Stikkord: Personal Development

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Idea + Mentor = Start Business

Chloe Holding is the founder of the very early stage startup Habinki (www.habinki.com).
At www.thenextwomen.com she talks about her start-up and why she needs a mentor.
(In Part II you can find out what happened after this interview).

As many of you know there a lot of questions coming up when you are starting your own business. This is a intervue of a smart girl, because she got here self a mentor to help her.

1. How did you come up with the idea of your start-up?
It was more a question of ‘What did I want to do with my life?’ than finding a new business idea, and starting up a bikini/travel company was exactly what I wanted to do. I had always wanted to set up a business and I had a passion for travel and retail, and it just took a little bit of inspiration to figure out how to make that into a great business.

2. How far are you with the set up of the start-up?
I have secured funding via a loan with the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme backed by the government, I have incorporated the company, developed the branding, and begun marketing and selling my brand. The bikinis are on their way from Brazil to arrive in June and the website is currently in development.

3. What is your goal with the company
I want to create a brand which young people associate with and are inspired by. I can see many opportunities in the future in terms of developing new product lines and focusing more on the travel industry, in terms of places to go ‘in your bikini’.

4. What was your biggest challenge during the development process?
Without any doubt the biggest challenge so far has been to make the decision and find the strength of mind to do something very different, which your peers, friends and family may not understand or support. It was about realising that I wanted to do this so much that it actually didn’t matter what anyone else thought, or what advice people gave me, and that the faith and passion I had for building businesses was strong enough to set out on a path on my own. I think part of the definition of being an entrepreneur is to do what everyone else says ‘will never work’.

5. Who are your advisers?
My close friends, a core group of girls (and a few boys) who have shown a real interest and passion for what I am doing. They have offered advice, often on a daily basis, on some tricky issues, and I hope that in the not-too-distant future some of these people will come and work for the business.

6. Why do you need a mentor, for which activities and for which period of time?
I would like someone who has been through a similar experience of setting up a business from scratch, and who has been successful. I would be interested in any kind of communication that would be convenient for them. Even an email exchange every couple of weeks or once a month would be great, or even just to have the opportunity to talk on the phone for half an hour as a one-off, so that I could talk through some core-issues. I think about raising capital, and how to expand, or…. recover from a major business crisis. It would also be useful to gain recommendations of advisors, software, consultants to use.

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Anyone living in Davenport, USA?

If so, Davenport School invites anyone interested in helping children learn to a free tutor and Mentor.
I fell for it, and had to put it in my blog. Here are Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois looking for more mentors for students in Davenport School.

Talk about getting all citizens to work for a good cause!

They put together a seminar October 8th, 1:30 PM at the Davenport Schools Administration Center, 1606 Brady Street Davenport, IA.

And the attendees will learn strategies and techniques for tutoring and mentoring plus what to expect when volunteering in a school setting.

Fantastic! If you live in Davenport and are an elder, don`t you dear not to volunteer!

Read more about this at http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=406443

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How important is mentoring to young women?

Mentoring is discussing in all sorts of ways, and I am positive to that. I mean that mentoring is the right way for an boost in personal life and in job life. I come across this Lily7 (www.lily7.com) which exists to encourage and equip young women to develop Godly character and to find their self-worth in Christ alone. I am not going to discuss Christ pro contra, but point out the value of mentoring as a good tool.

And I think they answer very correct in a question they got from one reader. She thinks that mentoring could be a scary word to people. When people at lily7 responded that it could sound really formal and intimidating. But further more they say that mentoring can be as casual as you going to someone you trust and respect for advice. It can also be specific to a particular part of your life, too. For example says Sally, from lily7, I’ve got professors and lawyers who I seek out for how to write a legal argument, and I’ve got totally different people who I seek out for their thoughts on things in my everyday life. These people all see different aspects of my life, but the one thing that they have in common, which makes me call them mentors rather than regular friends, is that my relationship with them involves a lot of me learning from them and them giving their thoughts on whatever it is I’m doing. By contrast, I learn with or alongside friends. And in the end she asks “Does that make sense as a definition of mentoring?”

I say that it is a good definition because it is important for me to make everybody understand what it is, how to use it and that it isn`t intimidated.
To read the whole answer and more from lily7, follow this link:
http://www.lily7.com/consider-lily/

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Success history 3

An adept from my latest mentor program called me some days ago to tell me about his new job. He got the job through his mentors’ network, his dream job.
His mentor was in a different branch than this adept wanted to job in, but the mentor has a friend who needed a new employee. He applied, got to the interview and got the job.

This was a job he never thought he could get at his stage in life, and he told me that this has never happened without the mentor program.

This feedback is a joy to get, and it shows that mentoring works.
He got more wise, stayed with his mentor the whole period and manage to use his mentors network to get a job.
Excellent work Jimmy!

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Training at JCI Evolution Mentor program 2008/2009

I have just received an invitation to train at the JCI Evolution (Trondheim in Norway) mentorprogram for 2008/2009.

I am going to train all the young people in personal development, the first seminar and a fundamental at the program.

See more at http://www.jcie.no/mentorprogrammet.htm (in norwegian).

This is going to be so much fun, I enjoy very much educating young people. To help them in their beginning of their career.

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Community Mentoring Programme

WOW, I came over this wonderful video at www.youtube.com and they were talking about how you could use mentor program to help kids make something out of this world.

