If you don’t get a Business mentor from these guys you’ve got to be absolutely mad…

_MMP0596Kevin Byrne CEO and Founder of Checkatrade.com visited Medway in order to deliver an inspiring presentation to over 50 people. Kevin attended the IGNITE event which was jointly hosted by business support charity Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs and Kent Association of Young Entrepreneurs, a junior branch of the IoD.

The two organisations hosted the IGNITE event in order to promote, encourage and boost enterprise amongst Kent’s young people. And with Kevin’s support this was a roaring success.

Kevin opened up to the audience providing them with honest and sincere views on his secrets of business success. By providing many real life examples and putting them in to context really got people thinking. His business has not always been this big and he has had to go through many struggles in order to reach the successful position he is in now. Money is a secondary business objective for him with the main motivation to deliver grade A customer service.

Paul Barron, Director of Kent Foundation spoke about the success of their Business Mentoring service, which was endorsed by Kevin who said:

“If you don’t get a Business Mentor from these guys you’ve got to be absolutely mad”

Kevin took the time to network with the young audience members and gave them the chance to ask any of those niggling questions on a one to one basis.

Checkatrade.com vets and monitors trades, companies and services to help people avoid cowboy builders. It has become a monumental success in the UK and over the last 12 months has generated in excess of £1.4billion worth of work for its trade members and now employs around 120 people.

Why Business Mentoring is Crucial!

We saw the launch of The Ramsgate Enterprise Programme on Friday 22nd November. So beforehand in preparation for this we have been working hard, networking, recruiting and training some very enthusiastic Business Mentors. A fantastic response was received and 15 people have volunteered their time in order to support enterprise amongst Thanet’s young people.

If a young person decides to take the route of self employment as a career option we believe that it is crucial to have a business support network in place to increase their chances of success. Through plenty of research and three years of running a Business Mentoring service for young entrepreneurs we have found this to be a fantastic business support tool.

Figures for 2012 show that new business formation amongst 16-29 year-olds has leapt forward to 9.5% compared to 4.9% in 2010. In light of this who wouldn’t want a chance to talk through your business ideas with a Mentor who has ‘been there and done that’ who can eliminate some mistakes that could be costly to a start up business.

If a young person has the passion, drive and determination to bring their business ideas to life let’s reflect this and give them the support they need.

Our Volunteer Business Mentors all go through a 1.5 day training course to help them recognise their own potential but more importantly their potential to help young entrepreneurs.

Over on Facebook we have some great snaps of our latest Business Mentor training in action!

Get yourself a Business Mentor – Click here!

Become a Volunteer Business Mentor – Click here!