The Mentor Hotline Programme is a national business development initiative that supports the aims of accelerated growth in emerging businesses nationwide by providing mentoring for small business owners and managers.

Open to entrepreneurs across a range of sectors, including agriculture, construction, tourism, craft & manufacturing the programme supports small business success, by providing guidance, to individuals owning and operating small businesses & community projects

Programme participation can be as an individual or as a corporate member. It is a low cost / high value programme that bring experienced skills to the business owner, no matter their geographic location. For current rates please contact info@fetola.co.za

This is a new programme of Fetola & Associates. We are seeking programme partners/funders to expand the benefits throughout Southern Africa

The Mentor Hotline© programme emerged from identified need in the small business sector. Many  businessmen and women expressed the need for mentor support and this addresses the gap between book learning and the real world of business.

Catherine Wijnberg & Anton Ressel of Fetola & Associates became aware of common challenges amongst small business owners who had nowhere to turn to received balanced experienced advice. A mentor overcomes the isolation of working as business owner by advice, guidance and a shoulder to cry on when times are tough.

Female and male participants are accepted into the programme. Currently 75% of beneficiaries and 50% of mentors are women.

The criteria for accepting participants into the Mentor Hotline© programme include the following

1. They should be owners or managers of a small business or community project

2. Show willingness to learn and to engage in personal change process

4. Have Access to communications (email and cellphone)

5. Be able to communicate in English (currently)

6. Be sponsored onto the programme, or pay the monthly fees themselves

Experience has shown that attitude defines success, & this is especially true as a small business owner. Learning involves change, and thus flexibility and willingness to change is essential. We prefer to work with entrepreneurs who are committed to success.

The Mentor Hotline© Programme offers partners and funders an ideal opportunity to accelerate the success of existing enterprise development programmes by providing cost effective support to entrepreneurs.

Access to qualified and experienced mentors who have proven success in business themselves has been proven to improve enterprise development success worldwide. The programme increases the cost:benefit ratio by eliminating and ensuring rapid 24/7 remote access to relevant, practical and needs-dependent support.

The programme is fully sustainable as the participants are not dependent on the programme for financial or management support, but receive mentor guidance to improve their own performance

The ongoing existence of the Mentor Hotline© programme is however fully dependent on individual participant fees, sponsorship and external funding from CSI, local Government and international donor funders.

The Mentor Hotline© programme reduces poverty, creates jobs and develops skills by building capacity in the key drivers of enterprise development success, namely the business owner. This creates a pool of expertise throughout the country with multiple benefit to the community of future entrepreneurs.

Fetola & Associates manages the programme in its entirety, from developing & implementing the annual programme, proposing & managing the annual budget to creating and implementing new innovations. Mentor support is implemented through a network of skilled & experienced individuals under instruction from Fetola & Associates.

We take performance measurement very seriously and are constantly seeking ways to fine-tune  this, by measuring the cost:benefit of our interventions. The impact of the Mentor Hotline© programme is ultimately measured in terms of improved skills and capability of the businesses.

Direct Impact measures include changes in entrepreneurial skills, measured through formal feedback and anecdotal individual success stories

The programme is also assessed in terms of its broader impact in sharing the lessons learnt with peers in the Enterprise Development industry, and in media exposure for supporters and funders. Annual media & PR value is a financial measurement of the reach of media and PR activities.

The Mentor Hotline© programme utilises both push (proactive) and pull (holistic) mechanisms in its design & implementation.

The pull/proactive process: Our skilled and experienced senior mentors have created proven assessment tools to measure the needs of small businesses owners across all sectors. These assessments are used to encourage participants to attend training in order to reach new heights.

The holistic/push process: Regular feedback through ongoing contact with beneficiaries, formal feedback systems and the shared learning network ensures that participants can make their needs known, ensuring that the programme remains responsive and in touch.

It is the combination of the pull and push method that makes the programme so successful.

The Mentor Hotline© programme is designed to support entrepreneurs and small business managers. It is a continual improvement cycle process and seeks to be a continuous benchmark of success. Notable programme innovations include

The Mentor Skills training which provides essential tools for mentors in the entrepreneurial environment. Training includes communications, negotiation and conflict resolution and a range of business support skills such as time management, leadership, vision creation & goal setting.

Peer to peer group network – a simple to use shared resource that puts entrepreneurs in direct contact with each other, encourages communication and builds a sense of community. This network can also used to distribute e-learning skills training materials & market access opportunities

FULL MEMBERS ONLY Access to a full range of Basic Business Building Blocks which include templates designed specifically for SMMEs in South Africa. One of the critical problems in South Africa is that the enterprise development skills training that is offered is too theoretical and pitched at too high a level for small and emerging businesses. Our BBBB templates and Business Skills training manuals are specifically designed in simple, accessible user-friendly terms, and have a 95% satisfaction rate amongst learners.

FULL MEMBERS ONLY Access to Business systems including piece-work production management, simple CRM, sales reporting, time management, financial management suited to manual and simple computerised use. The problem in South Africa is that most of the business systems are aimed at to high a level and are not suited to small and emerging businesses. We have designed customised simple user-friendly systems that are ideal for this target audience.