The organization is called: «The 100 Black Men of London» and was formed in April 2001. Their Mission is:
As a group of concerned African-Caribbean men, the 100 Black Men of London seek to improve the quality of life in our communities and to enhance educational and economic opportunities through pooling together our collective resources.

And their Vision is:
The 100 Black Men of London recognise the challenges confronting our youth today and will endeavour to provide leadership and support. In essence, to create an environment where our youth are motivated to achieve and empower themselves to become economic and moral shareholders in the communities we serve.

Follow this link and look at the excellent use of mentoring, helping young people out in the world.

If you now of other projects like this, please let me know.

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ooVoo the next evolution in online communication

ooVoo has many great features — from video calls with up to six people at once to video messaging to chat and file transfer capabilities. This could be possibilities to have mentors also far away, and for mentors to have more adepts at meeting the same time. Click the link for some of the highlighted features http://www.oovoo.com/

This is a recommendation from Krishna De (in the article «Ten tips for finding a mentor»), I have not yet had time to try it out.

Good luck and please come with feedback!

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Ten Tips For Finding A Mentor

Krishna De wrote in the Sunday Times article 7. of september (http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2008/howtofindamentor/), that one of the suggestions she made to enhance your presentation skills is to work with a mentor.

But what can you do if there is no formal mentoring programme in your company?
Where might you start in finding a mentor to support your career progress?

Here are 10 tips to help you find and get the most out of working with a mentor:

1. Consider why you are looking for a mentor – Is it about helping you progress your career? Do you want to expand your knowledge into a different sector? This will help you focus on finding a relevant mentor.

2. Explore what you are looking for in a mentor – Are you looking for someone to be a great sounding board? Do you want someone that is willing to share their personal experience and expertise? This will help you be clear in your communication as you approach a potential mentor.

3. Review how important it is to have a mentor close to hand – The experience and personality of your mentor is going to be a factor when approaching someone. But how important is it for you to find someone to work with face to face – or would you enjoy working with someone by phone, by Skype or even by video conferencing making use of the new social media platforms such as Oovoo.com?

4. Take stock of what you will bring to the mentoring relationship – Are you committed to taking action? What specific experience have you had that might be of interest to a mentor? In successful mentoring relationships, both the mentor and the mentee find value in the relationship, so get clear about your unique experience that will enrich the relationship between you and your potential mentor.

5. Review your immediate network – Who is it that you already know that you trust and value? Is there someone in your workplace you could approach? Perhaps your mentor could be someone you have met in a professional network you are a member of? Or could your mentor be someone you have worked with in the past? Take the time to consider all the people you already know as a potential mentor as that will make it easier for you to approach them.

6. Focus your approach – Before approaching a potential mentor, do your research. Who do you know that has worked with the potential mentor? What’s their view on how open, challenging yet supportive this person may be? Ask for advice on how to best approach the potential mentor.

7. Prepare for the meeting – Once you have identified one or two people you would like to consider to be your mentor, approach them one at a time and request an exploratory meeting either by phone or face to face. If the potential mentor does not know you, is there someone who can make the introduction for you? Make sure you have your updated CV available to provide background detail on your career to-date.

8. Outline an agenda – Keep your request for an initial meeting to be around 30 minutes – this meeting is to connect you with a potential mentor and not a first mentoring meeting. Your goal is to outline why you are looking for a mentor and to explore if they might consider being your mentor. Don’t put your potential mentor under pressure to make a decision immediately – they may need to reflect on your request given their other commitments. Also look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dp9YdNZVGA&feature=related for how to break the ice.

9. Follow up after the meeting – After the meeting take time to follow up with the potential mentor, perhaps by sending them a handwritten note thanking them for their time meeting you. If the person you approached is not able to be a mentor for you, you could engage their support in finding a mentor.

10. Take action – If you have found a mentor to work with, then plan your first meeting and schedule it in the calendar. You can then prepare a draft agenda covering the subject areas that you would like to cover in your first meeting such as confidentiality, the way you plan you connect, how frequently you want to meet and the scope of what you would like to discuss. Seek your mentor’s input to the draft agenda – preparing for the meeting will ensure that your mentor sees that you committed to the relationship with them and will help get you off to a flying start.

Apply these ten tips and you’ll be sure to find a mentor to support you in expanding your professional success.

This article was initially published as part of a feature in Marketing Age titled ‘Get Thee A Guru’ which you can access HERE : http://www.krishnade.com/media/20080630-Marketing-Age-Get-Thee-a-Guru.pdf

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Wisdom on demand

Surfing the internet I came across www.cwerty.com, they provides individuals with-on-demand access to expertise and guidance from the world’s most experienced business leaders.
Cwerty.com provides a broad range of topics that reflect the most common challenges facing business professionals today. The short (5 minute or less) format provides users with easily digestible segments that they can immediately apply to the challenges they face daily.

Fifty Lessons (www.50lessons.com), is the world’s leading digital video business library has created Cwerty.com.

Video is a powerful and complete learning tool combining a range of proven learning styles within one single, easy-to-access format. Since learning styles vary from visual and/or auditory, to action learning such as note taking, most people favor one learning style over another. Further complicating the learning landscape, time of day plays an important role in recall.
Some people retain new information better in the morning while others are sharper at night. Online video delivers a variety of ways to learn and allows each person or organization to customize the experience to suit their own preferences, schedules, and specific learning needs.

Note that each video costs $0.99