CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Mentorship isn’t limited to young, new entrepreneurs.
In fact, no matter what stage a business is in, mentorship and access to experience are critical for growth, says Alex MacBeath, CEO and managing partner of Island Capital Partners.
“The type of mentoring you’re looking for may change. But it’s always something that’s important. I think it’s a lifelong thing in a business,” he said Thursday.
MacBeath is one of the presenters at Friday's Mentorship Matters event hosted by Island Advance (a Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce initiative). The event is being held at the Rodd Charlottetown.
MacBeath, who is also involved with the Wallace McCain Institute at the University of New Brunswick, is speaking about that organization’s peer mentorship program.
He explained that in the early stages of a business, mentoring can involve basic business advice or basic business skills. As the company grows, mentoring can evolve into other aspects of the business, such as acquiring customers, raising capital, building a supply chain or developing and implementing a business strategy.
“Almost every issue that a business faces, someone’s been through that experience. It’s part of building business confidence and helping people improve their business decision-making capability.”
-Alex MacBeath
“The issues become more complex. So, I think as oftentimes as businesses grow, they may not, at that point yet, have the internal management expertise. They don’t have a whole management team. I think it’s an opportunity to avail yourself of people who have been through those sorts of things,” said MacBeath.
“Almost every issue that a business faces, someone’s been through that experience. It’s part of building business confidence and helping people improve their business decision-making capability.”
Mitch Cobb, co-founder and CEO of Upstreet Craft Brewing, is also scheduled to be involved in today’s mentorship event as a panellist. He understands the value of mentorship, especially as he went through the growing pains of building the business. Cobb has participated in mentorship programs at the Wallace McCain Institute as well as Food Propel on P.E.I.
“They’ve both been so valuable to me in helping me work through any sort of issues that I have with business or any problems that I’m encountering. It’s been super valuable, for sure,” he said.
“The peer mentorship group (at the Wallace McCain Institute) has been great, meeting up with a group of other entrepreneurs from across Atlantic Canada and talking about things that we’re dealing with and knowing that other people are going through very similar things, and that we’re not alone.”
The Food Propel mentorship has helped Cobb develop the product, East Coast Craft Soda, and grow it off Island.
“Food manufacturing isn’t necessarily my background. So, to have these mentors who have been there and who understand what that process looks like and provide guidance and introduce me to the right people to take the next steps has been great,” he said.
Ted Graham, a native of Cape Breton and head of open innovation at General Motors in Ontario, is the keynote speaker. Other scheduled panelists joining Cobb include Sean Aylward of the Humble Barber, Sally Bernard of Barnyard Organics, Hope Milner of Bohemian Findings and Russ Mallard, Food Propel mentor and president of Atlantic Beer Products. Besides MacBeath, also scheduled to make presentations are David Eisnor and Rory Francis.
The Mentorship Matters event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.