Self-Employment Mentoring Service

Structured Mentoring Support for Negatively Impacted Self-Employed Businesses

Being Self Employed can be worrying and daunting at the best of times, let alone when your business is impacted negatively by factors that are out of your control. Self Employed Mentoring sessions are designed to help you with business continuity planning, as well as supporting you with managing the associated stress and anxiety, increasing confidence, building resilience and addressing both your personal and business barriers.

Our Mentors are invested in getting you and your business back on track. As well as being qualified (minimum Level 3 EAT), all Mentors are business owners and have “been there and got the T-Shirt”. Mentors understand how you feel because they have faced similar situations themselves and needed support to transition or refocus their business. They want to listen to you and help you to address any problems or difficulties with your current business plans, as well as supporting you to alleviate stress and anxiety. They respect your lived experience and won’t patronise you, and will make mentoring sessions productive and enjoyable.

Mentoring Sessions take place using Zoom and are on a 1:1 basis. You will always receive a telephone call from your Mentor before your sessions start to introduce themselves and put you at ease about meeting them virtually. Mentors can also help with downloading the software or app for the device you are using to join the session.
The sessions last for up to 1 hour and are guided by you. Mentors will support you where you feel your business is fragile, as well as being an ear to listen, bounce ideas off and gain an alternative perspective.

Mentoring Sessions will help you with:

  • Business Planning
  • Re-evaluate, expand, or transition your business to become more resilient
  • Maximising opportunities
  • Digital Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Advertising
  • Generating Sales
  • Networking
  • Accessing Funding
  • Forecasting
  • Market Research
  • Understanding Trends
  • Strengthening your Brand
  • Exploring Alternative Operations
  • Understanding Tax and Self-Assessment
  • Develop Confidence and Resilience
  • Feeling calmer and reduce anxiety
  • Feel like you are progressing and addressing challenged before they arise
  • Accessing specialised local support to address specific barriers

"When I signed up for this training I assumed it would be a group training session and would just be a couple of hours. So I was surprised to find out that it was a one to one zoom meeting over 6 sessions with a marketing specialist. Each session was at least an hour and it gave me the opportunity to question you and learn from your experience as a successful business owner. It really helped that you have knowledge of the industry that I'm in and know the area that I live and work in and meant you could guide me in the right direction for my business.
I have already put some of your ideas into practice and I will continue to so. I now feel like I have a plan to move forward with my marketing to help grow my business. So thank you for your time and your invaluable help and support with this training, but also for your very kind offer of continued support going forward if I need it."

Learner Quote