AIBU to ask if you would pay for this?

[Sunflowers095]

I have a business idea but I wonder if there would actually be a demand. Essentially, I've been thinking a lot about how different backgrounds affect your ability to succeed professionally, as well as how graduates are struggling for work.

It would be a platform for women, the main idea is mentoring. So for example, a student (or someone looking for a career change) would have access to things like CV templates/reviews, forum, 1 on 1 calls with women who have experience/are accomplished in their careers and can act as a mentor.

This would exist as a free and premium version (mentoring would be premium).

It would be a partnership with the mentors directly (where they would be paid a fee) or an agreement with their company to have them represent the business as a mentor. The companies/mentors would benefit by having younger people with skills but no experience provide ideas/small projects. A bit like a competition but the company can use winning ideas.

I am yet to iron out exactly the details but want to validate it first. Personally I would pay for a service like this & I think new generations are less family oriented and more career driven.

It could make a great addition to the CV of the younger women as well as the mentors, serve as a community aimed at helping women succeed professionally.

If the premium version cost for example £20 would you buy it? Assuming it's a monthly rolling subscription that can be cancelled anytime and you can benefit from unlimited resources and a monthly mentoring call? Thanks in advance!

How do you know the mentors would even give good objective advice, and not just trot out their particular path. Or what if they got there partly through connections?
What if the mentee doesn't get anywhere? I wouldn't pay £20/month for advice if I didn't have a job.
I personally also feel so busy in my job that I don't know how much time I'd want/feel able to commit as a mentor.

I could just be out of touch though, maybe your target market will react differently.

Have you already got potential mentors in mind? Can you ask them what they think, same goes for potential clients of the service.

@foobio

Sorry having re-read, it is not clear whether it is your intention for this to be a money making business, or a charity (which would only need to break even)?

I would like it to be profitable, as a regular business. And I have a few ideas about how to make it profitable without leaving the entire burden of that on the people using the service, but a fee would definitely help.

I think including a probono aspect of it would be good to expand the reach & it would make it easier to engage more mentors to participate and also provide more value to those who genuinely can't afford it.

There are already various organisations trying to do variants of this and struggling to get people to pay for it because it can be very hard to demonstrate/attribute real value.

I say as a senior professional woman that a bit of paid for mentoring is nothing compared to an upbringing and background full of support and opportunity.

Furthermore, generic mentoring isn't that great. Mentoring has greatest effect when it happens naturally between people in quite similar roles, and it's very difficult to match supply of suitable mentors in the right career areas to demand.

No I don't think any one would pay for this. I certainly wouldnt. I could invited to join a women's network targeting increasing female representation on boards which has tried to charge for some events and services and take up is low.

@FizzyPink

There’s also already a company who do this type of thing with students from diverse backgrounds, connecting them with big corporate companies for experience and mentorship that you might like to look at - MyKindaFuture

I'll have a look, thank you so much!

@Sunflowers095 it's very clear you're not here for your question to be answered. You're here for the people who are pretending it's a great idea.

If you're dead set on it, consider how it will work operationally. Based on your current approach, it's a completely unviable proposal. Maybe get yourself a mentor?

Can I ask OP, what your career has been, and what your personal experience is of senior leadership and what gets people into those roles?

The problem is you are assuming you can get mentors. Many working females have childwn and won't have extra time to mentor someone, and I bet they wouldn't make enough to quit their job to mentor

[quote girlmom21]@Sunflowers095 it's very clear you're not here for your question to be answered. You're here for the people who are pretending it's a great idea.

If you're dead set on it, consider how it will work operationally. Based on your current approach, it's a completely unviable proposal. Maybe get yourself a mentor? [/quote]
My question was whether you would pay for it as a user of the service. Not about how mentors would be paid, how it would be operated, how the financial model would look, how it would be verified.

I appreciate all relevant responses from users saying they wouldn't pay. Maybe take a day off :)

It might be hard to get good mentors and they need training and support.

It might work as a charity focused on one specific sector where mentors would donate time. But otherwise you won't earn enough to pay yourself.

If 100 grads pay £20 per month then you need to find and manage 100 mentors & match everyone up and support them. Hard work.

Group mentoring / skills club might work better. So monthly evening meet-ups with drinks and talks. So the grads can network with each other & meet a new inspiring mentor each meeting?

To be brutally honest though, I would probably only take the free version. Or at a push maybe 2 sessions of the paid version (depending on my parents paying, due to being a skint student most likely!)

It sounds rather like what the alumni group of my old school network can offer as well as much more

I think for me, I view mentoring people as something I do to give back: I need to know the person enough to know we click and I don't expect to be rewarded for my work. I'd feel pretty uncomfortable that people were paying to access this I think. As some kind of charitable initiative I think it could be a great idea: maybe it could get buy in from companies wanting to do their corporate responsibility piece, both by funding it and by allowing mentors paid time off to support while the company benefits from e.g. access to a great pool of recruits for internships etc? Then it could be free for people to join (obviously you'd probably need them to apply and show they were keen for an actual mentoring opportunity?).

It sounds like a charity rather than a business, and there are some charities already doing similar.
I'm struggling to see how it would make money?
The cost of advertising ther service enough to get both mentors and users would be extremely high, many many subscriptions would be required.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

Can I ask OP, what your career has been, and what your personal experience is of senior leadership and what gets people into those roles?

