By Business & Finance 
The Small Firms Association (SFA) has launched MentorsWork, a new, free mentoring programme for SMEs across the country, supported by Skillnet Ireland.
Created as a response to the Covid-19 crisis, the support is aimed at guiding businesses through current challenges. The virtual mentoring programme is available to companies with 250 employees or less that have been impacted by the current crisis and includes businesses in any sector including retail, hospitality, food & drink, media & audio-visual, manufacturing, services, construction, agriculture and many more. Places will be made available on a first-come first-served basis.
Director of the SFA, Sven Spollen-Behrens, said:
We launched the mentoring programme with Skillnet Ireland because of the immediate needs SMEs have now. Companies have been signing on since the beginning of April, there has been a great response. There is a huge demand for this service. People are looking for advice in five main areas, namely access to government supports, help with financial planning and rebooting, managing a team remotely, growing a business online especially for those who have had to diversify, and finally innovation.
Designed as ‘bootcamp mentoring’ specifically to tackle immediately the issues companies are facing, the programme works by pairing the business owners and mangers of eligible businesses with an experienced mentor for two online one-to-one sessions.
Mentors will explore the immediate challenges each respective business is facing and address the specific needs of their business with bespoke advice, guidance and practical recommendations. The first online mentoring session will last 3-4 hours and will be followed up by a second 2 hour session.
The SFA and Skillnet Ireland has a pool of 100 mentors available with a range of experience including strategy, operations, commercial and financial analysis, crisis management, people management, product review and business development.
For further information, please see https://mentorswork.ie/
