Free mentoring program expands to serve more businesses

Free mentoring will be available to businesses across the state through a program originally launched to help companies hit by storms such as Sandy and Irene.

Business Mentor NY, started by Empire State Development last year, currently links volunteer mentors with businesses impacted by superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee -- which together affected about 80 percent of the state. ESD is working to make the program available to all small businesses in New York in the near future, agency spokeswoman Jola Szubielski said.

So far, Business Mentor NY has about 50 mentors, all of whom are entrepreneurs or working professionals, she said, and about 15 small businesses have used the service.

The program linked Anthony McCabe, owner of Bellmore-based Genesis Creations, with New York City-based consultant Ed Abel in September.

At first, Abel said he saw a business hampered by haphazard results as McCabe struggled to single-handedly run every aspect of the safety monitoring device company.

Since then, McCabe has been able to put systems and processes in place that should support repeated strong results, Abel said.

He said he and McCabe had their "wrap up meeting" last month. "Now it's like, you gotta bake the cake and see how it comes out. His cake is in the oven."

Abel, who runs Abel Business Institute, a consulting firm, as well as Social Adult Daycare Centers of New York in Brooklyn, said he struggled with his first business in 1984, partly because he didn't have a mentor.

"There are so many challenges the textbook doesn't teach you -- it's just about life," he said. "So a mentor in business, that's critical."

ESD's next step is the launch of Business Mentor NY's website this spring, allowing small businesses to register for the program online, review mentor profiles and engage with mentors directly.

ESD is using technology from MicroMentor, a business mentorship program run by Portland, Ore.-based Mercy Corp.

"We've had corporate partners we've engaged with, but this is the first time we're working with the public sector," said Anita Ramachandran, MicroMentor's senior development officer. "We see this as a revolutionary thing New York State is doing and we hope they set the standards . . . for other states to follow suit."

ESD is also partnering with local Small Business Development Centers. Farmingdale SBDC has received two small business owners through the Business Mentor NY program, said associate director Erica Chase-Gregory.

"That's what we do all the time," Chase-Gregory said. "We do one-on-one counseling with businesses who are either start ups or who are looking to expand in some aspect of their business."