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Original poster

AIBU to ask if you would pay for this?

179 replies

Sunflowers095 · 02/07/2021 20:52

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!

OP posts:
RamItBunty · 03/07/2021 18:10

I've never yet found anyone advertising their services as a "career coach" who actually made it themselves, big time
Agree there are a lot of charlatans who purport to be life coaches, and/or career coaches

Bluntness100 · 03/07/2021 18:18

I would have thought if mentoring from uni/current job would be that easily available graduates and many women wouldn't struggle professionally but they do

Wow, that’s the most naive offensive statement I’ve ever read. Many many women don’t struggle. Stop putting women down like this.

RamItBunty · 03/07/2021 18:37

I’ve never professionally struggled. I maintain cpd and have undertaken post qualifying training

SchrodingersImmigrant · 03/07/2021 18:43

There is loads for students, especially women and minorities. Every big company has online programmes, seminars, workshops for students about how to get to x and y. The people talk about their issues to get where they are, about how they did it and answer questions. There are hundreds of these events. Workshops for CVs too.

I cannot imagine myself paying for this and I was total a career changer.

This is so sad though. If there are so many resources why are so many young people absolutely clueless?
From my recent experience with young people. Because someone brought many of them them up that they have to be lead by hand to it... Sorry, not sorry. There are some amazing ones who go and use the power of google, career centres etc, but many are just. Unless you show it to them, they won't know. So if this service is for them, sorry but "if you build it they will come" doesn't work so they probably would never hear of you. The proacyive ones who do their googling would, but then they would also find the free services and seminars elsewhere.

StartingGrid · 03/07/2021 18:52

Haven't read all replies, but personally I think you'd have more success in getting companies to pay for advertising space/partnership publicity and put forward people from their own staff internally, than by charging the users. Maybe a few speculative messages to large companies with a heavy social media presence could see if you're onto anything viable, as the service in itself sounds like it has potential.

I have a friend who is a director of a small business and would totally be on board for something like this, they do volunteer their time for people in a fairly similar way already.

SchrodingersImmigrant · 03/07/2021 18:54

I think that's what Bright Network does. Free to students so I assume they make money from companies

Douknow · 30/08/2021 13:56

Exactly - please be aware that there are companies out there that claim to do mentoring but unfortunately they use tactics of coercive manipulation. LIG (Lighthouse International Group), Lighthouse Kidz, the Legends Network, bethechangeagency.org - avoid them.
Young entrepreneurs, professionals, students get sucked in because they actually care and due to our universal human response to group and situational pressures they don’t realize what is happening at which point coercive manipulation has disabled their critical thinking - Reddit has some seriously important information about this organization and what to look out for - this might not be the right thread but crucial to be on your guard!

CurlyMango · 30/08/2021 21:10

No this is insuffienct and would not be of value to either parties

Kisskiss · 30/08/2021 21:15

@idontlikealdi

We already do this in my industry for free
Yes, in mine too. I’ve participated a few times as mentor (for free) , but would not do it if the students were paying for the service.
Planty13 · 30/08/2021 21:22

I think the people that NEED it, wouldn’t pay for it. There are so many free resources that could meet their needs

user1471447863 · 30/08/2021 22:10

The sort of people who mentor tend to do it because they like to help people get on and better themselves or to impart knowledge. The moment you start buying mentors you'll be attracting the sort of people who attend meetings and go on courses as an alternative to doing real work - the chancers and the fly guys.

Many companies already run their own mentorship schemes for the young up and comings that bother to seek them out and participate.

I'd also say by restricting it to women its a bit discriminatory - how would it go down if you said you were creating a platform for men to have 1 on 1 calls with men who have experience/are accomplished in their careers and can act as a mentor?
Not only that you'd be cutting off half of your potential customer base too.

Bunnycat101 · 30/08/2021 22:19

I don’t think you can monetise it. I’ve been a mentor for young people thorough charities and my own sector. I wouldn’t do it as part of a money-making scheme.

