Mentorship Programs for Tech Entrepreneurs

By Marina KamalAugust 17, 2020No Comments

There could be thousands of reasons why a person chooses to start their own business, but no matter what their incentive is, all entrepreneurs will require some help and support in order for them to have the best chance of succeeding. Some may revert to friends or family, but for others may require support in the form of a mentor.

Why mentorship programs you may ask?

Well, as an entrepreneur, you are bound to have countless strengths and one of them is being able to overcome the challenges along the road. Nevertheless, it is inevitable to have some gap of knowledge in certain business aspects - which is why having a mentor to provide you business advice and support can be a very important element to your business' success through mentorship programs such as business mentoring programs or find business mentors for startups specifically.

"If you ask any successful person, they will always have had a great mentor at some point along the road."

Sir Richard Branson

Business mentors

Why having a mentor is so important? Well, a business mentor is someone with many years of experience being in the industry of your business and they are the "been-there-done-that" type of people where they have gone through business hardships have succeeded in their fields. Thus, by having an industry expert as your mentor, he or she will be able to help you in realising your goals and provide you with the necessary guidelines on how to achieve them.

According to Sage, a leading provider of enterprise resource planning software who surveyed more than 11,000 small and medium-sized businesses across 17 countries, found that 93% of business owners recognise that having business mentors can help them to succeed.

Mentorship Programs

There are three important elements that you can take advantage of when participating in a business mentorship program:

  • Experience: As much as you think you know everything there is, you just don't know what you don't know. By having someone who is experienced and able to relate with you the challenges that you are currently facing, may it be starting or growing a business, you are able to obtain priceless knowledge and guidance that is hard to come by.
  • Networking: Networking with the right people is also another important aspect of being an entrepreneur. Business mentors can help introduce you to the right people in your industry as well as identify the right ideas and opportunities for your business.
  • Encouragement: Having the grit and determination to pull through hard times is important for an entrepreneur, but even then, it is important for entrepreneurs to have someone who can cheer them on by their side at tough times, a background sounding board who motivates them to keep ongoing.

Some of the programs that are available are organised by organisations such as Growing Giants, LIT, Women In Payments and many more.

Leadership Mentorship Program

The leadership mentorship program is a mentoring scheme designed to develop CEOs and executives through one-on-one interactions with experienced mentors. The aim of this CEO mentorship program is to provide confidential, non-judgmental and constructive support towards mentees in order for them to develop and grow their leadership skills (both personal and institutional). Through executive mentoring, mentees would be exposed to new perspectives and way of thinking as well as insider tips in leadership.

Mentorship not only brings benefits to the mentees but also to the institution as a whole because, through leadership, it leads to higher job satisfaction, job retention as well as work engagement among staffs. This will also increase the level of work efficiency and productivity in the organisation.

Mentorship Programme for Entrepreneurs

The entrepreneur mentor program is a mentorship scheme that is catered to founders and entrepreneurs of startups. This program is usually executed by combining two elements:

  • Pairing with a senior startup mentor: Mentee will be paired up with successful and experienced CEOs as well as having exclusive one-on-one meetings.
  • Peer group mentoring: A group of founders who come together to support each other to achieve success in their personal and professional life.

Here at NEXEA, we organise Entrepreneurs programme that is catered for CEOs of high-growth startups (potential to grow more than 100 million in market size). The Entrepreneurs Programme advocates founders and entrepreneurs to have a peer-to-peer growth mindset as they believe it allows CEOs to learn and relearn the things that they know as well as openly discuss with their peers about the challenges and failures that they face.

NEXEA is known for its mentors who are successful ex-entrepreneurs, or C-levels who own and have sold (IPO, M&A) their businesses. The combination of experienced mentors, experts and partners prove potent as the 35+ startups invested by NEXEA have grown 3 to 16 times per year.

Conclusion of Mentorship Programs

Not every CEO has had the benefit of having a valuable mentor. But with many programs available for high calibre leaders, perhaps more of them should participate in one for the good of their organisations. With the right mentoring, not only will companies thrive, but everyone will also stand to gain.

Resources

  1. https://www.youthbusiness.org/resource/how-can-mentoring-help-young-entrepreneurs-reach-their-potential
  2. https://www.youthbusiness.org/resource/how-can-mentoring-help-young-entrepreneurs-reach-their-potential
  3. https://startups.co.uk/why-a-mentor-is-crucial-to-start-up-success/
  4. https://eccountability.io/business-mentoring-programs/
  5. https://medium.com/@KeithKrach/4-ways-ceos-can-benefit-from-a-mentor-a3607553b924
  6. https://hbr.org/2015/04/ceos-need-mentors-too

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