Enterprise Ireland - Mentors etc

I'm wondering if it's worth my time contacting Enterprise Ireland for their mentorship programme. I have used one before as I was in a competition in college and it was part of the process etc.

But has anyone here found them helpful ? Do Enterprise Ireland have modern, up to date experts in various fields ? Is it free or do you pay ? Can Enterprise Ireland help with sourcing relevant contacts for particular projects ?

lecheile

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm wondering if it's worth my time contacting Enterprise Ireland for their mentorship programme. I have used one before as I was in a competition in college and it was part of the process etc.

But has anyone here found them helpful ? Do Enterprise Ireland have modern, up to date experts in various fields ? Is it free or do you pay ? Can Enterprise Ireland help with sourcing relevant contacts for particular projects ?

Entrepreneur - probably a better starting point is your local entreprise board. They have a mentorship programme that offers local companies some focused mentoring of about 6 sessions at no cost. If you get value from the mentor you can chose to pay (nominal charge - €20 per hour) for future involvement of the mentor. One such example can be seen here

Key issue is the experience and relevance of the mentor's experience to your business and specific support needs. There are some very good guys out there who are willing and able to help and there are also many out there who just want to talk to others about their past successes!!

Critical things is to manage the time of the mentor and set specific objectives for each session and give the mentor work to do before you meet them. Treat it like its costing you more than your time, and make sure you get value from each and every session.

If you dont rate the mentor or feel that they are not right for you - call it early and seek another one.

Best of luck.

adrian.s

Hi,

I've worked with a few Mentors from EI and I have to say by and large they have been very useful to me. In a lot of cases, these guys are doing work for a fraction of the normal amount of money they can get for their experience. Basically, they're giving stuff back and want to make sure they use their time well. So in terms of getting them to do work in advance of your meeting, maybe some will, but I think you need to get as much homework done as possible and make sure to get as much information from the hour session as you can.

If you get yourself onto an incubation program such as the Hothouse, EI will give you 9 mentor sessions for free and in the Hothouse case, a 10th session pitching to a number of mentors as part of a panel.

You can also avail of a mentor from EI for 10 sessions, you pay your mentor then claim it back from EI. If you need mentoring, you apply to EI stating what it is you want and they try to match up a mentor to your needs from their panel.

Hope this helps,
Adrian.

lecheile

adrian.s wrote: »

You can also avail of a mentor from EI for 10 sessions, you pay your mentor then claim it back from EI. If you need mentoring, you apply to EI stating what it is you want and they try to match up a mentor to your needs from their panel.

Challenge Adrian is meeting the eligibility criteria for Enterprise Ireland:

"You are eligible to apply for this funding if you are one of the following: A manufacturing or internationally traded services SME company employing 10-249 people.
A new High Potential Start Up company." Details here

Requirements for Enterprise Boards less onerous and likely to happen a lot faster.

My business is going to be a retail e-commerce store so I won't be eligible for any Hothouse programs and neither is it a HPSU. I was told I may be eligible for export grants but I'm not relying on their financial support.

I pretty much have every aspect of the business nailed and ready to go (from start up to launch). I just wanted to avail of some support in the form of contacts or expertise. At the moment, I know exactly what I want to do with the business but I'd like one to oversee or spot any potential issues to see if I'm on the right page (as I've identified potential issues as it is - devils advocate etc).

I was going to do the "start a business" course with Enterprise Ireland but to be honest, it looks very basic and I already have a business plan up and ready and suppliers lined up etc. I would have liked to gain the experience of someone who has successfully launched an online business and knows the ropes behind the entire process.

Thanks for the posts, any other info pass it on !

adrian.s

Deleted User wrote: »

My business is going to be a retail e-commerce store so I won't be eligible for any Hothouse programs and neither is it a HPSU. I was told I may be eligible for export grants but I'm not relying on their financial support.

<snip>
Thanks for the posts, any other info pass it on !

Don't let the fact that you're going t be a retail / e-commerce store rule you our of the Hothouse type programs. At the very least pitch to them! They are recruiting now.

A.

Fionn101

TheEntrepreneur

for what it's worth, I posted here last year (early days of E&BM) looking for a mentor.

I did the rounds with Ent Irl and various other agencies offering mentoring and to be honest I found them all to be worse than (insert something bad,real bad)

I really don't think they look at things from a customer perspective, and my biggest hangup was that it was hard to get their mentors time.

I really did not want to have to wait until the state appointed mentor had more time for me , it felt like I was being provisioned mabey 2 hours a week of his time, and at a time that he himself dictated. I was also made to feel lucky for this mentoring time.

I knew I needed mentoring but I also knew that E.I. appointed lads are just doing a job (the ones I met with anyway)

So I used boards.ie and one or two other sites to hire a professional mentor and it has been a worthwhile move. I cannot say enough 'how much is your time worth' , and for me I just could not wait around to progress my business.

I still use this same mentor today and will probably forever more, this is someone who will meet me whenever I ask, someone who will provide both the contacts and resources to move each step forward and most importantly they breathe structure and momentum into our project.

I highly doubt we would still be in business without someone of a professional mentors calibre, that's just my opinion. This person , hang about ,he's on boards also.... (username : spinnaker ) has really helped package up a business plan that would be well outside the technical comprehension of most EI mentors and I now believe that we can progress on with our business proposal.

So to sum it up in a nutshell (well to finish this post as I have a meeting) if you can afford to pay a mentor then do it, I really think it saved me more time ,effort and money in the long run than Ent Irl. Especially as I was not selling a product and most of their courses are aimed at a shop like environment.

best of luck TheEntrepreneur , always enjoy reading your posts.

Fionn

Yeah I'd pitch to them with pleasure. When do they stop recruiting ? I'm not back in Ireland until September.

Fionn101

Fionn101 wrote: »

TheEntrepreneur

for what it's worth, I posted here last year (early days of E&BM) looking for a mentor.

I did the rounds with Ent Irl and various other agencies offering mentoring and to be honest I found them all to be worse than (insert something bad,real bad)

I really don't think they look at things from a customer perspective, and my biggest hangup was that it was hard to get their mentors time.

I really did not want to have to wait until the state appointed mentor had more time for me , it felt like I was being provisioned mabey 2 hours a week of his time, and at a time that he himself dictated. I was also made to feel lucky for this mentoring time.

I knew I needed mentoring but I also knew that E.I. appointed lads are just doing a job (the ones I met with anyway)

So I used boards.ie and one or two other sites to hire a professional mentor and it has been a worthwhile move. I cannot say enough 'how much is your time worth' , and for me I just could not wait around to progress my business.

I still use this same mentor today and will probably forever more, this is someone who will meet me whenever I ask, someone who will provide both the contacts and resources to move each step forward and most importantly they breathe structure and momentum into our project.

I highly doubt we would still be in business without someone of a professional mentors calibre, that's just my opinion. This person , hang about ,he's on boards also.... (username : spinnaker ) has really helped package up a business plan that would be well outside the technical comprehension of most EI mentors and I now believe that we can progress on with our business proposal.

So to sum it up in a nutshell (well to finish this post as I have a meeting) if you can afford to pay a mentor then do it, I really think it saved me more time ,effort and money in the long run than Ent Irl. Especially as I was not selling a product and most of their courses are aimed at a shop like environment.

best of luck TheEntrepreneur , always enjoy reading your posts.

Fionn

Thanks for the post Fionn, I'll take it into consideration and get in touch with spinnaker and see what he's about. I am going to make it a priority to get a mentor. It's probably the most important thing I can do for my business.