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!

I know of something similar in place specifically for women. I believe it’s free. The lady who runs it also does training which is paid for.
I think without another base to build from eg training, professional body etc it would be hard to attract mentors and woman who want to take up the service

Have you had a look at Young Women’s Trust and the support they offer @Sunflowers095?

www.youngwomenstrust.org/

A better business model would be to focus on selling this service either within a sector or to a local authority/ public body / charity who wants to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds advance. But expect to drown in kpis.

Your USP would need to be an ability to build a resource network of people willing to offer their advice and experience.

Lots of agencies and individuals offer cv writing at a price. I expect it is tedious work and competitive. Anyone who does it wouldn’t want or need to split profits with you.

Otherwise there are lots of professional coaches of varying quality who can support people in finding a career and job. Basically because there are no barriers to entry. Chance ps are your mentors will walk off with your client list.

I completely agree with you I find it really sad and trying to help as much as I can.
But you’re absolutely right the issue is people know where to go for the resources or that they’re available (because some really are brilliant).
Perhaps that’s where to focus your idea - rather than adding to the services but actually connecting them…

What age are you aiming this at? Your previous comment upthread said about helping with decisions on uni and apprenticeships. These are (usually) something you start at 16 or 18.. so surely the target market would be far too young?

I'd think carefully about only aiming at women though. You need a sound reason to cut your target market in half from the get go. The job market is tough for every young person. In fact I believe young women outearn men.

I got all of that from a company called working transitions which was paid for by my old company when making me redundant. So maybe not totally aimed at graduates, but the service already exists.

Chewbacca I think you and I are on the same wavelength

In my mentoring circle on clubhouse lots of people offer this on clubhouse for free

Ps yes to

• loads of us already do this for free wonders if current mentee is on mnet
• your mentors walking off with your client list
• cv writing & other workshops have neither a need nor a desire to add in you as a middleman and split their profits with you

I would probably have been in your target market.

If you were proposing it as a free service I would have bitten your hand off. I wouldn’t have paid though.

I can’t quite articulate why, but it feels like a scam.

I dont think it's a terrible idea, if is was reasonably priced and the ethos was good it might be the kind of thing I would go for at the moment (currently in a professional job but hate it and need to find something that I can do that is more adaptable to my health problems) but quite clueless as to how to change direction.

As PPs have said, this is widely available already and often free so I don't think you'd get a lot of people willing to pay you for it. It's also very hard to engage companies and professionals to give that much time, whether you're paying or not when they're being approached by so many other companies and people offering the same thing.

I also think your views are fairly short sighted. You and your friends didn't know you could get this kind of guidance so the poor, ignorant working class graduates must just be sat in a ditch pining berries up their noses.

This exists in our area-as a voluntary group who have a huge wealth of expertise between them. I don't think you'd make much money out of it.

I would not.

I can find much of this online already, for example via LinkedIn. My company also had great resources.

As a student I wouldn’t have had this money to pay this. We had assistance with CVs, finding paid internships and even posts for full time employment via the university. My company offers mentoring to existing students also.

I will say that where I am there are many woman who took time off after having children (like 5+ Years) and are now struggling with how to renter the workplace in a professional role.

I think it's a great idea

*For example you might be a young woman from a working class background, looking to start a career in field x. You'd have access to resources about paths you could take to get there & connect with a mentor who is established in this career.

Should you do an apprenticeship? If so, which? Go to uni? Is experience important? What should be on your CV?

Your mentor could be a great support in this. Same for women who are stuck in their careers or for example stuck in their current role with no progression. How to negotiate salary? How to get promoted? *

The Social Mobility Foundation already do this for free, I'm a volunteer mentor there. The disadvantaged young people I help are very bright but don't have the knowledge or connections. Safeguarding is an issue with under 18s if you're looking to mentor them. The kids I help don't have the spare cash for this!

"Young woman from a working class background" - meaning?? From a family where people, erm "work" - sounds tone-deaf as an example of how to approach potential users of your service

I would pay for a service like this. Mentorship is invaluable. How would you make enough profit, though?

[quote Chihuahuacat]@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?[/quote]
Fair point

I wouldn't pay for this because it's already available to me for free through the company I work for (which both runs general mentoring schemes and helping women to progress schemes). There are also local networking groups for my industry where I can meet other professionals in the same industry outside of my organisation.

Where I might have been interested in something would be more at the careers advice type level - what careers might be suitable for me, how I would get into them and how I might progress. But that's moving away from a mentoring scheme. And it already exists under the guise of transition coaching.

I think you'd need to change the phrasing regarding the experts anyway.

Certainly in my profession "mentoring" is a voluntary thing and seen as something done to pay on the help you might have received.

I think calling someone a mentor but then charging in a professional sense seems like a grift from the off.

*For example you might be a young woman from a working class background, looking to start a career in field x. You'd have access to resources about paths you could take to get there & connect with a mentor who is established in this career.

Should you do an apprenticeship? If so, which? Go to uni? Is experience important? What should be on your CV? *

If you’re hoping to help young women with these choices, they will still be at school, and under 18 - so not in a position to pay for your services.

As an aside, I already volunteer to do this sort of mentoring and advice for my former university, and go into schools to encourage working class children to aim for our university and signpost them to resources. I do this on a voluntary basis and give as much or as little time as I can depending on my other commitments. I wouldn’t want to commit to something for money as I can’t predict my availability. I also mentor early career professionals in my organisation. These networks exist already, without young people from less affluent backgrounds having to pay for them.

I think it’s a valuable idea that would be great for career starting women needing support and good experience for the mentors. However I think a subscription model where mentors are paid for their time misunderstands the human psychology behind “giving” and mentoring. It would be probably better set up as a non-profit, where mentors get kudos for volunteering and perhaps their companies make corporate donations or pay a fee for their staff to participate as part of their volunteering programme, and the women being mentored don’t pay. Then the networking value for both mentors and mentorees would come from everyone being involved in the non profit, you could have launch parties at sponsor company headquarters and it would be a positive boost for the mentors career and help them show leadership etc.

£20, presumably per month, doesn't sound like enough to pay the mentors for their time. That might cover perhaps 1 hour long session with the customer per month, and doesn't leave much over to pay your costs. I wouldn't pay that for just one session with a mentor and some online resources, when there are already lots of resources available online for free.

The principle is good but I don't know how workable it is because essentially it's a venture that relies on the ability of a financially vulnerable group to pay for a service. It would function better as a charity scheme rather than a paid service. Perhaps for young or disabled women, or women disadvantaged in some other way. The kind of women who would benefit from this most would also be the least able to pay for it.