Starting a Business Mentoring Program – Sample Business Plan Template
1. Define your objectives
Your first step towards starting a business mentoring program is to set good objectives. These objectives must be SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, your objective could be “to help new business owners grow their businesses by at least 50 percent within two years”. You can have as many as many objectives, provided they are all “SMART”. Setting objectives for your business mentoring program will help you communicate to your mentees what they should expect to achieve by joining your program.
2. Find a passionate program manager
After defining the objectives of your mentoring program, finding and hiring a program manager comes next. While having a program manager isn’t a must if you are planning to handle everything on your own, it will make your work a lot easier. A program manager helps to promote your mentoring program to potential clients (mentees). He also helps you interact with new clients to understand what knowledge, experience, and skills they already have, so you know where exactly to start with them. If you think you don’t need a program manager, that’s fine. But be prepared to handle everything yourself.
3. Arrange for flexibility
One of the hallmarks of successful business mentoring programs is that they balance the dueling needs of structure and flexibility. Your program must be structured well in line with its objectives, so that it can run smoothly. However, you will have as your clients different people at different levels of knowledge and experience and with different expectations. Only by being flexible can your program be relevant to as many different clients as possible. So, when planning your mentoring program, identify areas that require flexibility and build them into the program.
4. Put on your marketing hat
Although your mentoring program might seem apparently interesting and promising, the general interest it generates might not really attract much clients if there is no effective promotion. Never assume that potential clients will understand the benefits of your program. For many of them, your program will be first they will ever know of, and they are not sure whether it will be worth their time and money. You will need to convince them by explaining the benefits of your program to them. So, plan how you will go about this aspect of your mentoring program.
5. Outline your mentoring steps
Make a list of the steps you will take your clients through as you try to lead them to their goals. Ensure that your starting point is basic enough, so that clients who are new to the business won’t get lost. More experienced clients can join the step that is most suitable for them based on how much experience they already have. More importantly, explain what each step entails—what you will teach the client, what the client will implement, what result the client should expect, and what the client should do if the expected result isn’t achieved. At the end of everything, you’d have come up with a “curriculum” for your business mentoring program.
6. Figure out an exit point
Truth is, not all your clients will get to achieve their goals through your business mentoring program. For clients who seem not to be making headway with their business despite implementing the strategies you teach, you need to figure out what point to stop with them. More importantly, you need to define what you will do at that point, such as refund part of their money.
Once you have put all of the above in place, then your business mentoring program is ready to kick-off. Start prospecting for clients and start sharing your knowledge and experience with them—to help them achieve their business goals.
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