By Charmaine Papallo
“When you’re just starting out, you need to call in some ‘grey hair and wisdom’ – that’s what I get from my mentors,” says Charmaine Papallo. Her business, Baby Buds, grew sevenfold during her first 6-month mentoring program.
Papallo, a former corporate lawyer, now heads an online business which makes floral gifts out of baby clothes. She has fifteen staff in Australia and New Zealand and husband Mark recently left his career as a barrister to work in the business.
She’s a graduate from the Women in Business mentoring program, a business start-up training program offered by many government-supported Business Enterprise Centres.
The program runs for six months and includes skills workshops, forums and networking events as well as 20 hours of one-on-one mentoring with experienced small business operators who volunteer their time as mentors.
Papallo wasn’t prepared for her early business success. “I felt like a fish out of water in the early stages – I had come from a big firm and I was used to having lots of people around to bounce ideas off,” she says.
With her new business operating “in a very disorganised fashion,” Papallo signed up for the mentoring program and was teamed with fashion industry consultant Dominic Beirne.
Beirne and Papallo met regularly at a café, where Papallo would bring her bookwork. “It was good to have that experience on board and have somebody to take an objective look at how the business was going and point out where we needed some work.”
A formal mentoring program is a fast way for a mentoree to learn business skills, says Dr Catherine Collins, a Senior Research Associate at the Australian Graduate School of Management who also co-ordinates a mentoring program at the School.
“The research shows that you get quite different results from formal versus informal mentoring programs. Informal mentoring usually happens through networking, you might hook up with a mentor through someone you know. That’s great for networking, finding jobs and so on. However formal mentoring is better for building skills.”
Over time, a good mentor will do themselves out of a job, says Collins. And as a small business moves through the business life-cycle, it will require different mentors.
“When you are in the start-up stages, you want someone who thinks outside the box and can help you develop ideas. In the early growth stages, you need advice on business systems and putting in solid structures for further growth. Then as the business matures, you need someone who can help you see the next steps that need to occur,” explains Collins.
Dominic Beirne has continued mentoring on the Women in Business program and also works as a business consultant in the fashion industry.
“Mentoring is not prescriptive, it’s about providing guidance,” he says. “You’re there to give insight into a business problem or situation; it’s an advisory role.”
He believes volunteer mentoring is quite different to the paid consulting that he does. “As a mentor, you don’t have to put up with it if the relationship isn’t working or if they are not approaching it in the way that it was intended.” Consultants also tend to have specific industry knowledge, which is part of what the client pays for, he says.
Most of his mentoring experiences have been very positive, however. “You are investing your time, and time is the most precious thing that we have, into helping these people succeed in their chosen business – it can be very rewarding.”
Steve Leach is a franchise owner with Action International coaching and a self-proclaimed millionaire owning several businesses and numerous investment properties.
“I wouldn’t take business advice from someone who isn’t very successful themselves,” he says. He charges $2000 a month for mentoring sessions in a program typically running for between one and two years.
Leach believes that charging high fees gives strong incentive for change. “If it’s free, people don’t take it seriously and they are not committed to it.”
However, Gilly Johnson, director of the Australian Mentor Centre, believes that mentoring a small business should be unpaid. “Paid mentoring changes the whole dynamics of the relationship,” she says.
“There is a distinct difference between mentoring and business coaching. Mentoring should be a voluntary and equal partnership.”
Business consultant and lecturer Peter Hickey, who heads Australian consulting firm CorpRat, sees a role for both volunteer and private mentors.
“When you have an outsider advising you on your business, it forces you to focus on the business itself. As a small business owner, you’re the boss, no-one is checking what you are doing – but owners really appreciate that outside perspective.”
Mentors often bring business tools and strategies to look at a business from a different angle, he says.
Hickey believes that most professional consultants should also do some volunteer mentoring but points out that the main difference between paid and unpaid mentoring will be the time and commitment of the mentor.
Charmaine Papallo has continued to use mentors, including paid mentors, as her business has grown. “Just to tap into the knowledge and experience from somebody who has been there before is invaluable. I really believe in the process.”
The main difference between voluntary and paid mentor programs is the cost, she says. “It’s a difficult thing for a new business to afford.” She believes private mentoring is useful for businesses that are well established.
Papallo is going back to the Women in Business program next year, but this time she’ll be a voluntary mentor. “I'm really looking forward to returning the favour. A few mentors have said to me that they get a lot out of it themselves, so I’m really happy to be able to contribute.”
