Many successful entrepreneurs attribute their success to the impact of mentors, and we believe that it’s a crucial part of the journey. BSEEN works with a varied pool of voluntary mentors, who give freely of their time and expertise to support our start-ups to launch, develop and grow their businesses in the early stages.

To help guide the many mentors who volunteer their time to support a BSEEN startup founder, and based on our experience of working with mentors over the last 8 years, we composed this Mentor Manifesto:

1. Take time to build trust and develop a sustainable relationship
2. Be responsive and empathetic to the challenges facing an early stage entrepreneur – remember startups are hard so be optimistic
3. Use open questions to encourage your mentee to articulate their ideas and concerns
4. Actively listen to your mentee
5. Give friendly, unbiased support and guidance – don’t control
6. Provide honest and constructive feedback
7. Empower your mentee to take responsibility for their own decisions, plans and actions
8. Encourage your mentee to review their progress and set realistic and practical goals
9. Help your mentee to reflect on recent experiences and not fear failure
10. Open up your networks and signpost your mentee to support
11. Be authentic and share your own successes and failures
12. Be a sounding board for ideas
13. Highlight any ethical issues that may arise
14. Hold information in confidence
15. The best mentor relationships become two way learning opportunities.