Business Mentors Finland: Helping Finnish entrepreneurs

As the number of small businesses in Finland grows, newly-emerged entrepreneurs require some advice and guidance to succeed, and this is exactly when Business Mentors Finland comes into play.

The Daily Finland talked about the association with Business Mentors Finland Regional Mentor of Lapland Heikki Kontiosalo, who is also the CEO of Arctic Stream Oy and an advisor to Mtech Digital Solutions.

In Kontiosalo’s words, Business Mentors Finland is a non-profit organisation which helps small businesses by lending an ear and then helping them solve different emerging problems by giving advice related to business growth and development. The organisation mentors entrepreneurs in many business sectors.

The mentors of the association are businessmen with many years of experience under their belt. Kontiosalo himself has joined Business Mentors Finland as a mentor only after he retired. He pointed out that it is important for both the parties, mentors and entrepreneurs, to understand the tasks which mentors do and do not perform. To avoid any misunderstanding, “a contract describing the tasks is signed,” explained Kontiosalo. To be more precise, the

tasks of mentors include listening and helping individual as well as networks of entrepreneurs brainstorm, seek new development paths and ideas and analyze them together. Mentors do not give orders or commands to the customers or invest in their businesses.

Interestingly enough, the association strives to pair mentors and customers from the different fields of business: “It is not always so good to have two people from the same field

discussing problems”, observed Kontiosalo. According to him, it is beneficial for a fruitful discussion, as it involves different perspectives and might help them broaden the vision through the dialogue.

The Lapland department of Business Mentors Finland counts around 20 people. “There are many mentors, but not so many companies to mentor. It is not very busy in Rovaniemi at the moment,” said Kontiosalo. The problem is that not a lot of entrepreneurs have heard about the organisation and that is something that is being fixed at the moment as Business Mentors Finland gets more publicity in the press as well as online media.

The big advantage for the entrepreneurs is that service in the association is free of charge. The only requirement is that the company should have at least one year of previous experience before reaching out for guidance. “We mentor companies which are at least one year old already, not start-ups,” said Kontiosalo.

This way the entrepreneurs have some background and basic knowledge of what they want to achieve or improve and what advice they seek to receive. In order to apply for a mentor, there is a form that needs to be filled which can be found on the association’s website. Before starting mentoring there is a contract to be signed, as it was mentioned earlier.

With the current COVID-19 situation, there are definitely some burning questions that entrepreneurs need help with. “Even simply listening to a person’s problems helps,” said Kontiosalo.

Unfortunately, some companies will file for bankruptcy because of the effect that pandemic had on business. Kontiosalo predicts that April will bring more of those cases as it is the month when these matters are settled in Finland. If you are an owner of a small business we encourage you to reach out to Business Mentors Finland and ask to be paired with a mentor. You can find all official information concerned on the official website here.