Small Business Plan

Protégés are a common occurrence in the business world today. Experienced people in every industry often decide to "adopt" a protégé—whether the arrangement is through a formal mentoring program, or an informal mutual decision to take a new employee "under your wing" and show him the ropes. The reasons to enter into a mentor-protégé relationship are many, but the most common is when the protégé candidate shows promise from the start. Mentor-protégé relationships can be either formal or informal.

Entrepreneurship is more popular than ever: courses are full, policymakers emphasize new ventures, managers yearn to go off on their own. Would-be founders often misplace their energies, however. Believing in a "big money" model of entrepreneurship, they spend a lot of time trying to attract investors instead of using wits and hustle to get their ideas off the ground.