Janine Pattison Garden Design won the BALI Principal Award for ‘Dairy Farm Lodge’ (Charlton Marshall, Dorset) in the Design Excellence category, sponsored by Readyhedge. They also won a Design Excellence Award for ‘Treetops Huf Haus’ (Poole). TV personality Gyles Brandreth presented the Principal award to Lead Consultant Janine Pattison.

Janine Pattison has been working with Dormen Mentor, Martin Spooner, for over a year. Martin said: "The Dormen organisation exists to support and mentor Dorset businesses. Last year, in the case of Janine Pattison Garden Design, in their words their progress was 'like walking through treacle'. As a mentor I have simply assisted by unlocking a door. Janine Pattison and Creative Director Denise Wright have run through it with remarkable and very professional ease all because they had the confidence to share their plans and fears and then focus on real, shared and costed strategies. I am very proud of the whole team."

Janine Pattison Garden Design - Treetops Huf Haus, Poole

Sara Hudston

Why use a business mentor? Is your business in serious trouble? Need to be told what to do? If you say yes, then a mentor is not for you.

I think mentors work best with successful businesses that want to grow, do more of the right things and explore new opportunities. These are firms who are interested in learning why they are doing well and how they can do even better.

When I started Watershed PR more than six years ago the company was only me in a converted stable in the grounds of an old watermill (literally a ‘water shed’). We’ve long since moved to much larger, more modern offices in Bridport with a staff of seven and looking to recruit again. Mentoring has played a big part in our development.

My original mentor created a string of highly profitable ventures, but was known best for founding the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. Gerard was a maverick who was always asking ‘why’. He was a great sounding board for ideas. He’d listen intently, question and challenge. He didn’t give advice as such, though it was part of his style to express vehement views. Sometimes we disagreed, and that was an accepted part of the debate. He never told me what to do with the business, but was very good at focusing my thoughts, recommending strategies and encouraging me to raise my sights.

My work with Gerard came to an end due to his poor health and as a result I didn’t have a mentor for a few years. In the meantime, Watershed grew, won awards and new clients, but the better we did, the more I missed having a mentor. I wanted someone with real, practical experience of business success and the time to spend with us who could help us push on to the next level.

Finding that person wasn’t easy. I wrote to various people and while they all sent back nice replies, no one made any concrete suggestions.

Finally, I heard of Dormen (Dorset Business Mentoring Programme) through a client who was already part of the scheme. Their business had really changed and grown and I was impressed with what they had achieved.

I contacted Dormen and was lucky enough to be accepted. I’ve been working with my new mentor, Phil, since March 2011 and the results have been great. Turnover has risen despite the tough economic conditions and it’s helped me develop a clearer vision of how to attain our goals.

For me, one of the most valuable aspects of having a mentor is that it compels you to spend time working on the business as well as in the business. We all know how important that is, but the day-to-day realities of running a business often mean that the strategic stuff gets pushed aside.  There’s always a client to talk to or a project that needs extra support. You can lose sight of the big picture.

My sessions with Phil are demanding and require commitment and preparation. I certainly couldn’t just waltz in for an easy, five-minute chat. Phil is particularly good at discussing the central paradoxes of entrepreneurship, such as the balance between vision (doing something new) and commitment (sticking with what you are already doing). Finding this balance poses a conundrum for creative businesses like mine, especially in the current environment.

Apart from the all-important bottom line, our sessions have also improved HR and team working. It’s important to me that Watershed is a good place to work and that good people want to work with us.

I find it amazing that more successful businesses with growth potential don’t use mentors. Dormen is a fantastic scheme and I recommend it.

Sara Hudston

Sara runs Watershed PR, a public relations agency based in Bridport and covering the South West region. Watershed melds new digital and social media techniques with tried and trusted PR to get award-winning results. See www.watershedpr.co.uk.

The four finalist for the award were Claire Burnet, the chocolate wizard who with her husband Andy founded and runs Chococo at Swanage, Aidan Chapman of the Phoenix Bakery in Weymouth, Nik Ralph of Dorset Farmers Markets and Emma Goss-Custard, the founder and driving creative force of Honeybuns, the gluten-free bakery at Holwell near Sherborne.

The winner was Emma Goss-Custard of Honeybuns for 'outstanding contribution to food in Dorset and for putting the county on the map with inspirational energy, imagination and use of Dorset ingredients'.  Emma said the award was for the whole team who work with her and her husband Matt, and how it's a privilege to work with such perfectionists.

The Honeybuns Team (Emma is sitting in the front row on the right)

The new network and web portal have been set up by the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and are designed to make it easy for anyone running a small business to find a suitable mentor in their area. The portal provides links to a growing number of mentoring organisations across the UK.

The network was officially launched at a meeting in the House of Commons attended by over 200 people including mentors and mentees, and those running mentoring organisations. Dormen was represented by Kevin Poulton, Teresa Allwood and Vivian Dunn.

Welcoming the new initiative, Mark Prisk MP, Business and Enterprise Minister, said:

“From my own experiences running a small business I know how valuable insight can be from people who have done it all before. Small business owners have repeatedly told us that the support they value most comes from other experienced business people. For the first time in the UK, there will be a single, cohesive network of mentoring provision.”

Angela Knight, Chief Executive, British Bankers’ Association said: “We recognise it is often a lonely place to be for a business when stepping out on their own for the first time or running their existing business day to day. That’s when a mentor can help. We hope that through the launch of this new initiative and portal, the help businesses can receive through mentoring generally will be much easier to access and better supported.”

