Peter Richards worked in corporate software for around 25 years but, around 12 years ago, he decided to break free and work for himself. Remembering that time, Peter says:

“I wrote my first business plan and started a company, which I IPO’d on the London Stock Market a couple of years later, which was quite a successful experience!”

Since then, he’s reinvented himself as the owner of Venture Pilot, a company based in London’s Waterloo that supports businesses to achieve similar levels of success to those of Peter’s earlier business.

The majority of Venture Pilot’s clients are based in the technology sector and the business provides both mentoring and consultancy services. Although many of the businesses Peter works with are in their early stages, he also delivers support for more established enterprises across a range of sectors:

“One of my clients is a mergers and acquisitions boutique and I help manage their portfolio, getting them ready pre and post-sale. They have customers that have been going for anything up to ten years.”

With this wealth of experience under his belt, Peter decided to attend Meet a Mentor London on the search for mentees with whom to share it. So, did he connect with anyone who would benefit from his insight and knowhow?

“I met a couple of mentees that day who were looking for a range of different things. Some mentees believe they need money. In fact, most of the mentees I meet are looking for cash through capital investment or equity funding but when I look further into what they’re doing, they really just need help to become more organised. When you look deeper, these people have good businesses.”

Peter has a structured approach to mentoring the businesses that come his way, determined to give each mentee the very best chances of success by laying careful foundations and thoroughly planning. He outlines his process:

“I start off by having a look at mentee’s business plans. Many haven’t yet written a proper business plan but if they have done one, I ask them to write operational 30, 60 and 90-day plans. That gets them to look with a bit more granularity at what they’re doing. A lot of these are new business people doing things for the first time.”

Having himself set up and run businesses, Peter is someone who acknowledges that the lessons he’s learnt from his past mistakes are valuable ones to share with those just starting out.

“I’ve made all sorts of mistakes myself along the way so I really do try to help people get it right first time with basic things like hiring, raising cash, spending cash and getting good sales structures in place. In many cases you only get one bite at these things.”

When he was starting out an an independent entrepreneur, Peter didn’t access any mentoring support. The issues he overcame alone are part of the reason he offers mentoring help to others at the start of their journey today. Remembering his own faltering first few years, he says:

“I had an idea, I wrote a plan, I raised quite a lot of money, I built a team and I delivered the product to take to market. But you don’t get that sort of thing right first time. There are all sorts of things to challenge you. A small business has a limited budget, a limited window of opportunity, and, for example, if you hire the wrong person, that can be cataclysmic.”

Some of the mentoring delivered by Venture Pilot is pro bono work and some is commercial. When Peter attended Meet a Mentor he did so altruistically. There, he met three mentees, all from different fields. One was a photographer, another a specialist consultant and the third a software developer. Peter has worked with them all on business planning and organisational structuring. So, what’s the appeal of providing this free input? Peter says:

“I get the satisfaction of seeing someone do it right. I think it’s a valuable thing for a small business to have a mentor because when I first started I was on my own. I didn’t have anyone to bounce ideas off so I had to learn via my mistakes. What a mentor can do is say ‘could you look at it like this?’ It’s all about giving an extra point of view.”