The Extreme Mentor program is a NAWBO Charlotte outreach initiative to help the underserved and/or underprivileged women owned business in Charlotte and world-wide achieve unprecedented success. The program integrates academic training with practical real-world subject matter expertise from the NAWBO member base, corporate partners, Charlotte power women and selected interns. Each mentor team is composed of 8-10 members with a cross-section of expertise from different functional areas and levels of experience.  To apply to become one of these members, download the application here.

The selected companies will be mentored for one year, January-to-January. The following year, the mentored companies may join one of the mentor teams to assist in the mentor process for new companies. The Extreme mentor teams will meet each month at a designated Charlotte location. The monthly meetings are scheduled on 3rd Thursday of the month and will include ‘open’ training sessions that will be available to all NAWBO members and the Charlotte business community at large and closed break-out working sessions where the mentor teams work with subject matter experts to advance the state of their businesses. The mentor teams are encouraged to meet outside the scheduled meetings to do what it takes to make the mentored company a success. The results of the Extreme Mentor program are reported to the corporate sponsors each quarter and annually.

The program has been aligned the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) “The Reasons for Business Success“ and structured as follows:

January: Business Plan (part 1)
February: Business Plan (part 2)
March: Financial planning & Budgeting Essentials (part 1) & Quarterly Report
April: Financial planning & Budgeting Essentials (part 2)
May: Market and Customer Assessment
June: Competitive Assessment & Quarterly Report
July: Marketing Strategy
August: Extreme evaluation – Closed Session
September: Leadership Skills
October: Communication Skills
November: Automated Tools to Streamline the Business Process
December: Revenue & Taxes
January: Annual Report

Sessions are held monthly from 4:00-8:30pm on the third Thursday of the month in a central location in Charlotte.

As a busy business owner – what’s in it for you?

The members involved in the program build strong businesses alliances within NAWBO and the community and strengthen their own wealth creating capacity. In the process of coming together to strengthen the underserved, you participate in the education programs and have the opportunity to work with subject matter experts and gain critical business success insights to develop/refine your own:

• Operating goals and objectives
• Success criteria
• Competitive analysis and the strengths and weaknesses of your offerings
• Target market - and clarify who is the target customer and what are they willing to pay
• Marketing programs and how to bring a product and/or service to market
• Financial plans and projections & cash flow analysis
• Leadership, communications and management skills
• Ability to leverage your network to increase business

Our hope is that everyone involved in the program is measurably more successful. If you are interested in participating in the mentor program please complete and submit the Extreme Mentor application to Susan Ehrman. Space is limited and applications must be submitted by November 3rd, 2008 .If you have questions please contact one of the Extreme Mentor Council Members.

Nancy Curtis: 704.962.1791 or ncurtis@marketpowerhouse.com
Susan Ehrman: 704.358.0669 or susan@start-fresh.biz
Kelly Gains: 704.641.7775 or kelly@personalnetgaines.com
Judy Hovis: 704.287.6798 or Judy.hovis@thenetcom.com