FEMskill – ENTREPRENEURIAL MENTOR

ENTREPRENEURIAL MENTOR Improvement of the economical /market situation of female entrepreneurs by providing them mutual mentoring and building communities bilaterally

ENTREPRENEURIAL MENTOR THE UNPREDICTABLE For an entrepreneur, it is one of the hardest challenge to cope with the unpredictable not only as a human but as an entrepreneur as well. Unpredictable means the external factor we have no influence on, but it affects our enterprise. No matter if this factor is a financial world crisis (2009) or even an epidemic caused by a virus (2020).

Actually, every entrepreneur must be prepared for a lot more challenges such as risk-taking, responsibility, market changes, legal requirements, taxation, etc.

In the first years of an entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur has to face a lot of challenges, the output of every crisis may determine the future of a business. A beginner entrepreneur may easily break through crisis situation which he/she can manage with his/her best knowledge. He/she can choose between more opportunities, either he/she continues his/

her business or fights for survival or solves the daily problems or gives it up within a short time or terminates his/her business.

In numerous crisis situation like this, it would be enough to have an experienced entrepreneur who could show the right direction making use of his/her theoretical and practical skills or provides him/her a kind of safety net with his/her relationship network. Can the solution be so easy?

This publication gives a brief summary who is a business mentor, how do mentors help entrepreneurs, what is a mentoring in entrepreneurship, what is the importance of mentoring and why do experienced mentors think about mentoring beginner entrepreneurs.

This publication is available in electronic form in three languages (English-Hungarian-German) within the policy of FEMskill project.

MENTORING IN FEMSKILL PROJECT Mentoring program is an interaction between less experienced and more experienced entrepreneurs, it marks the beginning of common thinking to develop the competence of the mentee. Mentoring allows female mentee to develop her own

business with help of her mentor and manage the challenges arising during the development in the most efficient way she can.

MENTORING IS BASED ON VOLUNTEERING Taking part in a mentoring process tend to be voluntary on both sides, mentors and mentees can make contact and get in touch freely each other, they have the possibility to choose the right mentor/mentee who will stand in with them.

MENTORING

MENTORING IS NOT A CONSULTATION, COACHING OR TEACHING.

COACHING · Asks open-ended questions · Enables self discovery · Dispelse false feelings and beliefs · Can be applied to any situation · Future focused

· Answers direct questions · Provides information sources · Seeks alternate answers · Shows direction · Structured · Based on past TEACHING experiences

· Asks directive questions · Provides information · Seeks specific answers · Often highly structured · Based on past experiences

WHO IS CALLED A MENTOR? A mentor is a person who guides a less experienced person by building trust and making some rules. He is ambitious, doesn’t shrink from responsibility, has good problem solving and problems sensitivity skills, reliable. He has the ability to examine the problems from other point of view and makes suggestions if necessary.

He has the ability to adapt and respond quickly to changing situation and relates open-minded to new ideas.

Why do more and more professional entrepreneurs think becoming a mentor of a beginner entrepreneur?

What motivates and drives them mentoring voluntarily helping another entrepreneur? What is the inner spring that moves them?

„WHEN I STARTED I WAS ALONE” When starting a business, every entrepreneur will face the difficulties of her entrepreneurship minimum once, the perplexity, when she doesn’t see the solution to the problem. Due to lack of meaningful money to pay for an expert or guidance are prohibitive at the beginning. Some of them start a business without having business plan and strategy.

Many of them failed, but those who had survived and fought for the existence of their enterprise learned how difficult it is to run a business. These entrepreneurs did not even forget about the beginnings when they achieved success and would have accepted the guidance of another entrepreneur if it had been offered to them. Now, they can help.

They will become mentors for this reason.

„TIME FOR CHANGE, TIME FOR CHANGING�

As a conscious entrepreneur, the most important thing you can do is to become consciously aware of who you really are, what is your product or service and what is your financial position in the economy. All they know that their roles are dominant and they influence many segment of economy and society with a high power. They want changes and change a lot through their liability and business.

They will become mentors for this reason.

SEARCHING FOR NEW CHALLENGES Life cycle of entrepreneurship from the ideas to the decline is full of risk and challenges. Some entrepreneurs always search for new challenges, they like meeting the challenges, their goals are to find new solutions to old problems and develop skills, learn more because, these are the reasons they feel good.

Mentoring a beginner entrepreneur is full of challenges and worry.

They will become mentors for this reason.

RENEWAL

BECOMING WELL-KNOWN

There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when everything goes right, he enjoys success, benefit, stability. As time goes by, an inner power forces him to do more and more above he achieved in the past and searches for the possibility of renewal for himself and for the business, too.

Nowadays it is not important talking about the importance of being well-known from marketing side.

Not only the entrepreneur benefits from this publicity but it may cause an advantage and make profit on the market. Previously he was known only on the local market but from now he will get a bigger publicity on the public or international market.

Her connection network is growing and getting wider therefor she will be well-known not only for market members but for society, too.

They will become mentors for this reason.

They will become mentors for this reason.

APPRECIATION In most cases, you can experience success as an entrepreneur alone or in a tight circle. Although, media sometimes highlight some successful entrepreneurs because they have achieved something great or new or they are rich and world-famous.

But not every entrepreneur is so.

Nevertheless, they long for success and appreciation granted for doing a great job which can even be the fruit of long-year efforts. This is not

about profit but about the fact that the society should appreciate these successful entrepreneurs who create value. As a mentor, you can not only celebrate the success of the enterprise but also the fact that she could help a beginner entrepreneur using her experiences and she can be proud of her job as a mentor which granted her personal appreciation as well.

They will become mentors for this reason.

BELONGING TO A COMMUNITY Entrepreneurial mentors are members of a successful group. Using their experiences gained as an entrepreneur, they become members of a mentor community who share their experiences, successes and failures. By learning from each other, they gain new knowledge and experiences about the mentoring process, its challenges and solutions. They are pioneers of a new trade (entrepreneur mentor).

They will become mentors for this reason.

WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD MENTOR? Mentors stop talking, they are active listeners, they guide the conversation, they draw their thoughts clearly, show direction with past experiences to the mentees. Good mentors ask questions at the right time and show direction to the mentees helping them to see the problem from another point of view. The goal is to help mentees improve their skills, keep them going with positive feedback and show how to cope with the roller coaster of emotions they may experience along the way.

Good mentors help mentees with excellent devices assuring them in their roles.

BE A MENTOR IF • you believe in entrepreneurship and know how to build a successful business using your past experiences.

• you are willing to help a beginner female entrepreneur achieving her goals with showing her your experiences from the past.

• you search for new challenges and opportunities and with positive attitude you can make any volunteer job more enjoyable which helps females’ entrepreneurships.

• you could be a member of FEMskill entrepreneurship.

• you are proud of your own achievements and would like to share them with others.

CONCLUSION „Mentoring is full of surprises for both parties.

We never know exactly where to go, when mentoring starts.

An interesting job with full of challenges.”

Rita Potápi, mentor

Fb.com/femskill

Author: Rita Potápi (2020.)

Impressum: Publisher: Kisalföldi Vállalkozásfejlesztési Alapítvány Editor: Sándor Borbély Graphic and design: PANNAKO Date: 2020.

This e-booklet has been made in the framework of the FEMskill (ATHU127) project implemented in the INTERREG-V Austrian-Hungarian Program.

The project is put into action with the assistance of European Regional Development Fund.