To prospective mentors....

Mentoring can be an immensely satisfying experience, but it also involves a serious commitment on your part. Think hard before you agree to act as someone's mentor. Should you decide to act as a mentor, you can be of immeasurable value in helping a young person achieve a dream of economic independence by starting his or her own business.

The value of mentoring

As an entrepreneur, you know how important it is to be committed to your business and your work. The more passionately you are involved in it, the more successful your business will be. Research has shown that passion is one of the keys to entrepreneurial success.

Of course, as you well know, it's one thing to be passionate about your business idea but quite another to actually make it happen. Fledgling entrepreneurs need to see an individual actually running a business that is similar to the one they hope to launch. They need to experience, first-hand, the energy required to make a business a success and to deal with the inevitable challenges and problems that entrepreneurs face every day. As a mentor, you can provide first-hand experience to show what it's actually like to operate a business in the marketplace.

How mentors are chosen

Mentoring is all about a relationship between two people. Therefore, it is critical that participants choose their own mentors. Only the "student" and you can know if you will be able to relate well enough for the mentoring to be worthwhile. In the ideal mentor/student relationship, the two parties respect and empathize with each other.

Terms of the mentorship

In general,

• People who require mentors are usually independent, responsible individuals who will soon operate their own businesses, and you will want to treat them as such. Whether or not they engage in a mentoring relationship with you is up to them – and you.

• Usually, mentors volunteer their time for mentoring a student, but this can vary according to individual circumstances. However, participants may find it a useful learning experience to spend some time working with the mentor – helping out, as it were, where this is practical. In this sense, mentors may receive some indirect benefit from participating as mentors.

• The mentoring relationship may last a relatively short time – two or three weeks, for example – or it may continue indefinitely. It is up to the mentor and the participant to determine the length and the intensity of the mentorship.

The role of a mentor

As a mentor, your role is up to you. However, consider that you could:

• Share your knowledge and experiences, within reason. After all, you have developed your own business and you are not expected to give away proprietary information that is crucial to your continued success. If you are approached by someone who requires a mentor, he or she no doubt respects your success and abilities. You are seen to be in a field that is similar to the one in which he or she hopes to start a venture. Anything you've learned that would be of value that you can share is welcomed. However, it is understandable that you would not want the person you are mentoring to be in direct competition with you.

• Empathize with the student and show an interest in his or her development. Try to relate to them the way you may have related to a mentor of your own – or perhaps the way you still relate to a mentor today.

• Work with the student to establish the best and most appropriate times for you to spend together and to determine what, if anything, the student can do for you as part of the mentoring experience.

• Provide opportunities for the student to learn about your business (proprietary information aside), which may mean inviting him or her to participate in business meetings with clients and so on.

For what it's worth, many mentors have said that mentoring was the single most rewarding experience they have ever had. Think about that as you consider becoming someone's mentor.