 

L-R: Vivian Dunn, Angela Knight (Chief Executive, BBA) and Teresa Allwood

 

The team is working on a European Social Funded programme, The Athenea Project, looking at existing mentoring projects in South West England and in Denmark with a view to developing a mentoring programme to address the high unemployment levels, especially among young people in Andalucía.

Dormen mentor, Geoff Mullis, shared his experience of business mentoring with the team from Cadiz which led to a lively discussion including Teresa Allwood, Dormen’s Programme Manager.

The Spanish Group with Andrew Dean (Exeter University, left) and Geoff Mullis (Dormen, right)

Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP

Vivian Dunn, Dormen’s Programme Manager, has recently received a letter from the Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade, expressing his support for the Dorset mentoring programme (Dormen).

Referring to the event held on 22 October 2010 to mark the Dormen’s 5th anniversary, Dr Cable writes: “I am delighted to give my support to the Dorset Business Mentoring Event today as you celebrate your 5th Anniversary. The event marks the contribution made by Dorset Business Mentoring to businesses across Bournemouth, Dorset & Poole. This in turn helps the UK economy as a whole and we want this to continue and grow in the future.”

He adds: “The Government is committed to raising the awareness of the benefits of mentoring, improving accessibility for mentors and mentees, providing guidance on quality standards and investing to address short term capability building.”

Finally, he says: “I would like to send my congratulations to all those involved in organising, supporting and participating in this event.”

A copy of the letter is available here.

The event was opened by Kevin Poulton, Economic Generation Manager at East Dorset District Council who welcomed everyone and read a message from the Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade, who was unable to attend but sent his congratulations and support to all those involved with Dormen.

Cllr Spencer Flower, Leader, East Dorset District Council and Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources, Dorset County Council, recalled the start of Dormen followed by Vivian Dunn, Programme Manager, who described how Dormen had grown and developed over the last 5 years.

Cllr Ron Parker, Portfolio holder for the Economy, Borough of Poole, explained how Bournemouth and Poole had joined the scheme shortly after the start, and Ian Girling, Operations Manager Business Link, described how the two organisations had found benefits in working more closely as time went by.

Most importantly, a number of clients related how they and their businesses had benefitted from working with Dormen mentors. These included Roger Brisley of Timber Intent Ltd, Lyme Regis (with mentor Geoff Mullis) and Janine Pattison of Janine Pattison Garden Design, Bournemouth (with mentor Martin Spooner). Steve Salmon of C&B Consultants, Poole, and Mark Ferns of Storewatch, Poole, also spoke of their experiences with their mentors (Joe Windsor and Richard Harrison, respectively).

The event concluded with the cutting, and eating, of a large 5th birthday cake.

More photos of the event can be seen at http://bit.ly/5thAnnPhotos.

L-R: Ian Girling (Business Link), Cllr Ron Parker (Borough of Poole), Cllr Spencer Flower (EDDC & DCC), Vivian Dunn (Dormen)

As Programme Manager, Vivian Dunn, said: “The mentors’ group has worked well so we thought it would be a good idea to make the same facility available to our clients. I hope it will form a dynamic on-line networking space for clients, but only time will tell how much use is made of it. However, a good number have already signed up for it and several discussions are taking place.” 

Both were very supportive of the concept of experienced volunteer mentors working with small businesses, and interested to hear of the way the scheme has grown and developed over the last 5 years since it started.

Conor Burns MP said: “I was very interested to hear about the Dormen Programme and how it works with and helps local businesses. The volunteer business mentors who provide their time and expertise freely are making a very valuable contribution back to their community and I would like to thank them for that. Dormen is an excellent example of how citizens can support each other to make a better society – a concept which the ‘Big Society’ intends to develop further.”

L-R: Ian Wilson (a Dormen Mentor), Conor Burns MP, Vivian Dunn (Dormen's Programme Manager)

In 2006 the Government, responding to the views of business, decided to simplify business support and cut the number of publicly funded business support schemes from 3,000 to 30. At that time business mentoring was not identified as one of the services. Since then, the value of the DorMen scheme, amongst others, has helped to persuade the Government that a mentoring service pilot should be established. Regional schemes the North West and East Midlands have also been agreed whilst, in the South West, only the DorMen scheme in Dorset will be involved.

The Dormen programme, which started in 2005 and is hosted by East Dorset District Council and supported by Business Link and every local authority across Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole, has helped well over 500 small businesses improve growth and weather the recession.

Like all effective schemes, the principle is very simple. Owners and managers of young or developing businesses are matched with experienced business people who volunteer their expertise and skills to give something back to their community. Mentors cannot work miracles, but they can help clients to review their operations and plans, and act as a sounding board.

“It is a tremendous boost to receive this recognition. We owe a great debt to the mentors who are so generous with their time and skills” said Cllr Simon Tong, East Dorset District Council’s Lead Member for the Environment. He added “It also only works because of the full support of partners involved in the Multi Area Agreement.”

Vivian Dunn, Dormen’s Programme Manager, said “This is a real feather in Dormen’s cap and great recognition for the time and effort that all our volunteer mentors put in to supporting our clients. It is a great honour to now be able to use the official ’Solutions for Business‘ logo which will help to raise Dormen’s visibility.”

L – R: Kevin Poulton (EDDC), Cllr Alex Clarke (EDDC), Ken Moon (FSB), Tim Colman (FSB)

Cllr Alex Clarke (EDDC) receiving an award from the Federation of Small Business (Wessex Branch) for the Dormen programme