Wealth of experience

Face to face: Carlo Santoro (right) and his mentor Martin Rose meet for coffee and advice

Hobart internet entrepreneur Byron Teu says he would have got his fledgling business off the ground without a mentor, “but it would have been a lot more painful”.

Teu set up Sentralize , a web applications developer, in January. Previously he was a doctor with a technology bent who ran a business on the side. “I knew that running a business full time would be a completely different challenge and that I would need all the help I could get,” he says of his decision to seek a mentor.

Teu found his mentor, former chief executive Brad Johnson , through Business Mentor Services Tasmania (BMST). Having decided to commercialise technology he had developed over the previous two years, including a web-based news and information aggregation service, Teu is glad he took up a suggestion to contact BMST.

“It can get quite lonely starting a business on your own. It’s been good to have someone to chat with, someone who’s willing to be there for you,” Teu says.

Teu meets once a week with Johnson, a former chief financial officer with payments technology company Keycorp and a former chief executive of internet services company IntraPower, both listed companies.

Sentralize has a full-time staff of five and Teu says Johnson’s knowledge and experience has “opened doors to so many possibilities”.

It’s easy to see how a mentor can be an invaluable resource for the owner of a new, struggling or growing business: someone to bounce ideas off, seek guidance from and compare war stories with. What will not be so obvious to business owners is that experienced mentors are not only readily available but,in many cases, their services are free.

Mentoring services are available to small businesses and community groups Australia-wide, but because these are often run on a voluntary, non-profit basis, they tend to be well-kept secrets.

BMST general manager Graham Marshall says many business owners don’t know about his service, which began as a Rotary Club of Hobart community project in 1994. Although no longer formally connected with Rotary, BMST is a non-profit company, supported by government funding and corporate sponsorship, with 100-plus volunteer mentors.

“We don’t have the resources to promote ourselves as much as we would like,” Marshall says.

Mentors are mostly retired or semi-retired business people who come from a variety of industries and specialisations, but others are serving chief executives, bank managers and professionals who want to “give back”, Marshall says.

BMST services 400 clients a year, who range from people who want to start a business to the owners of existing small businesses. Since the global financial crisis, most assignments are for “business rescues”, Marshall says.

It’s up to clients and their mentors to structure how their relationship will work. Some clients prefer to speak to their mentors over the phone, others face to face; usually it’s a combination of the two. Contact can be ad hoc or based on a regular schedule of meetings. Clients are permitted more than one mentor, depending on the problems or issues faced by the business.

The circumstances may vary, but Marshall says there is one constant in the mentoring relationship: the role of the mentor. “They’re purely there as a sounding board, to listen, to give advice based on their experience,” he says. “They’re not there to run the business.”

Former National Australia Bank branch manager and small-business banker Peter McDonald became a volunteer mentor with the Small Business Mentoring Service (SBMS) in Victoria when he retired in 2005.

He is now the president of SBMS, a non-profit group supported by the state government, and estimates he has personally mentored 80 business owners.

“Some clients establish a very strong relationship with their mentors and want to hang on to them for as long as possible, often as a sounding board. We have some relationships that have gone on for years,” he says.

“Clients love to talk to mentors who have run their own business or who have experience with small business and who are prepared to listen and not push their own barrow. We don’t tell clients what to do; we present options.”

SBMS charges a nominal fee for its mentors, with sessions ranging from $80 to $100 per hour. “Our view from many years of experience is that if there’s no charge it is highly unlikely that the recommendations and views expressed by the mentor will be followed through or even considered,” McDonald says. “There’s more commitment when there’s a charge involved.”

It’s not only new or struggling business owners who benefit from having a mentor. Successful Melbourne entrepreneur Carlo Santoro started his technology services company, RetailCare , 15 years ago and also owns several online businesses. He is on the global board of the United States-based business owners’ network, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).

A year ago, Santoro asked Martin Rose , chief executive of mobile dog-wash franchise HydroDog , to be his mentor.

Santoro invited Rose to be his mentor when the two were introduced by a mutual business associate. They meet monthly and discussion points range from management issues and hiring decisions to new ideas and business opportunities.

Although Santoro is an experienced businessman, he insists that “there are always challenges and experiences that I haven’t had”. His relationship with Rose, he says, is based on trust, respect and confidentiality. “We talk about things in a very open way. I can discuss anything with Martin and he tells me about his experiences and how he got through particular challenges.”

Rose stresses that he is not a professional mentor – “people don’t look for me in the Yellow Pages” – or involved in any formal programs, but he has advocated mentoring since he was mentored 20 years ago.

Being asked by a successful businessman to be his mentor doesn’t surprise him. “Everyone in business, regardless of their success, reaches a point where they don’t have all the answers. Mentoring is about trusting someone enough to ask and be told.”

Santoro is no stranger to mentoring. He mentors emerging entrepreneurs and oversees EO’s global mentoring program for members. Mentors are sourced from the World Presidents’ Organisation and the Young Presidents’ Organisation. The structured program runs for four months – longer if the participants agree – and is free, although membership to EO is $4400 annually.

“Members are mentored by other entrepreneurs who have experienced the same situations and challenges, who have been there and made the same mistakes, and who are willing to share their ideas and experience,” Santoro says.

Find a mentor

Here are some of the best organisations offering guidance and support for small to medium businesses.

Golden Gurus - National directory of small business and community mentors aged 50-plus

Small Business Mentoring Service - (Victoria)

Business Mentor Services- (Tasmania)

Entrepreneurs’ Organization

Small Business Solutions - (Queensland government)

Business Growth Centre - (WA government)

Small Business NSW Business Mentoring Program

BRW

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