Michael Hatton established Zeus IT four years ago, following redundancy. For the first three years he worked alone as a consultant from home but during the last twelve months, the business has developed and now employs an additional three people. Michael attended Meet a Mentor in Birmingham last summer on the look out for a mentor to support him as he moved from one-man-band to SME. We caught up with him to find out more about the benefits enterprise mentoring has brought to his business.

Zeus IT specialises in setting up wifi networks, although the business is able to tackle any aspect of IT and the service is suitable for a broad range of organisations, as Michael explains:

“First and foremost we set up wifi networks for businesses, regardless of their industry. If a wifi network is already in place we can perform health-checks to make sure they’re getting full coverage throughout, whether that’s in business premises, schools, campuses or hospitals etc.”

Michael, 34, brought around 16 years’ IT experience to the role of self-employed consultant but was open to outside input and, when he saw that Meet a Mentor was coming to his city, he quickly registered for a place:

“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect to find a mentor but it was a free event and as someone relatively new to business, I thought I’d at least get to do a bit of networking. But then I stumbled across John Bezzant, who has become my mentor.”

So what concerns did Michael have as a fresh face in the world of enterprise?

“I’d just had my first child when I went self-employed. My son was only about four months old but it was something I’d wanted to do for a number of years and had talked about a lot! When I was made redundant I knew it was the opportunity I needed. I had a small amount of financial backing and I had a bash at it.”

During the earliest stages, Michael didn’t approach anyone for enterprise support in part because, with no employees or premises, he didn’t see his enterprise as a ‘proper business’:

“I didn’t see it as a full-fledged business, which is why I didn’t seek business support or mentoring at that stage.”

However, eventually Michael decided he wanted clients to see him not just as the consultant IT guy, but as the representative of a business called Zeus IT. At this stage he sought premises and began to research possible sources of support. Booking that place at Meet a Mentor turned out to have been a good decision:

“I thought the venue was great as the library is accessible for me and it’s a nice new building. I also found the set-up was effective. Mentors and mentees took alternative seats around tables. I was registered as a mentee so I had a mentor on either side of me. I’d expected the mentors to be older and mainly men but in fact some were just a few years older than myself and there were both male and female mentors. I enjoyed meeting people with similar interests and experiences to my own. It was a good mix.”

Having spoken at length to a few potential mentors, Michael made a real connection with one in particular:

“One guy arrived late because he’d been working and I talked to him after the sessions. His name is John Bezzant. We hit it off and he lives close to my office. It was a stroke of luck really. He’s in a completely different field from me, working for Barclay’s Bank but we’ve met up a few times since the event.”

The mentor and mentee meet up around every six weeks, as well as emailing and calling from time-to-time as business issues unfold. For Michael, the fact that John operates in a different world to his own is a distinct advantage, as he feels it offers him a fresh perspective when making key decisions:

“I see a mentor as someone who can see my work and my plans for the future from the outside. I think if I had someone in IT they’d put their own IT spin on it but I don’t really need someone to tell me about the industry. It’s the business side of things that I’m inexperienced in.”

The support that Michael has received from John has proven valuable in helping the mentee recognise where he’s already followed the right track to success:

“When I talk to him about what I’ve done and what results I’ve had he looks at it and says ‘well these successes you’ve had, how have you had those?’ And I can take a step back and identify that I achieved successes through, for example, e-mail marketing, networking or targeting specific industries. Then I’ll decide to concentrate in those areas for a while because they work for me. Whereas, when I’m in the business, working each day, I get the blinkers on and just think ‘lets do this, do that, try that’ without proper thought. John helps me sit back and reflect.”

Although John is from a finance background, the mentoring he delivers isn’t focused on cashflow or capital.

“John doesn’t have any experience with IT but from a business side of things he has plenty of experience dealing with a number of businesses daily. He helps me to work on the business as well as in the business.”

Now that Michael has experienced the benefits of mentoring, would he consider becoming a mentor himself?

“Most definitely. Once my business is more established, I’m more experienced and I can help people out a little bit more then I’ll certainly look into it. It’s helped me and I can see there being real personal reward to be had from helping somebody.”