Pictured, left to right: Janet Jack - Chair of the IAB Council, Quentin Pain and Nat Hardwick, Digital Director of SFEDI.

At the IAB Awards earlier this month Quentin Pain was the proud winner of the IAB Small Business Mentor of the Year. Here he talks about his links with the world of book keeping, his career as a serial entrepreneur, and why he thinks mentoring is so important for mentors and their businesses.

Quentin knew he'd been nominated for the award but it came as a huge surprise when he won. He was absolutely thrilled as it represents his exciting new venture and his ethos that if you give to the world you're valuable to it.

Quentin Pain started his first business, QPL Express Couriers, when he was 23. He wrote some software to streamline the accounts, which worked so well he decided to launch a software company to sell the software to a wider audience. This software went on to be sold in places such as Apple, PC World and Amazon.

It seems like a far cry from the world of mentoring, so we asked him why that has become something he does, he says:

"Throughout the 25 years since the launch of this business I've spent all my time helping businesses, it's been integral to everything I've done".

"Last year I saw the opportunity to do the mentor training. I then went on to do some volunteer mentoring and I absolutely loved it, so much in fact that I retired from my previous company in January this year to become a full time coach and mentor at QuentinPain.com".

He's found it a steep learning curve. He admits that before the training he had a tendency to try and advise or coach people and his first mentoring assignment wasn't his best because of this. He says the training made him a better mentor and the key skill he's developed since is listening. He says:

"It comes  down to that. It's not what you want, it's what they want. Anyone thinking about doing this needs to help a bunch of people to develop their skills in it. My mentees help me grow and learn. I've discovered that my specialism is helping people get unstuck. People can get overwhelmed and I can help them move forward. My favourite question is, 'What do you want?' It's a massively powerful question and it certainly gets the conversation going".

The businesses he's helped so far include a fitness and health studio and a creative business. He finds that getting positive feedback from his mentees is amazing, he says:

"It's incredibly gratifying when I've helped someone achieve their goals and get to the next stage. I can say that without doubt this is the best thing I've ever done".

We asked him whether he thought mentoring was important for businesses, he says:

"I think it's incredibly important, but it's not just about the company you're helping. As a mentor I believe that if you give to the world you're valuable to it. If you only take you're of no value. It's a great lesson. People are afraid of giving away too much because they're worried about giving away knowledge, but the real value is in connections. If we don't have connections we don't have anything".