Businesses across Staffordshire are set to benefit after the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce won funding to extend its mentoring service. 

An army of business mentors is gearing up to help Staffordshire companies to flourish. 

Now John Thompson, the Chamber’s new Mentor Broker has appealed for more companies to come forward to access Let’s Do Mentoring. 

John, who recently joined the Chamber’s Business Services team, described Let’s Do Mentoring as “Staffordshire’s best kept secret.” 

“Mentors drawn from our experienced team offer an incredible level of expertise and are willing to offer their knowledge without charge as part of their entrepreneurial spirit and corporate social responsibility,” said John. 

“While Let’s Do Mentoring has been running for some time in the north of the county, new ERDF funding is allowing us to extend the service and market it to businesses countywide.” 

An extra 20 experienced business leaders have volunteered their skills to provide their support to businesses across the county. 

The mentors came together for a meeting organised by the Chamber Business Services team at the Etruria Industrial Museum, where thanks were expressed to volunteer mentor Bernard Lovatt, who arranged the venue. 

Adele Cope, Chamber Business Services Manager, said: “The breadth of expertise and knowledge available from our mentors helps businesses to overcome issues and to grow. 

“We work with every kind of company imaginable, for example, current beneficiaries include a farm and a commercial laundry.” 

Our mentors are drawn from a diverse range of businesses and include accountants, engineers, HR experts and manufacturers. 

Mentors can act as a sounding board for businesses from start-ups through high growth to established companies. 

Support on offer includes areas such as business diversification, supply chain management, funding advice, sales and marketing and leadership and management. 

Alison Davies of AJ Electrics of Hanley said that taking advantage of the Let’s do Mentoring programme had proved a huge benefit for the company. ‘Focusing on promoting the company gave us new paths to new customers and provided us with a new lease of business life.’ We are now looking forward to working with our new mentor on a different area of the business.

“An outside eye looking in on a business can give a whole new perspective,” explained John. “Businesses may need support with a specific project, such as getting a new product to market, or may need general business support and an experienced shoulder to lean on.” 

Businesses who believe they can benefit from a mentor or would like to become a mentor, should contact the Chamber Business Services Team by emailing [email protected] or telephoning 01782 213929. 

Further information is available online at www.nscciprojectteam.co.uk. 

ENDS

For media enquiries contact Nigel Howle by telephone on 07762043436 or email, [email protected]