Mentor Competition - the inside track!


Supported by HSBC, BT Business and Business Link in London, these businesswomen are great examples of start up businesses who have spotted an opportunity to get an experienced guide and mentor to help them navigate through the uncertain economic conditions.

As they passed the half way mark, the mentees confessed that they were on an exciting and inspiring roller coaster ride - and they didn't want to get off!

One of the mentees is, Paula Wynne, from Remote Employment, an online business dedicated to remote working. Paula’s mentor is inspirational entrepreneur and founder of Simply Switch, Karen Darby, who sold her company to the Daily Mail in 2006 for £22m.

Paula has said that after her first meeting with Karen she was on fire and is still in a constant state of inspiration. She said: “The help and guidance I have received from Karen is invaluable.  I have learnt so much and now have growth avenues set up for Remote Employment.  Like the other mentees I feel very blessed to have been given this excellent mentoring opportunity!”

As well as a sales revenue injection directly resulting from guidance and planning with Karen, Paula will soon launch the Remote Worker Awards, which could become one of the UK’s top business awards with prizes already stacked up to a whopping £60k and rising!


The following are some of the successes the other winners have had on the journey so far:

Zoe Robinson, founder of Think Style, an ethical image consultancy, was incredibly excited to win a mentor for 6 months. Her mentor has connected her with some hugely useful contacts and has provided invaluable insights into business strategy and sustainability. Zoe finds her mentor’s enthusiasm and determination is infectious. She says being involved with this competition has given her more confidence in approaching potential contacts, clients and collaborators.

According to Zoe, if you haven't already got a mentor, go out and get one now...beg, borrow or steal one if you have to!

Her mentor is the Kresse Wesling, Director of EaKo, Babaloo and BioSupplies and winner of an Entrepreneurial Woman of the Future award.



Katharine Roseveare is Director and co-founder of Intelligent Marketing (IM), which is now one of the UK’s most successful marketing agencies. Katharine has found it refreshing, motivating and stimulating to be able to discuss business issues and opportunities with a mentor who is not only hugely experienced, but also external to her business. After each session with Karen, she comes away full of enthusiasm, and keen to make a positive difference to IM.

Katharine spent the day with her mentor at Toptable recently and was inspired by the scope for how she could improve her business.  

Katharine has described winning her mentor as the best prize ever!

Her mentor is Karen Hanton, the Founder and Chief Executive of toptable.co.uk.



Michelle Peers, who founded the online network Socialite London, finds the scope and scale of her mentor’s thinking inspirational and she is valuing the opportunity to apply Polly’s visionary thinking to her business.

In the 3 months working with her mentor, Michelle has further developed the vision for her business and is applying a precise focus to key strategic issues including adding value to membership and identifying key routes to members where Polly & Michelle are evaluating a number of prestigious partnership opportunities.

Michelle’s mentor is Founder of Everyclick.com, Polly Gowers, winner of the 2008 edition of the Website of the Year awards, UK's most important people's choice award for websites.



Georgina Stevens, a Business Sustainability manager, joined the competition with the vision of working with a high flying mentor to put together the business case for a sustainable, community focused hotel. She sums up her mentor's support as fabulous. "Jo has shown me that if you believe in yourself you can move mountains.

She also showed me that if you can add in some well thought through numbers and a generous dollop of fun, the world really can be your oyster".

Her mentor is Jo Haigh, Author and Head of Corporate Finance, MGR.



Ila Panik started the mentor competition with only the strategy for U4U and a small team of volunteers. To date she has registered her holistic development program for young ladies, launched the website, and is preparing for the launch event which is a fantastic, fun-filled conference for young women. Her mentor has supported her in dealing with miscellaneous challenges, offering ideas to increase her success and sharing many useful connections.

On top of all that she has completed a very strong business plan and got through to the second round of two global business plan competitions.

She has been matched to founder of Club Asia Radio 963+972AM, Sumerah Ahmad.



Amy Kilbane, started the programme as European Marketing Manager.

Under the guidance of her mentor, Lucy she has already achieved a promotion to Marketing & Communications Director. When she first started working with Lucy, achieving progression to this role was one of her primary objectives and she is now looking forward to what the rest of the mentoring journey brings.

Her mentor is Managing Partner of Fitch, Lucy Unger.



Emily Shenton is MD of Arrival Education - an educational change business which helps businesses develop their staff through helping to create a new model for education. Working with her mentor has helped her refine her proposition, understand the needs of her market and think creatively about new business models.

Essentially, working with Caroline has helped her develop a business mindset which will ultimately help her help many more young people in the UK.

Her mentor is the CEO of FreshMinds Group, Caroline Plumb.



Irene Okoro, entered the competition with her online business idea, BlackBrides.co.uk. Since the start of the competition she has completed her business plan and her site is soon to be launched. As Irene works full-time, her mentor has offered the support of her own administrators to help with research as well as provided invaluable advice on how to make the business profitable.

She has also put Irene in touch with a web and viral marketing whizz-kid to maximise the launch of the site, which Irene is finding incredibly useful.

Her mentor is Saima Butt, Managing Director of Enterprise Business Technologies.