Outset Ambassadors are clients that have successfully completed our programme and gone on to create successful, sustainable businesses, with a pledge to “give back” to our service, through a donation of time supporting other business owners.
For us, this is all about creating a virtuous circle of support within each local community. At the start of our programme, we tell our clients “give us 24 hours of your life and we’ll change the rest of it”, and once they’re finished, we ask them to give another 24 hours – one day, over the course of a year – to help mentor other business owners.
Being able to talk to someone who has been through the same experience makes a huge different for our clients; our Ambassadors are highly accessible role models and an invaluable source of mentoring expertise for future business owners. But it is an equally rewarding experience for our Ambassadors, who, having come out the other side, have the chance to reflect on their own experiences and pass on their knowledge.
All of our Ambassadors receive mentor training to support them in delivering support to others and ensure they feel comfortable with the task at hand before being matched with clients.
Giving back
Ambassadors can also “give back” in other ways, if they’re not comfortable mentoring. Many of them play a really valuable role in supporting us with the promotion of our services in local PR opportunities, or appearing as a guest speaker at events, such as our ‘Ask the Expert’ and ‘Client Focus’ events, to help us spread the word to potential clients.
Chris Heirani is just one example of this. Since starting his own web design business through Outset, Chris has given up his time to run an ‘Ask the Expert’ event for other clients who are already trading, giving them the opportunity to learn more about the importance of good web design for their businesses. Read his story here.