A business development scheme which has provided thousands of small firms with a volunteer "friend, confidante and adviser" celebrates its 10th anniversary this month.

The Enterprise Ireland Mentor Programme offers "the skills and experience of retired and semi-retired business people" to companies which are "experiencing an obstacle to growth".

Volunteer mentors help companies devise strategies in finance, marketing, production and other areas. As part of the scheme, entrepreneurs and their mentors are matched carefully to ensure a good chemistry between the two.

The expenses of the mentors, which work out at about £60 per day, are normally paid up front by the company they are working with and are later reimbursed by Enterprise Ireland. Mentors sponsored by County Enterprise Boards receive their expenses directly from the mentor programme.

Companies participating in the scheme are entitled to up to 10 visits from their mentors, and can apply for another 10 when the first phase is completed. Businesses are also allowed to avail of a number of mentors with different areas of expertise as long as their combined visits total no more than 10. Each mentor signs a confidentiality agreement so that the business person feels able to speak "freely and frankly with a knowledgable outsider". Marketing is the area of expertise most in demand.

Mr Brian Doyle, head of the mentor programme, says that many small businesses start off knowing how to manufacture something, but not how to sell it. "Having learned how to sell it, they then need to know how to finance it. Some business people start off thinking that if their product costs £1 to make and they sell it for £2, then everything's fine. The fact that the £2 won't be paid up front escapes a lot of people."

However, Mr Doyle says the purpose of the mentor is not to provide all the answers but to "ask the right questions". For example, while mentors might suggest that a company formulate a business plan and give pointers for doing it, they differ from consultants in that they don't actually draw the plan up for the business they're working with.

Mr Doyle became involved in setting up the programme in 1988, after returning from a spell as group general manager with an agribusiness company in Saudi Arabia. At 58 years of age, he was "living quietly and sitting on a few boards" but felt it was "a bit early to hang up the boots". Instead he decided to get heavily involved in a scheme which would help entrepreneurs make their businesses viable. He started with a team of around 20 people but demand for the mentor programme has risen 15 to 20 per cent per annum in recent years and volunteers from north and south of the Border now number 500. He says the programme is "enormously cost effective because of the generosity of the mentors".

Enterprise Ireland's website* features a number of glowing testimonies from small and medium-sized companies which have availed of the programme's assistance. Along with giving pointers on marketing and finance, mentors with specific expertise have helped companies rationalise and upgrade their production lines, set up quality systems, carry out research and development and prepare brochures.

At the moment, 80 specially-trained mentors are "heavily into holding people's hands" to guide them through preparations for the euro.

Mr Doyle admits that there are times when the relationship between the mentor and the company is not rosy.

"Of course there are a few personality clashes. It's very important that the personalities involved mesh because if the business person doesn't get on well with their mentor they just won't listen to what they're saying. In that situation we'll kill that pairing and match the business person with another mentor. It's no reflection on the mentor - some people are looking for an aggressive mentor who will tell them what to do, others would prefer someone more reassuring."

However, most of the entrepreneurs view their mentor as "a nice old guy" with whom they can "sit down and test their ideas over a pint". "The grandfather figure every business person should have," as Mr Doyle puts it.

http://www.forbairt.ie/mentor/