Montserrat Development Corporation Announces New Business Mentoring Service (BMS)

29th May, 2009

Many small business people need support and advice to help them to start and sustain their business. As part of its ongoing program to support the development of Montserrat, the nation’s development corporation is launching a new Business Mentoring Service.

Kenneth Scotland, the MDC Chairman noted that “mentoring is a process that matches a well established and experienced business owner with entrepreneurs who are starting out in business or need help with their business operations.” The mentor and protégé as they are called delve into the core of the business and work together to develop a Plan of Action to guide the business forward. Mentors usually require four or five sessions to assist to develop the plan.

Mentors and protégés then often work together over a longer period of time create a successful business. Mentors assist entrepreneurs to improve their business operations, decrease costly turnover, and develop marketing and sales strategies, proper accounting and good packaging and design.

MDC would like to hear from experienced business people who are interested in being mentors and from Montserratian entrepreneurs who are seeking to be connected to mentors. Efforts are being made to identify as many mentors as possible from within the country, but MDC will also be reaching out to Montserratian diasporas and other business people in an effort to find a range of talent that can support local businesses. All mentors will be put on a single data base and then matched with those business people who express an interest in being protégé’s.

“This is an effective and inexpensive way to provide business advice.” noted Colin Heartwell, the MDC’s CEO. “More importantly, we can use modern communications techniques like the internet to link local business people to expert mentors in other areas, thereby giving them a chance to learn business operations without the threat of competition.” Mr. Heartwell went on to say that the key to the program is to find willing mentors and eager protégés to participate.

MDC will be holding training courses for those persons interested in being mentors or protégés in mid-June. Persons interested in giving business advice or those wanting to receive it should contact Katrina Piper at MDC at 491-4700 or stop by the office at Bladen House and sign up for the program.

The Business Mentoring Service is part of MDC’s ongoing commitment to “A New Way of Doing Business”