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Gainesville’s yearlong Business Mentoring Program aimed at helping emerging entrepreneurs

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Gainesville’s yearlong Business Mentoring Program aimed at helping emerging entrepreneurs

Rising entrepreneurs connected with established business owners during the kickoff to the upcoming year’s Business Mentoring Program sponsored by the city of Gainesville.

The kickoff was held Dec 19 at Gainesville Regional Utilities’ Administration Building in downtown Gainesville. The program pairs emerging business owners with established business owners to learn from each other and its goal is to educate businesses on how to become more successful when working with city government.

The yearlong program kicks off in January, and proteges and mentors will be paired together. During the year, they will participate in enrichment sessions where business leaders and industry professionals will facilitate discussions on diverse topics about business growth and development. When possible, mentors and proteges will be paired according to similar industries and areas of interest.

“I’m looking for a mentor that can help me grow and connect me with resources and open up my networking more,” said Diani Peques, founder of the Riley Foundation, which focuses on early childhood education.  

The Riley Foundation, founded in February 2022, is committed to providing quality daycare center services in low-income areas and wants to “be a village in the community,” Pegues said.

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The emerging businesses who participate in the program can benefit from mentors through the assistance they receive in defining business goals, strategies and options and other things, including potentially entering joint-venture arrangements to compete for and perform on contracts, city officials say.

Though a majority of the emerging business owners who participate in the program are in industries that directly do business with the city, businesses in other industries can benefit from the program as well, city officials say.

The expectations of those participating in the program include meeting with each other at least once a month, maintaining communication with each other, actively engaging with each other and participating in enrichment sessions, city officials say.

The program has been in existence for about 10 years, Faylene Welcome, coordinator of the Small Business Program for the Office of Equity and Inclusion, told the about two dozen people attending the meeting.

Program organizers have learned that the program also benefits some mentors as well as their proteges, Welcome said.

We have learned that they “both can learn from each other,” Welcome said, adding that it is also important for proteges “be open to constructive feedback you might receive.”

One of the mentors in the program is Florzelle Fields, who said he is dedicated to the program.

“I take being a mentor very seriously,” Fields said, adding that proteges need to be serious about what they want to do to grow their businesses.

“It’s all about sustainability,” Fields said. “As a mentor, I stand on ethics big time. Ethics is very, very important to me.”

One mentor, Jerome Guilford, started out about 20 years as a protégé in a similar program at the University of Florida. Guilford, owner of Gainesville-based Knight Raven Enterprises LLC, a moving services company, said he gets excited when he sees people who are willing to learn from others about how to grow their businesses and when he see established business owner who are willing to help emerging business owners.

“It reminds me of where I come from.” Guilford said. “The Mentoring Protégé Program can be very rewarding if you are willing to put in the work. I’m thankful for the opportunity to come and serve.”

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