Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been in business for 30 years, the most important requirement is that you are seriously committed to working on your business with your mentor. We ask that all participants treat others within the MicroMentor community with respect, and that an honest effort is put into each mentoring relationship established.

New entrepreneurs can find answers to business questions and connect with mentors and advisers who are ready to help with business challenges. To read about the small business owners who have benefited from being matched with a business mentor, check out our Success Stories.

Signing up is easy. Simply go our website at: http://www.micromentor.org and follow the link to Find a Mentor. Our application form should take you about 20 minutes to complete and then you are ready to begin!

While each mentoring relationship is unique, some reach their goal in a few weeks, and some go on for a few years, as a rule of thumb, we recommend that you set aside 6 hours per month for 3 months for each of your mentoring relationships.

Finding the right connection is easy:

1. Log into your MicroMentor account and search the mentor portfolio. You can customize your search based on the industry, expertise needed and other criteria.
2. Review detailed business and mentor profiles and send a match request to those that look like a good fit for you. (We recommend sending up to 3 match requests at a time)
3. Each individual you contact will then have the opportunity to review your profile and either accept or decline the request. When a match request is accepted, names and email addresses will be exchanged and your mentoring relationship begins!

You may work with up to three Mentors at any given time.

It depends… sometimes people get matched on the same day that they send match requests and sometimes it takes a few weeks. After you send a match request, we give the requested party two weeks to respond until we “expire” the match request.

MicroMentor is a national project—linking emerging entrepreneurs from around the country with experienced business mentors—and most mentoring relationships take place over email or telephone. However, if you prefer, you are welcome to specifically seek contacts in your region. Depending on your location, you may not find someone local right away, but we are growing every day.

MicroMentor mentors can work with you to help make your financing plans viable, but they are not able to provide financing themselves. Small business owners who need funding are advised to check out our resources page for appropriate resources.

In order to maintain the integrity of the MicroMentor program, we require that our Mentor volunteers:

1. Have significant business experience and expertise. To qualify, you must have the equivalent of 3 years of business ownership experience, 5 years of management experience, or several years of professional experience in a specialized skill (for example: marketing, web site development, or accounting and financial planning).
2. Be at least 21 years of age.
3. Review and agree to MicroMentor’s Terms of Use and Ethical Agreement.
4. Treat others within the MicroMentor community with respect, and put an honest effort is put into each mentoring relationship established.

MicroMentor entrepreneurs are a very diverse group, starting and growing businesses across a wide range of industries and needing a variety of functional expertise. Commonly requested skills include, but are not limited to: writing business plans, online sales, time management, marketing, analyzing cash flows, managing finances, and website development.

• Make an Impact – Work with a diverse community of entrepreneurs to build their businesses, creating long-term, sustainable economic impacts in neighborhoods across the nation.
• Save Time – MicroMentor helps busy business owners and professionals find convenient and rewarding volunteer opportunities. The sign up and matching process is simple and easy, and most mentoring happens over email and the phone.
• Cultivate Your Skills – Tackle new challenges and sharpen your mentoring and advising skills. With you’ll have the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs across a range of industries and topics, from business basics to specialized industry knowledge.

To read about some of the mentors in MicroMentor, and why they chose to get involved, check out our Success Stories.

Signing up is easy. Simply go our website at: http://www.micromentor.org and follow the link to Be a Mentor. Our application form should take you about 20 minutes to complete and then you are ready to begin!

While each mentoring relationship is unique, some reach their goal in a few weeks, and some go on for a few years, as a rule of thumb, we recommend that you set aside 3 hours per month for 3 months for each of your mentoring relationships.

Finding the right connection is easy:

1. Log into your new MicroMentor account and search the protégé portfolio. You can customize your search based on the industry, expertise needed and other criteria.
2. Review detailed business and mentor profiles and send a match request to those that look like a good fit for you. (We recommend sending up to 3 match requests at a time)
3. Each individual you contact will then have the opportunity to review your profile and either accept or decline the request. When a match request is accepted, names and email addresses will be exchanged and your mentoring relationship begins!

You are welcome to work with as many entrepreneurs as you would like as long as you have the time to provide quality mentoring to each of your Protégés.

It depends… sometimes people get matched on the same day that they send match requests and sometimes it takes a few weeks. After you send a match request, we give the requested party two weeks to respond until we “expire” the match request.

MicroMentor is a national project—linking emerging entrepreneurs from around the country with experienced business mentors—and most mentoring relationships take place over email or telephone. However, if you prefer, you are welcome to specifically seek contacts in your region. Depending on your location, you may not find someone local right away, but we are growing every day.

Just send an email to support@micromentor.org and let us know that you would like us to resend your login information.

MicroMentor is available across the United States, and because it’s an online service, you can access it anywhere. We only ask that you update your profile on MicroMentor with your changed contact information.

Log in to your account on www.MicroMentor.org and follow the links at the bottom of your account page to “Update Your Profile”. Please note: You can only currently update your contact information and not your business or mentoring profile. We are currently working on this glitch in our website and will send out an email when the problem has been fixed.

