Alternatives

Ask yourself - is this a sensible action for me to take?

There are alternatives, many of them, some with a greater chance of success than others. Unicorn fellowship - This a unique organisation  of wealth creators where most join by being an apprentice to one of the existing members or fellows. Keith is a fellow, so many of the H3 Mentoring apprentices are also a part of the Unicorn Fellowship programme. The advantages in directly looking at the Unicorn Fellowship route over H3 is that the mentor may be more local to you, or it may be that the member who they select is more in line with your interest in some way. However it is the member that selects the people to see as potential apprentices, you don't get a choice. In many cases the agreement that is basically the same in format may not meet as many of your requirements, for example many mentors like to have people move near to them to cut down travel time, or they may specify that you have to spend half of your time working for them without pay, or some other requirement. Remember there always has to be something in it for the mentor as well as you.

Business Club International - as  a part of the expanded BCI, there is an expanding mentoring matching service allowing people who feel they can offer mentoring to be matched with those looking for it. This is likely to offer more specific mentoring, for example the person who has run a fish and chip shop offering mentoring to another who is considering doing the same thing. The fact that most of those offering mentoring will be doing so for the first time, may offer the opportunity to negotiate a good deal, but the down side that less of the known problems will be avoidable and that mentors as well as apprentices are likely to drop out. You will find that for entrepreneurial mentoring H3-mentoring is Business Club Internationals top recommendation.

Aaronic Business Angel Network, known as ABAN, membership is free, and add on personal club services allowing a lot more help is economically priced. ABAN is a member to member, non profit organisation, that puts people looking to become business angels putting in funding and experience in touch with other members looking to start or grow a business. It also has programmes that develop company directors and allow people to get real experience as a director  in real company, as well as finding non executive directors and more. ABAN Plus is a club that runs alongside ABAN for ABAN members, but gives them far more services, personal help and has panels of members that (for a fee) assist all ABAN and many business club International and other members.

Camera Images, is a training business teaching mostly photography courses but also have a range of very good business courses that allows people to de how they can get a business going, while still being able to manage other existing commitments.

Venture capital arrangements  (also available through ABAN & BCI above). When many venture capitalists make an investment within a business they expect to have a considerable say as to how the business is to operate. Many also bring to the business specific skills or facilities. In some cases this can also include, to a degree, mentoring. People are often put off by the larger percentage of the equity of the company being sought. However the venture capitalist will be looking at the risk, amount of time being used and the relevant increase in size of the company that his input will bring. If considering this route you should remember that half of a very large pie is far larger than a very small pie all to yourself.

Joint venture consortiums (JVC's). The concept is that a group of people form a consortium and between them acquire the skills and knowledge, often working on this part time. Under the new economic model, a new way of doing business, a large number of businesses and clubs are being converted to JVC's. Details of these offerings are on an exchange located at www.property-club.org . Further details on this, and on packaging up enterprises to enter in this way is at www.property-club-international.com  and www.property-club-international.org . H3 Search is a consultant to and involved in establishing this. JVC places involve some cost, and the size of this depends on the consortium and state it has reached, some for example already own property. There is no mentoring as such as a part of this, however new consortium members will get a manual and other briefings and the effects of working in a group has allowed the transfer of some knowledge and skills. If you are in the UK, then the entry point to all of this is through free ABAN membership.

Franchises  A franchise is a licence to operate a business using a formula or as a part of an overall marketing plan. The franchisor who sells the franchise places, provides a manual or other training to the franchisee, assistance to get going and helps resolve problems. For this you pay a franchise fee to start and a percentage of turnover. The franchise has a time limits but is renewable and can also be sold. Some franchises are very expensive to buy into, while others have only small initial costs. to find out more sees the franchise section of the ABAN member website, remember joining ABAN is free.

Approaching another wealth creator - probably more applicable if you see your future as an employee than a wealth creator. Very few people actually do approach directors of major companies, some may be interested in talking over the options while other will have a set means of recruitment.

Social scene - some people mange to make contacts at golf clubs or other social situations and get roles in businesses. This can be very difficult as other employees view this as cheating, and may even think you are a spy placed to report on them. Most these roles turn out to be short term.

H3 Mentoring is a division and trading name of H3 Search Ltd, a UK company. H3 Search Ltd has New Atlantis Trust status and most of its activities are exclusively marketed through NAISC. It does not provide consultancy services to the public or to organisations or businesses that are not in some way closely connected with what is now called the New Economic Model. See www.naisc.com for details on this.