I work in media and I've found that there's lots of free resources but they're all the same. Maybe I've been unlucky but there's not been any mentoring or similar opportunities in any of the companies I have worked for (small and large).

I found that people who advanced were often the ones who carved out new paths/expanded the business. It's something I wouldn't have thought of or had the courage to do myself but doing more of it now I can see that it does help you progress. Obviously there's more to it (work ethic, client management, timing) but I wish I knew this sooner.

@Sunflowers095 I feel like you're probably not at the level you're suggesting your mentors would be at. Your attitude comes across as though you're quite immature.

I'm sorry you don't like constructive feedback but almost everyone has said they wouldn't pay and you're just dismissing their concerns because they don't fit your agenda. That's not a good basis for a business that's about empowering women.

Thank you for responses re:more of a charity model as well as mentioning group mentoring.

I think both are very valid, I was just curious to know if women are very keen or if it's not common enough to warrant starting anything in that space. Obviously not everyone is career driven/some people want to start their own business etc so I know it's quite niche maybe!

@Sunflower095, then perhaps you should alter your pitch? I have just responded to what you posted
You asked for opinions
You sound patronising
Lump it or leave it , it doesn't matter to me

@Davros I think the whole point of it is that it’s aim at women without access to an ‘old school network’

I think the idea is decent, however, I’ve done a fair amount of outreach work in schools, and the problem is they don’t know where to to start, so how would they know about this scheme? How are you planning to get to your target market? How will you verify the mentors?

Yes I would be Interested in using a platform like this, I’m already established in my career but I’d still like to link in with suitable mentors for confidence building and promotion prep…

I think there are already platforms out there for this type of service , I’ve definitely seen similar mentor matching apps although not necessarily female only or focused on early career…

What’s the worst that can happen OP??? Go for it…

[quote girlmom21]@Sunflowers095 I feel like you're probably not at the level you're suggesting your mentors would be at. Your attitude comes across as though you're quite immature.

I'm sorry you don't like constructive feedback but almost everyone has said they wouldn't pay and you're just dismissing their concerns because they don't fit your agenda. That's not a good basis for a business that's about empowering women. [/quote]
I really think you need a day off. You're attitude comes across as though you're bored & looking to be a bit nasty because you have nothing to do. Typical mumsnet sometimes. I doubt you'd know much about empowering women considering your behaviour here.

It would be a great service and I'm sure many professional women would enjoy doing it for free but I don't think it's something that should be charged for, no.

How many people would you be employing to be mentors? There are so many career paths for people to choose from so you're either employing fewer people with a broad general but fairly nonspecific knowledge, or you'll have to employ hundreds of mentors with specialist knowledge in their field. The first I wouldn't pay for and the second is impractical.

@Sunflowers095 I feel like you're probably not at the level you're suggesting your mentors would be at. Your attitude comes across as though you're quite immature.

This - sorry OP. I asked my question before as to be honest, where I have seen this sort of mentoring have some (limited) impact, (as a free, charitable service), its been part of a program run by some extremely successful people who are already at that leadership level themselves, and therefore have a greater personal understanding of the commonalities between themselves and peers at that level.

I don't see what you would bring to it yourself unless you have that level of experience and expertise.

[quote SmellThat]@Sunflower095, then perhaps you should alter your pitch? I have just responded to what you posted
You asked for opinions
You sound patronising
Lump it or leave it , it doesn't matter to me[/quote]
If obviously does matter since you got so triggered by the phrase "working class". Why do people sometimes assume the worst of everyone? It's so sad.

So I haven't read the response so I can give my view without having it impacted by others.

I think this has potential. I work in a company that is man heavy and women, do make senior roles. But not many.

I have mentored man young women in my time, usually from deprived or semi deprived back grounds.

These women have nearly all gone on to have good careers. Not necessarily in my field. Which I still think is a success. I ma mentoring them to fulfill their own career ambitions, not to work for me forever.

I think most of these girls would have benefitted from this sort of programme much younger. Most of these women don't even think about uni. They believe it not achievable for them. I was one of these, but 20 years ago. It doesn't even hit their radar, for the most part.

To make it a success you need women from senior roles to buy in. So for networking events it can't just be mentors and paying customers. They need to actually meet the women doing this. And it can't be women from privilege backgrounds, not if you aim is to help women who haven't had the same opportunities.

I am unsure how you would get that without paying. Which would be difficult in the early stages. The mentors need to be very carefully picked and not over loaded with people. They will likely have their own jobs as well. Unless you can pay them a great wage to do it full time.

It needs to be good value for money, as people who are joining would be in a place where disposable income isnt something they have a lot of.

I do disagree with this statement

I think new generations are less family oriented and more career driven

If you want to aim at people who don't have access to good careers opportunities, you will find many of them have kids already.

In my experience, I think you will also find that the younger generation, don't want to put kids off. It's starting to become well known that putting kids off is leaving people not having them, in a lot of cases. Or needed expensive ivf in alot of cases.

They want to find a way to do both. Better than older generations did. They want more flexibility.

Lots of younger people are not having kids because they simply can't afford them. Especially in areas where housing costs are expensive. That's another reason you may think the focus is on career. Because with out good money, they can't do many other things.

I live in a cheap area and most have kids young and then have started a career when their kids are older, if they do.

So I think you really need to revisit that.