You can close, or temporarily deactivate, your MicroMentor account at any time. Just email support@micromentor.org.

After logging into your account you will see a table in the middle of the page with your match requests. You can click on the profile of the mentor or protégé to see their profile. You can also see the status of the match request. If you were requested for the match and it is still pending, take a look at the profile and either accept or decline the match request.

You don’t need to worry about that – our system will allow you to view any profile in our system, but if your match request has already been declined by this individual, you will not have the option of sending a match request.

No. All personal and contact details, including your name and email address, remain private until your match request is accepted. When a match request is accepted, names and email addresses will be exchanged, however it is entirely up to you whether you would like to exchange phone numbers or meet face-to-face.

Underneath your new contact’s name you should also find their email address.

Chances are that you have landed on a profile of a mentor or protégé that you have already requested for a mentoring relationship. Even if you don’t have any active requests out, the system will not allow you to send a match request to a previous mentor/protégé or to someone who has previously declined your match request.

MicroMentor.org connects emerging entrepreneurs with volunteer business owners and professionals—like an online dating service for entrepreneurs and business mentors. MicroMentor, a nonprofit program, is an initiative of Mercy Corps, an international economic development and humanitarian relief agency.

Between 1998 and 2001, the Aspen Institute’s FIELD program conducted a national research project to learn more about the best ways to help small business owners in disadvantaged communities grow and stabilize their enterprises. The project concluded that in-depth, industry-specific business assistance was critical for emerging businesses. Thus, the MicroMentor concept began to take shape.

New entrepreneurs can find answers to business questions and connect with mentors and advisers who are ready to help with business challenges. To read about the small business owners who have benefited from being matched with a business mentor, check out our Success Stories.

• Make an Impact – Work with a diverse community of entrepreneurs to build their businesses, creating long-term, sustainable economic impacts in neighborhoods across the nation.
• Save Time – MicroMentor helps busy business owners and professionals find convenient and rewarding volunteer opportunities. The sign up and matching process is simple and easy, and most mentoring happens over email and the phone.
• Cultivate Your Skills – Tackle new challenges and sharpen your mentoring and advising skills. With you’ll have the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs across a range of industries and topics, from business basics to specialized industry knowledge.

To read about some of the mentors in MicroMentor, and why they chose to get involved, check out our Success Stories.

Signing up is easy. Simply go our website at: http://www.micromentor.org and follow the link to Find a Mentor. Our application form should take you about 20 minutes to complete and then you are ready to begin!

No. All personal and contact details, including your name and email address, remain private until your match request is accepted. When a match request is accepted, names and email addresses will be exchanged, however it is entirely up to you whether you would like to exchange phone numbers or meet face-to-face.

MicroMentor currently only offers mentoring matching services. We plan to launch a new and improved web platform (MicroMentor 2.0) with more services in late fall 2008.

To see a basic set of guidelines for MicroMentor involvement, please consult our ethical agreement: http://www.micromentor.org/ethicalagreement.htm

At the moment, MicroMentor is specifically an English-speaking program. However, we are actively designing a Spanish-language pilot program, and hope to launch services in additional languages soon.

MicroMentor is currently only available to participants in the United States. We are actively assessing opportunities for international expansion and hope to offer some international service in the next year or two.

A microenterprise is a small business that has 5 or fewer employees and start-up capital of $35,000 or less. Microenterprises are generally considered unbankable. For this reason, microfinance institutions are a common source of funding and expertise for these small businesses.

Yes – most states have microfinance institutions that are devoted to helping small businesses get up and running. These institutions provide a variety of services, often including financing options. Go to the MicroMentor Resource Center to find a microfinance institution near you.

You can search for a microfinance organization by state by going to the MicroMentor Resource Center.

Through our affiliate program, MicroMentor helps to build capacity and reduce costs for micro and small enterprise development organizations by providing a scalable platform for delivering one-on-one technical assistance services to clients. These affiliate programs refer clients in need of personalized business mentoring and advising to MicroMentor on an ongoing basis, and we provide detailed activity and outcomes reporting as their clients progress through the program. We offer staff orientations and training to help affiliates get started with the program, as well as ongoing support and resources. MicroMentor is also focused on leveraging our affiliate relationships to collaborate with local corporations and professional groups, cultivting local networks of support for affiliate clients.

For more information please email info@micromentor.org or call 415.692.4840

MicroMentor offers busy professionals a convenient, flexible volunteer opportunity that leverages and challenges their core business skill set and puts them in direct contact with a dynamic emerging market: micro and small businesses. MicroMentor provides a suite of services to help groups of volunteers get involved and have a rewarding experience, including program planning and implementation, dedicated customer service and support, participant monitoring, and community impact reporting.

MicroMentor is currently enhancing our website to offer corporations and professional organizations the ability to sponsor, develop, and participate in targeted communities of practice: group spaces aggregating content, entrepreneurs, and volunteer mentors and advisors around a specific industry or topic, for example Green Business, Specialty Foods, or eCommerce.

For more information please email info@micromentor.org or call 415.692.4840.