MentorsWork carves a pathway for businesses to build for growth
Graham Buggy, MD, Brendan Buggy Steel Fabrication Ltd; Helen Lynch, MD of Nina’s Boutique; David Broadrick, director of the Small Firms Association (SFA); Rachael McFarlane, programme manager, MentorsWork; Paul Healy, CEO of Skillnet Ireland; Geraldine Magnier, director, Idiro Analytics and chair of the SFA; Barry Prost, co-founder, Rent a Recruiter, promoting MentorsWork 2024, a fully-funded mentoring and enterprise support programme, open to SME business owners and managers from all industries with 1-250 employees nationwide.
An investment in the future of SMEs is how Rachael McFarlane, programme manager of MentorsWork, describes the benefit of availing of bespoke mentoring sessions for companies with between 1 to 250 employees.
MentorsWork, now in its fifth year, doesn’t cost SMEs anything as the programme is backed by the Small Firms Association (SFA) and Skillnet Ireland, the government-funded business support agency.
Some 1,000 spaces are available for the 12-week programme. Participants are hand-selected a mentor with industry-specific knowledge and experience in their field. There is access to online resources in key areas such as people management, business processes, finance, growth strategies, digitalisation and green sustainability. More than 3,000 SMEs have been through the MentorsWork programme.
“It is all led by the SME as to where they need support,” says McFarlane. “It’s not us saying ‘this is what we are going to do’. It’s completely tailored to each business.”
The mentor is selected based on the competency areas that the SME has chosen to work on, taking into account the sector and the size of the business that is applying.
“We pair the company with a mentor that has actually walked in their shoes with experience in their specific industry. It’s all selected in the best possible way to make sure the SME gets the best mentor that matches their needs.”
The duration of the programme isn’t set in stone. “We know how busy business owners are so if someone needs a bit of extra time or a little more hand-holding, that’s absolutely fine.”
What is offered are one-to-one mentoring sessions and access to unlimited upskilling sessions. Workshops and master classes are provided, ranked from beginners’ level to intermediate and advanced levels as well as networking sessions.
“Not only can the SME learn from an expert who is leading them but also, it’s an opportunity to meet peers, to discuss and share advice and tips with each other.”
Feedback is welcomed.
“One of the great things about MentorsWork is that we’re really quick to implement new feedback. After every session and at the end of the programme, we ask the SME for their thoughts on what they would change. We’re not slow to react to changes. We’re completely led by the feedback we get from the SMEs. It usually takes a two-week turnaround time to implement a new idea or introduce a new topic.”
McFarlane acknowledges that sole traders, who are managing everything in their business, may not have the time to commit to the programme over the recommended twelve weeks. The sole trader is facilitated with a timeline that suits them.
Helen Lynch employs six people at Nina’s Boutique in Trim, County Meath. She took over this 60-year-old family business just before the pandemic started.
“We had totally renovated the store. But covid pushed us to open an online platform which has traded quite well for us. But we got to a stage where we wanted to bring it to the next level. So we were looking around researching to see who could help us and we found the MentorsWork programme.”
Lynch says it’s important to know what the business issue is that MentorsWork can focus on.
“We wanted to build our online business, to be more nationwide. We were matched with the correct partner last year. We had three one-on-one sessions with the partner. It enabled us to talk through our business issues and for the mentoring company to come back to us with suggestions and solutions for us to move forward.
"It was a fantastic opportunity because the sessions were totally bespoke to our company. It was the perfect match for us. From there, we were able to create an online strategy for going forward which we started to implement this year.”
The mentorship “has been an incredibly positive experience for my team. We were partnered with a digital marketing company. We engaged with them and we have started to work with them as well, outside of the mentoring. They understood our issues.
“I would highly recommend the MentorsWork programme to any small business. When you have an issue within your business, especially a small business, it’s hard to find sources that can help you to move things along. We maximised the sessions we were given. It’s important not to be vague about what you want from them.”
The managing director of Dublin-based Brendan Buggy Steel Fabrication, Graham Buggy, says the business was started in 1982 by his father. It has since expanded and has a staff of twenty-seven. Its management team is spread over a number of areas including project management, design, fabrication of mild steel, stainless steel, sheet metal and a powder coating unit.
“We have seen quite a bit of growth in the last few years and were looking into support,” says Buggy. “We wanted to get a better focus on what potentially our next phase of growth was going to be, how to diversify and to see what could be made into products. The hope is in the coming years we’ll be able to start exporting.
“The mentor was great in terms of knowledge of growth. They had worked on growth strategy in previous businesses. Moving away from being a family business to more of a board set-up, we needed someone who has operated in that space to give us some pointers. We had three sessions with the mentor last year and we’ve signed up with them again this year to continue what we were doing with them.
“We have managed to grow but in order to continue that, we’re really going into the unknown. We needed to get under the bonnet as it were to see what is required from an operational perspective and to see what to focus on. As an SME, we’re quite time-poor. Everybody has to pull their weight. Being able to step back and have that time has been great. We weren’t wasting time or talking about ‘maybes.’ It was all very practical steps that could be taken."
Buggy highly recommends the MentorsWork programme. He says that the potential to export products “is not as far away as we thought, after looking at case studies.”
MentorsWork is adept at helping SMEs such as Buggy’s company to look ahead and to adopt best business practices.
Applications for MentorsWork are now open for SMEs of all sizes and all sectors across the Republic of Ireland. To find out more and to register for the programme, please visit . MentorsWork is brought to you by the SFA in partnership with Skillnet Ireland, IBEC, SBCI and Microfinance Ireland.
