentor.
“I think the mentoring is good for any business. It’s invaluable to have that support. They tell you, you know your business, all we can do is look at what you’re doing and if we see anything you can do to improve it, we’ll tell you. And they’re doing it for the right reasons. All they want to do is help your business.”
There are more than 7600 businesses in Noosa Shire and about a third of those are small, employing only 1-4 people.
Over the past decade about 60 volunteer mentors have assisted about 400 local business owners to improve their circumstances.
The mentors are passionate about the role of small business in our local economy, and for seeing their mentees succeed. They have an open, honest, and strictly confidential approach in their interactions with mentees. BMN uses the Socratic method of open-ended questioning of the mentee until they develop the answers to their problems themselves. The mentors do not tell the mentee what to do. These techniques mixed with non-prescriptive and non-directive advice, driven by the mentor’s experience, assists the business owner to grow and to not become reliant on the mentor to solve their problems.
While all the mentors donate their time, BMN charges mentees a per annum administration fee of about $200. This affords a mentee a mentor and often two mentors for 12 months.
Simply Print is at Shop 5/8 Action St, Noosaville. Phone 5442 4918 or visit www.simplyprint.net
For more information on BMN visit bmn.org.au
