糖心Vlog

Insights on Community, Growth, and Investment from Industry Leaders.

聽At Mentors for Makers, we鈥檙e continuing the deep dive into our panel talk from Ideas Fest 2024, offering fresh insights into mentorship for product-based businesses and how it can fuel scale-up success. Our insights come from powerhouse success stories Bird & Blend, Bio & Me and Fearne & Rosie.

We鈥檙e also highlighting mentoring and investment opportunities, relevant to aspirational makers.

In this article, Mentors for Makers look at how mentorship:

• Builds Community Amongst Makers
• Combats Founder Loneliness
• Brings Investment Opportunities
• Uplifts Underrepresented Makers

聽Mentors for Makers is a passion project of Adelphi Manufacturing, here to offer free advice on how to sustainably grow your business through semi-automatic filling. This allows you to up your production, take on new stockists and focus your energy on other areas of business.

聽We offer a free Ask-The-Expert-Hour for businesses looking to scale. Go through your production process step by step, find solutions, use your own product on our fillers, get a real sense of what scaling looks like and see what鈥檚 right for you.

Building Community Amongst Makers

If you鈥檝e never experienced it before, the idea of mentorship can be a bit daunting. It can seem overly formal, even forced! That鈥檚 what friends and family are for, right? However at its most informal level, mentorship is just solidarity between makers in the same space. They can offer advice as someone who鈥檚 been through it. Jon of Bio & Me recalls the invaluable help he was given by another brand who were further along in their scaling journey.

鈥淓verything they were doing was what we were just starting to think about. And they were so generous with their time. I could phone them up and ask them really basic questions.鈥�

聽Cultivating authentic business relationships are essential. The Practical Journal Blog puts it this way: 鈥淪trong connections that stand the test of time are built on reliability and trust. Consistently show up for your commitments and communications, even when you鈥檙e not asking for something. Regularly check in with key contacts to keep the relationship warm.鈥�

With this in mind, you鈥檝e probably already been someone鈥檚 mentor or mentee without even knowing! Since it鈥檚 free and easy, it鈥檚 always worth reaching out on social media to other makers who inspire you. Chances are if you鈥檙e in the same space, they like what you鈥檙e doing too! However, if you鈥檙e looking for an in-person opportunity to connect with likeminded maker, Bread & Jam are the UK collective who run the 'Biggest Challenger Brand Festival' of the year. Although this is not one the cheapest offers, with tickets at 拢150, feedback is amazing and Eventbrite shows lots of repeat ticket sales year after year.

Combatting Founder Loneliness

While mentorship can happen by accident between peers, studies show that there a measurable benefits to having聽experienced, professional mentors. Particularly, when it comes to start-up survival rates.

"When you鈥檙e a founder, it鈥檚 pretty lonely鈥�, admits Bird & Blend鈥檚 Mike and he鈥檚 by no means alone. A 2019 study found that every single founder surveyed used the word 鈥渓onely' to describe their experience. Mike experienced a lot of scepticism from friends and family prior to launching his tea business. When those close to us doubt our idea, it can leave us feeling deeply isolated. The best mentors will offer sound advice while remaining open emotionally.

In 2022 the Mentors Matters Report actually found that, 鈥渕entors have a genuine desire to support other people and encourage their success, as well as have genuine empathy for them. It鈥檚 so helpful to be intuitively able to understand the pressures that聽 a mentee might be under and help them get a handle on the practical workings of their business.鈥�

When choosing a mentoring platform it鈥檚 extremely important to do your research. GrowthMentor is a consistently well reviewed platform, connecting founders to 'vigorously-vetted' mentors. Mentor abilities and expertise are praised on both LinkedIn and Trust Piolet. At a monthly rate of 拢100 a month, you receive three hours mentoring from per week as well as entry to the Slack community. This is also well reviewed, reportedly with members helping each other out and attending in-person networking events together.

Bringing Investment Opportunities

Mentorship has a proven ROI. Of 823 businesses across the UK, 66% of businesses that had received mentoring say it had helped them survive and three quarters (76%) say it had been key to business growth (Mentoring Matters Report 2022).

Mentoring pays in the long term (quite literally). Mentors often develop deep relationships with founders, gaining an inside view of their operations and potential. This means that when it comes to fundraising, they are more likely to invest. This is what Mike experienced when setting up Bird & Blend. Years before at university, Mike was had been set up with a mentor and the two stayed in touch. Not only was this mentor the first person to encourage Mike鈥檚 business plans but he backed it up when it came to fundraising, saying he 'wanted to be involved'.

Inversely, Bio & Me鈥檚 Jon, has found several of his investors to be great mentors. Saying, 鈥渢hey鈥檝e invested money into you and so they鈥檙e incredibly interested in talking about your company.鈥� He added that out of the twenty or so investors, 鈥渇our or five of them are just really good at being on the end of the phone.鈥�

If you鈥檙e interested in early stage investment, the Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre recommends the UK Business Angels Association. Unlike traditional venture capitalists, angels offer smaller sizes of investment as well as a different approach. They are less concerned with rapid return and exit and are prepared to support the business through its path to growth and exit over a longer timescale.

Uplifting Under-Represented Makers

Women often benefit from mentorship from other female leaders and investors. This is what Rachel, of Fearne & Rosie found when she sought investment from Obu, a collective of angel investors looking to be connected with female founders driving change. Of her experience with Obu Rachel says,

鈥淪arah and Claire鈥檚 (Obu鈥檚 founders) belief in the business and belief in me, when we were really scrappy and tiny and didn鈥檛 have a clue. They held my hand through our first fundraise and our second fundraise. I wouldn鈥檛 have known what I was doing without them.鈥�

If you鈥檙e interested in help with a specific challenge, Obu offers a one-off, one hour coaching session. This is an opportunity to meet with Sarah and dig into what鈥檚 on your mind and to work out a practical, positive way forward. For in-depth, bespoke support, Sarah offers a three-month coaching package to help makers as they get ready to raise.

Since Rachel鈥檚 mentorship and subsequent investment, Fearne & Rosie has grown +400% in the past 12 months and on track to hit 拢5m turnover by 2025. Rachel has used her making powers to provide healthier jam alternatives to families across the UK. Each jar is made up of 70% fruit, and 40% less sugar than an average jar of jam.

Conclusion

It is clear, aspirational makers seek out mentorship not just a support system鈥攂ut as a transformative tool that enables them to overcome challenges, scale their ventures, and foster sustainable success. A study by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in the UK reveals that 72% of entrepreneurs experience mental health struggles, with the 'need to have all the answers' cited as a major stressor. By opening yourself up to mentoring and taking up mentorship opportunities, you not only make yourself more accountable to your own business but you open yourself up to new perspectives on how to arrive there.