For mentors, not clients. This is internal SCORE Maine training material.

Mentor Resource Hub

New mentor: start here

Your provisional period, in the order it happens.

Three people are here to help

Your Buddy Coach is an experienced mentor assigned to you personally. They should contact you within 24 hours of your introduction email and arrange a first meeting within a week. Keep in touch with them throughout — that is what they are for.

Your Regional Volunteer Intake Coordinator (RVIC) tracks your training and is who you notify when you have finished everything.

Your section co-chair is the person to ask about anything your Buddy Coach cannot answer.

What you need to complete

  1. Finish the required online training modules. Access them through Engage. If the training page opens blank, it is your pop-up blocker — the fix is here.
  2. Complete the Simple Steps to Starting Your Business workshop. You are attending as a mentor, but it is also the workshop most of your clients will have been sent to.
  3. Fill in your volunteer profile in Engage. Review it with your Buddy Coach rather than doing it alone. Say what you are available for: capacity, the kinds of client you want, and the business stages that suit you.
  4. Attend the four orientation sessions. Three core, one optional practice session. What each one covers
  5. Do three co-mentoring sessions — with three different lead mentors if you can. Subject matter experts do two. Use the SLATE observation questions to debrief each one.
  6. Attend two ShopTalk sessions. More is strongly encouraged.
  7. Attend local workshops and read through the SCORE Mentoring Handbook.
  8. Complete the Mentoring in Engage training session, live or recorded.
  9. Sign the Workshop Presenter Guidelines and email them back to your RVIC.
  10. Tell your RVIC you are done, then complete the SCORE volunteer survey when you are certified.

After you become active, you lead at least two sessions with questions and critique afterwards. At least one of those should be with your Buddy Coach.

What being a mentor actually asks of you

“A mentor’s role is not to advise but rather to give the client a different way of thinking.”

You do not need to be an expert. The lead mentor owns the client relationship and guides the client — they are not expected to bring topic expertise. When a client needs specialist knowledge you bring in a co-mentor, usually after a session or two. There is no limit on how many.

Plan for 15 hours or so a month once you are active.

Once you are active

  • Attend ShopTalks and chapter meetings
  • Attend mentor gatherings, in Southern Maine
  • Bring in co-mentors and subject matter experts — it builds your network and improves the client’s experience
  • Use Slack to find expertise and resources quickly
  • Attend local workshops
  • Stay in touch with your Buddy Coach

A mentor who is comfortable with technology, knows the resources, co-mentors readily and knows SCORE’s partners will have an easier time than one who does not.