LAgeDeRaisin · 31/08/2021 08:21

I came from a relatively affluent family and wouldn't have paid for this when I was at university age, so I think the idea of someone from a less affluent family paying is really very unlikely.

Very few people at that age, regardless of background, would pay £20/month for something so intangible as advice. I think even fewer in the socioeconomic group you are aiming at.

People would likely use the service if it were free, but you'd be competing with a great many other CV websites, independent companies, and recruitment companies who all do this sort of thing.

It just wont work.

KintsugiCat · 31/08/2021 08:24

No.

ThinWomansBrain · 31/08/2021 08:29

I mentored undergraduate students (voluntarily) through the business school where I did an MSc, which continued beyond their studies.
Don't most universities have similar schemes?

LAgeDeRaisin · 31/08/2021 08:37

It's a hard sell to the mentors if you are paying them to do it. I'll take an example: DH uses a physicist friend of mine who consults for various companies. He charges £300/hour.

Your idea of 1:1 with him for one person interested in physics in business for an hour would be £300. That's 1 hour for one person and costa a year and 3 months worth of subscriptions, if you have zero overheads, which you won't have.

I know he wouldn't want to volunteer his time for a company that was doing it for profit. He might do something for free as outreach or charity and indeed has done some of these things.

Most lawyers will be charging in the 100's per hour too. I'm a doctor and wouldn't be keen to volunteer my time for a company that was profitting out of it. I would be happy to volunteer as part of a school visit, and have given some guidance and practice interviews to students looking to apply to Cambridge as it's my alma mater.

Honestly I think your model is all wrong.

It needs to be charitable to encourage people. No successful person wants to work as a mentor at slightly over minimum wage so that you can make a profit, when they can do it for free and feel good about themselves.

Manicpixiedreammollusc · 31/08/2021 08:44

I run a mentoring programme for my sector. I do this voluntarily on top of my day job. It isn’t a huge amount of work. None of these mentors get paid - they are senior so already earning a good salary, and they do it because they want to give back. It works well because these people are motivated by trying to help people, rather than by money. To be honest I’d be really suspicious of any mentor who wanted to be paid. I think it would be much more worthwhile to set up a similar mentoring programme for your industry, if it doesn’t already have one.

Rugsofhonour · 31/08/2021 08:49

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at the user's request

WhatWouldKalindaDo · 31/08/2021 08:53

I wouldn't pay for this. I'm in the veterinary profession, and unless you also had someone quite senior in that exact area it would be very hard for me to get value from the service. I would imagine lots of other professions are the same.

Some skills just aren't transferrable across different sectors.

CounsellorTroi · 31/08/2021 08:59

Something like this may already exist. I know someone who works for a charity mentoring and coaching women who have been out the workplace for a time to find work.

Iwantcauliflowercheese · 31/08/2021 09:08

I work for a charity that provides all this for free.

Peoniesandpeaches · 31/08/2021 09:37

It already exists (at least in large part). I can’t think of the name of the platform as my company bought it in for international women’s day last year but I’ll try find it later. There’s also the 10,000 women project and other platforms to offer free training for women so competition would be incredibly stiff.

Lonecatwithkitten · 31/08/2021 10:15

@WhatWouldKalindaDo

I wouldn't pay for this. I'm in the veterinary profession, and unless you also had someone quite senior in that exact area it would be very hard for me to get value from the service. I would imagine lots of other professions are the same.

Some skills just aren't transferrable across different sectors.

It already exists in our sector for free. Vets stay, go, diversify offers it.
Professionallytorn · 31/08/2021 21:10

There is a lot of free support already out there, eg National Careers Service and the Young Womens Trust ... So no I wouldn't pay.

DaphneDeloresMoorhead · 31/08/2021 21:55

Until recently I belonged to a paid Facebook group for professional cake decorators. Sadly the owner is moving her business into a different area abd is closing the group. I paid £10 a month with access to a Facebook group, different training every month with professional women on non-craft aspects of the business eg. Creating reels for insta. The trainings were recorded and uploaded to a website where you could review them as many times as you wanted.
This sort of set up might be a toe in the water at low cost to see what the market is