Why did I, and maybe could you, think about becoming a business mentor? What good things could happen? Well, let me tell you about my story so far with Mentoring Harrow.
Last year I attended the launch of the Mentoring Harrow scheme, part of the London Business Partnership, which has been funded by the Mayor of London (thanks to the fundraising of ever clever, helpful and inventive Mark Billington from Harrow Council)
But before I even signed up that evening, the afore-mentioned Mark Billington, who I’d been chatting to a few moments earlier, signalled me to stand up during his presentation and said, “We have great people in the room, including this lady…'”*points at a startled me* “Who could mentor you on branding.” I was surrounded by people at the end of the talk, interested in my business, including the Gayton Hotel.
I signed up and attended a fantastic networking evening for Harrow mentors and mentees at the end of 2015, where I made more helpful connections and met my new client, Amina Sadiq, a fellow mentor and life coach. Also there was interest in me running some WordPress training for members.
I was also introduced to the ‘Start Here’ project through this network, which is a business incubation project with two pop-up shop spaces and a work space in Rayners Lane and Wealdstone, where I met another great connection, Natasha Hayles, who hopes to work with me in launching her services and website.
A few weeks ago I had a *milestone moment* of meeting my own mentee, Charlene Grandison, who designs and makes stunning quality leather handbags with an ethnic theme. She chose me (me!) as a mentor to help her come up with a Kickass marketing campaign to launch her handbag range. I really was moved to meet her and see her enthusiasm to work with me and it gave me a moment to reflect on how far I’ve come.
I’m really looking forward to inspiring and empowering this creative, sparky woman and getting her beautiful bags selling.
Here’s Charlene when she was working with the Princes Trust:
And here’s one of her bags from the upcoming collection:
And lastly…Mentoring Harrow were given a wonderful invitation to attend a West London business event at the Houses of Parliament a few weeks ago, which they kindly extended to the mentors. This was truly a wonderful evening where we were given a guide around the House of Commons and the House of Lords by an MP, heard an inspiring talk by Lord Bilimoria (who created Cobra beer) and I made some great new business connections, including a website company in Harrow, who I might be able to work for.
Here are some piccies from the eve.
So…believe it or not, I am not being paid by them, but I really encourage you to get in touch if you’re interested in being a mentor or a mentee. You can find out more here.
I look forward to many more unexpected and wonderful business adventures ahead being a mentor!
The Joy Factory 