I made a joke with one of my new clients while explaining the mentoring process: As mentors, we are in the “rabbit hole protection business.” Simply put, part of what we do is keep clients from going down rabbit holes that waste time and money. At SCORE Rhode Island – Service Corps of Retired Executives Association – more than half our clients seek guidance to help them start a business. The rest are existing business owners who are struggling to keep up. Our Rhode Island SCORE chapter has an army of nearly 50 mentors and subject matter experts who volunteer their time. SCORE services incur no costs to clients.
Founded in 1964, SCORE has a client-centered process that starts with listening to a client’s business idea or situation and then mapping out specific steps to achieve their goals. For the entrepreneur, this early stage of the mentoring process boils down to determining if a client has the makings of a business that will generate a livable income or is simply a hobby.
Owners of established businesses that seek SCORE mentoring are looking to improve operations, sales and profitability. They usually find themselves stuck, needing “another set of eyes” to uncover the reasons their business isn’t growing. Changes to markets, competition and economic conditions often happen over time and are not obvious to the entrenched business owner.
SCORE mentors come to the organization from many business disciplines with a wide variety of skills and knowledge. Clients are assigned to mentors based on matching a client’s needs to a mentor’s experience. There is almost always a mentor in our chapter with career experience that applies to the situation.
The mentor-mentee relationship provides a personal dynamic that is naturally motivational. After agreeing to work together, the mentor and mentee create a plan of action. The mentor’s role is to keep the client on track with the plan. The mentor basically suggests what amounts to a to-do list. They are both accountable for making progress with goals and a timeline.
As a media marketing professional, I focus on getting mentees to sharpen their messaging by creating a compelling value proposition focused on benefits to the customer.
As a mentor, I can identify many mechanical aspects of a business that help it grow and thrive or stagnate and struggle. As a mentor, I often ask my clients the same question: If you had the opportunity to write an article for a new publication about your business, what would you say?
I find it forces people to think about their business from a different and more holistic and powerful perspective. The rabbit hole joke is based on reality.
The practice of mentoring harkens back to trade guilds where workers served as apprentices to learn their craft from those with more experience. Today, some companies have a mentoring system better known as “onboarding.” With too many companies, mentoring is random and a missed opportunity. It follows that employees that have strong mentors attain higher skills and are more loyal employees.
SCORE mentors and the Rhode Island Chapter are evaluated on a continuing basis by our clients and based on our activity. I’m happy to say that we ranked fifth in the nation in the number of mentoring sessions and the feedback scores from our clients. In 2023, we delivered just over 2,200 mentoring sessions creating hundreds of businesses and jobs in the Rhode Island economy.
SCORE Rhode Island is a nonprofit with only one paid employee and nearly 50 volunteers. Our goal is to enlist more businesses and entrepreneurs to make use of our free services and attract more people with experience to join our ranks of mentors. Visit SCORE.org/RI for more information.
Chris Westerkamp is a former media executive at several TV station groups, the founder of several internet companies and former director of sales at Creative Circle Media Solutions in Rhode Island. He is a SCORE volunteer mentor.
