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A Dragon as Your Mentor?


Hello again, welcome back to Write Away, the blog for small businesses, freelancers or anyone interested in working for themselves.

Mentoring has long being heralded as a great way for small businesses to tap into the vast knowledge and experience of successful business people or entrepreneurs, without having to pay for the privilege.
I’ve read many comments, from small business owners, on the value a mentor has added to their business, as well as the personal benefit they have drawn from the experience.

If mentoring is something you’ve considered for your business, fear not, here is your chance to have Deborah Meaden, star of the BBC show “Dragons Den”, as your business mentor for 12 months.

A competition, run by an initiative called Local Business Accelerators (LBA), is giving UK businesses who are between one and five years old, the chance to win this prize, plus £10,000 cash and an IPad.

The link to where you can enter is at the end of this post, and this gives eligible businesses the opportunity to explain where they are currently, and pitch their vision for growth and where they want to be in future.

Remember, someone has to win, and why shouldn’t it be your business – just think what benefits you would gain from having a Dragon as a mentor – without having to stand in front of them and pitch your idea!

Good luck!

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