By ELLEN READ
Mentoring programme Business in the Community (BITC) has experienced a second year of record growth, making the year to March 31 its busiest ever.
The surge comes alongside international studies showing mentoring is one of the most important factors in business success and development.
BITC provided over 4900 small businesses
with free mentors during the year.
"We are delighted that a record number of the 270,000 small businesses throughout New Zealand are now using our free mentor programme," BITC chief executive Sarah Trotman said.
"A 71 per cent growth in the number of small businesses that we mentored over the last two years illustrates the real need in the community to provide specialist business experience to assist New Zealand's small businesses."
Trotman said the increased demand had stretched BITC's resources.
"As a charitable organisation we have a limited administration overhead so we are fortunate that over 170 New Zealand companies and 1500 mentors provide the support that allows us to meet the increased demand for our services," she said.
BITC offers the free business mentoring programme to any business with fewer than 25 employees and which has been established for more than six months. It has assisted over 55,000 business owners since it was established in 1991. Over 20,000 of those businesses went on to employ a business mentor.
BITC operates through 22 agencies (Economic Development Agencies or Chambers of Commerce) nationwide and has the support of 170 companies and over 1500 mentors from Northland to Southland.
Through its network of mentors - experienced business people willing to donate time and skills - the organisation aims to develop fragile new businesses into strong competitors.
The service matches mentors with small business operators needing help with issues ranging from management, sales and marketing, finance and accountancy to contract negotiations.
Meanwhile, recent research has confirmed the value of mentoring services.
"Three research papers published during the last year identified business mentoring as the best way to upskill business owners," Trotman said.
They came from Melbourne's Victoria University, New Zealand's Government Biz programme and the Independent Business Foundation.
