Your Mentee Wants to Leave and Start Their Own Business

Your mentee arrives at the call with more energy than you have seen in months. They have an idea. A small tool for independent dental practices, something they noticed while helping a relative with their booking system. They want to hand in their notice, build it full time and see if it flies. What do you think?

Your first reaction will probably be a list of risks. Most new businesses fail, money runs out, the market is smaller than it looks. All of that may be true, and none of it is the most useful thing to say first. If you open with the risks, they will hear that you do not believe in them, and they will stop telling you the real details.

So ask about the idea before you ask about the plan. Who has the problem? How do they solve it today? Have they spoken to anyone who would pay, and how many? Excitement often comes from one conversation. Watch for the moment they realise they have only had one.

Then help them separate the idea from the leap. Starting a business and leaving a salary are two different decisions, and they do not have to happen on the same day. Could they test it first, with ten real customers, over evenings or a few months of reduced hours? Check their contract together, too. Many employment contracts say something about outside work and about who owns what you build, and it is far better to read that clause now than after the first sale.

Talk about money in plain numbers. How many months could they live with no income at all? What will they do if the answer turns out to be fewer than they hoped? A date to decide, written down in advance, keeps hope from quietly turning into debt.

Be honest about what you know. If you have never run a business, say so, and introduce them to someone who has, ideally someone whose first one did not work.

And whatever they choose, make it clear your door stays open. If it succeeds, you will want to hear about it. If it does not, they will need someone who says that trying was not a mistake, and helps them find the next job without shame.

– Asael Shinder