Business Mentor NY – a program of Empire State Development

Program Update

Mentees and Mentors,

We appreciate your interest in mentorship. Please be advised that after March 31, 2024, the Business Mentor NY Program will cease to operate. However, you can continue to access mentoring services by contacting Entrepreneurship Assistance Centers in your area at esd.ny.gov/eac-directory to obtain one-on-one counseling with your current business idea or small business.

If you would like to continue offering pro bono mentoring services to entrepreneurs or small business owners, please email us at nylovessmbiz@esd.ny.gov with your core business skills, experience or education and your preferred service area.

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I have a business idea tied to a product that I need help creating, any idea how I can get the help to develop it with little money?

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2 answers

I would suggest that you spend much time on the internet and do research. Keep good notes and then you can refer to them at a later stage. This will assist you to develop personally and professionally. There is no doubt much valuable information for you and people are generous with their knowledge. Also, there are many groups online and no doubt in your community that you could join to develop your business plan. Good luck with it.

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Ibrahim, if funding is limited, you should work with the SBDC to create a business or strategic plan that'll help you create a pitch deck to get the funding you need. The SBDC can help you get the industry reports you need to validate your product. In addition, I would work to create a hive. A group of people willing to work with you in exchange of being part of your idea if that's something you're willing to do. Mainly since this will entail various roles for you to execute. But before that you'd need to make sure you know exactly what roles you need filled.

Another angle, depending on your product, you can also do a kickstarter to fund your idea in phases. So first, would be to fund the research for example. The second to fund the production of your sample product, etc. This way you can work with your network and empower them to help you execute your idea.

Either way you should at the minimum have a one-sheet of what you are trying to create and why it matters to your target audience.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Roxana

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