Starting and running a business is often a tough ask and requires a lot of patience and skill and of course, capital.
While patience is down to an individual person, skill and capital often require external help to build, and especially for women, many of whom lack such opportunities to improve their skills and capital. Enter MicroMentor.
What is MicroMentor and what do they do?
Founded in 2008, MicroMentor is a non-profit organization which connects female entrepreneurs with mentors from all across the world. The mentors help women in small business thrive considering the fact that women own a significant number of small businesses. The mentorship program allows for driven entrepreneurs and business mentors to build strong connections, solve problems and even build businesses together.
MicroMentor aims to make it easier for women to navigate the challenges of starting their own business and has built more than 41,000 connections between entrepreneurs and mentors since 2008.
What impact has MicroMentor had?
According to their website, MicroMentor boasts of a survival rate of 83% of businesses set up by early-stage mentored entrepreneurs and each entrepreneur, on average, receives about 13 hours of mentorship.
The program has also resulted in over 5900 jobs created from entrepreneurs who received mentoring at MicroMentor.
How do I Sign up?
If you are a woman with a running business, then you can find a mentor by clicking here and signing up for free. Once you have set up a profile, you can then go through profiles of mentors and check on their experience, background and knowledge until you find the one you are looking for. On the other hand, if you are already a successful female entrepreneur and would wish to mentor others coming into the field, then you can become a mentor by clicking here.
While the head office is in Portland, Oregon, USA, the fact that you can sign up online means that you are not limited in your connections. And if you want to meet, MicroMentor has mentors across the world too and so, you could find a mentor within your own country if you want that.