During small business month in May and just ahead of national volunteer week, Business Mentoring Noosa (BMN) has put the call out for more mentors to join their not for profit group.
Retired from international business David Gibbons has recently signed on with BMN.
Having worked in equity research in the UK and Asia, been a CEO of a large startup in Singapore and a partner in a hedge fund as well as running a successful food distribution business David was looking for some voluntary work, when he discovered BMN.
“People like me who have been able to return to Noosa and think life’s been very good, want to give something back,” he said.
“I have a background in professional services and banking. It gives me a mix of services.
“I’ve spent a lot of time asking questions about how companies operated. It’s a good part of mentoring.”
David said as a person who enjoyed business and meeting people he had found volunteering with BMN to be very stimulating.
BMN president Rod Solomon said illness, leave and overseas moves had depleted their numbers from 25 to 16, with only 12 mentors currently active, and it coincided with a time when the demands on their pro bono services had markedly increased.
“We found ourselves extremely busy supporting an influx of struggling local businesses of all types and sizes during the period of Covid and now even more so after the Covid lockdowns have ceased,” president Rod Solomon said.
“A lot of people have come through Covid and need help.”
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 almost 60 volunteer mentors have assisted about 400 local business owners to improve their circumstances.
New enquiries are coming in every week but due to the group’s recent drop in numbers they are looking for more retired or semi-retired successful businesspeople to join them in helping locals to step out of their day-to-day work and take an objective look at their businesses.
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. New mentors undertake a three month probation then begin working with mentees alongside an experienced mentor.
Reviews by mentees show the value they have drawn from the relationships.
The mentors meet every second Thursday morning under a well-structured agenda to discuss mentee issues and insights and to leverage the extensive amount of experience and brainpower the collective brings.
BMN is looking for experienced businessmen and women to join the group as active mentors.
“We need people to mentor across all industries,” Mr Solomon said.
“We’re just trying to find a way to get more people with all sorts of skills.”
While all the mentors donate their time, BMN charges mentees a $195 per annum administration fee. This affords a mentee a mentor and often two mentors for 12 months.
For more information visit bmn.org.au
