Firms invited to Exeter mentoring event
Business leaders from across Exeter and surrounding areas are invited to share their experiences and skills at an enterprise mentoring event organised by Lloyds Banking Group and the Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI), aimed at increasing the support available to SMEs.
The free Meet a Mentor event on 10th September from 10am until 1pm at the historic castle of the City of Exeter, aims to connect business owners with experienced enterprise mentors, providing them with an opportunity to learn from one another and make new connections with the wider business and professional services community in their area.
Sponsored by the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE) and Lloyds Banking Group, all attendees will also be given free affiliate membership to the IOEE.
Previous attendees thought ‘the diversity (of mentors) was great because everyone has different needs and aspirations’ and that ‘the speakers were very inspiring, very honest and very real.’
The event is part of a series taking place across the UK in 2015, following on from a number of successful events last year. Attendees will get access to a range of mentors who have volunteered to help business-owners deal with the day-to-day and longer term challenges of running a business.
Jackie Jenks, senior manager enterprise mentoring at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Mentoring is a useful way of providing entrepreneurs with access to support and information from skilled and experienced industry professionals, which is why we are working to make mentors more widely accessible.
“For smaller and newer companies, the chance to use another industry professional as a sounding-board for new ideas and strategies can be a huge benefit and bring an objective perspective to the decision-making process, and the event in Cardiff is a great starting place for this.”
SFEDI Executive Chair Ruth Lowbridge, said: “The event at Exeter Castle is a great opportunity to bring together volunteer mentors, who are looking to share their experiences with owners of younger businesses looking for support to guide their growth, as well as giving something back to the business community.
“Given the many challenges associated with running a business, it’s vitally important that volunteers are able to directly engage with business owners to find out what their concerns and needs are, in order to help drive the continued economic recovery across the UK.”
The enterprise mentoring events form part of Lloyds Banking Group’s SME Charter pledge to support UK businesses and help Britain prosper, to expand its network of mentors by recruitment and training, so that it has at least 400 volunteer enterprise mentors to support new and established SMEs.
Interested attendees can register for the events at: ioee.eventbrite.co.uk
