How to use this site

Written for mentors who would rather not guess. Nothing here can break anything, and nothing is sent to your client unless you press send yourself.

The site has two halves

Everything sits under one of two headings at the top of every page.

For your clients: Templates, worksheets, guides and checklists to work through with a client or send afterwards. This half is meant to go out.
For mentors: Mentor training, meeting guidance, Engage how-tos and the Buddy Coach list. This half is internal.

The rule about sharing. Clients never come to this website. You can email a client the download link for anything under For your clients, or download the file and attach it yourself. Never send a client a link to a page here, and never to the For mentors pages, which are for volunteers. Every mentor page carries a yellow band at the top to remind you.

Four ways to find a client resource

Open a collection. The quickest route. Sets like Starting a business, Opening a food business and Starting a nonprofit already have the right documents gathered in the right order.
Search. There is a search box at the top of the home page and of For your clients. Type one or two plain words — cash, farm, plan. Fewer words find more.
Browse by topic. On For your clients, pick the subject your client is stuck on: money, marketing, legal, boards, or planning.
Browse by stage. On the same page. Pick the description that sounds most like your client — still an idea, getting started, up and running, or selling up.

On the All resources page you can combine these. Tick Money & Finance and Getting started together and you will see only the finance documents suited to a brand-new business.

Using a collection

A collection is a set of resources someone has already put together for a common situation, arranged in the order you would work through them with a client. Each one is split into steps, so you can send one step per session instead of everything at once.

Press For your clients at the top of any page, then See all collections.
Pick the one that matches your client and press See what is in it.
Press Add all to your list. Every resource in the set goes onto your list at once.
Go to Your list and press Add to list again on anything that does not suit this particular client, to take it back off.
Send what is left.

You are not stuck with the whole set. A collection is a starting point, not a rule. Most mentors add one and then remove two or three things before sending.

Keeping a list for each client

Your list holds one client’s set at a time. If you mentor several people, you can save each set under a name and come back to it.

Build the list the way you want it.
On the Your list page, press Save this list.
Type a name — most mentors use the client’s name or their business — and press Save the list.
It appears under Your saved lists further down the same page. Press Open this list to bring it back, Email it to send it, or Delete to remove it.

Saving a second list under a name you have already used will update that list rather than making a duplicate.

Sending a resource to your client

Your client gets the file itself, through a download link in your email. They never visit this website.

One resource at a time

Open the resource by pressing its name or the Open button.
Press the green Email to your client button.
A box appears with the resource’s name and its download link, ready to paste.
Press Copy.
Paste it into your own email to your client (Ctrl and V on Windows, or Command and V on a Mac), write whatever you like around it, and send.

Several resources in one email

As you find each resource, press Add to list.
A blue bar appears along the bottom of the screen showing how many you have gathered.
When you have them all, press Email them to your client in that bar.
The same box appears, this time with every resource and its download link, ready to copy in one go.

Would rather send the file itself? Press Download on the resource, then attach the file to your email the way you normally would.

What the labels on each resource mean

Template: A document your client fills in, such as a spreadsheet or a form.
Worksheet: Questions to work through, often best done together in a session.
Guide: Reading material that explains a subject. Good homework between sessions.
Checklist: A list of steps to tick off in order.
Excel: A spreadsheet. Your client needs Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets to open it.
Word: A document they can type into.
PDF: Opens on any computer or phone. Best for reading, not for filling in.
Client time: Roughly how long your client should set aside. Worth mentioning when you send it.

The mentor half

Under For mentors you will find:

Start here: The onboarding path for a new mentor, in the order it happens.
SLATE: The five-step mentoring method, and the questions used to observe it in co-mentoring.
First client meeting: A minute-by-minute plan for the first 60 minutes, and answers to the questions new mentors worry about.
Orientation: What each of the four orientation sessions covered, so you can revisit it without the slides.
Using Engage: Accepting a client, recording a session, adding a co-mentor, fixing the blank training page.
Buddy Coaches: Who supports new volunteers, by region, with a contact button.

None of these pages has a share button, on purpose.

If something is not working

I pressed “Copy” and nothing was copied

Some browsers block copying. Click inside the box of text, which selects all of it, then press Ctrl and C (Command and C on a Mac) and paste it into your email.

My list emptied itself

Your working list and your saved lists are stored in this browser on this computer. They clear if you clear your browsing history, or if you switch to a different computer. Send the email before you finish for the day.

Opening a saved list wiped what I was working on

Opening a saved list replaces whatever is on your working list, and it asks you first when there is something to lose. If you want to keep both, save the current one under its own name before opening the other.

The Download button is not doing anything

The documents are not connected to this library yet. Sharing links and emails work now; downloads switch on once the document folder is in place.

The text is too small

Hold down the Ctrl key on Windows, or the Command key on a Mac, and press the + key. Every page will get larger and the layout will still work.

Something missing?

If you regularly hand a client something that is not in this library, it should be here. Send the document, or a note about what it covers, to the chapter and it will be added for every mentor.

The same goes for anything out of date — particularly Maine registration and tax material, which changes.