I would like to offer my help to businesses to help them grow

Thank you for being prepared to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. It's really warming to know that our communities are so prepared to help and to give back, and our entrepreneurs are incredibly grateful. 

Following significant feedback from our communities, there are three different types of support that are requested: 

• the opportunity to talk about their business, 
• to solve a specific problem and 
• an advisory board-type group to support significant growth and scale plans - our Venture Board. 

Please complete the advisor application form to be involved in the programme.

Commitment

We ask supporters to give from 1 hour per month, depending on their availability to support our businesses. Each business will complete an application which will be circulated to our supporter community to opt-in to support where they feel they can help. 

We anticipate that supporters would spend between 3-5 hours with each business over a couple of months - dependent on the availability of both parties and the needs of the project - and may work with multiple businesses. 

Quality assurance for the community

In line with the best practice from a number of major programmes, we ask that our supporters provide a CV demonstrating a strong track record of entrepreneurship and 2 references to be part of this community. This is a requirement regardless of expertise or experience to give confidence in our programme.  

To ensure everyone understands the terms of the arrangement, we ask everyone to sign to show their  agreement to abide by our programme terms, which include confidentiality, behaviours, data protection, feedback etc.

• Programme terms (PDF , 46kb)

We assume confidentiality in all of our dealings, however we know in some situations our entrepreneurs need the security of an NDA. We provide a template version for both parties to sign if required.

Ensuring success

To ensure the best possible start, and based on our experience that people tend to skip to problem solving rather than getting to know each other, in advance of a meeting, we ask the companies to complete a pre-meeting questionnaire outlining the nature of the relationship including availability, communication preferences, the extent that the business wants to be challenged etc for discussion at the first meeting. 

• Pre-discussion considerations (PDF , 39kb)