In the last decade, it has been shown a constantly growing interest towards entrepreneurial mentoring. Entrepreneurial mentoring is distinctly different from that carried out within companies already consolidated: the focus is on both on mentees’ personal growth and companies’ creation. In an entrepreneurial context, the mentor is a person who helps to discover and overcome barriers in the early stages of an enterprise or who gives advice, help and assistance for new entrepreneurs in small activities. Regarding the latter, due to their lack of experience, they do not have all the necessary knowledge to start and run a new business. It is necessary to show them skills related to project management, product development, marketing, fundraising and so on. In addition, they are not still aware about the challenges they will face during their entrepreneurial career and they need a more emotional support in order to be able to manage stress or anxiety.
Mentoring relationships therefore take on strategic importance for the personal development of both the mentor and the mentee. A series of tasks follow one another that respond to different needs depending on whether you are mentor or mentee. The benefit is therefore not unique to the mentee, but affects the growth of both.
The specific aim of this project is to support women entrepreneurs, therefore it is crucial to have in mind to deliver a female-friendly and accessible programme and to overcome the key barriers preventing women from starting a business. Businesses run by women represent a strategic resource for national economic development. Accompanying programs for women business owners is a success factor to consolidate female entrepreneurship and to enhance resources for female entrepreneurs as a determining factor of the economy.
The benefits
The mentoring experience represents a valid tool to make women’s success stories even more visible, while also represents a concrete means for minimizing obstacles that women start-ups encounter along their entrepreneurial journey. Being an entrepreneur means to innovate mentally, to get used to reflecting on problems alone, to develop and to refine one’s critical sense and one’s ability to analysis: these values must be clear and present in mentors and in the transmission of their knowledge.
Thanks to mentoring, it is possible to overcome obstacles already lived by mentors and entrepreneurs – obstacles that can be turned into challenges and ways to improve the business or the mind-set rather than be a discouragement. As a counsellor/guide, the mentor therefore represents a reference point for new women entrepreneurs, and this facilitates them in assimilating the best methodologies for management of the company, as well as representing, sometimes friendship.
