Number of entrepreneurs and mentors on MicroMentor increases during COVID-19

On March 19, 2020, the Jordanian government imposed a curfew throughout the country. The curfew was imposed as a safety measure to control the spread of COVID‑19.

All preschools, schools, and universities in Jordan have been closed since mid-March and online schooling has been taking place to this moment. During that time, Sakher had so much time on his hands, and he decided to invest his time on the MicroMentor platform.

Sakher spent his free time using a lot of free tools and online resources to build his business and got in touch with more than ten experts using MicroMentor to learn how to grow his business and be a professional in his field.

Sakher is a young entrepreneur who started a small business at a young age, he has always been passionate about game development and decided to turn this passion into a successful business.

Sakher was introduced to MicroMentor in 2019 at a social event that was held by one of MicroMentor’s local partners in Irbid, Jordan. He learned that he can connect with mentors in a free platform to help him in the areas where he needed mentorship.

“MicroMentor is a free online platform that does not require any subscriptions and with the global economy massively impacted by the pandemic, MicroMentor made it easier for small business owners to grow their businesses and connect with suitable mentors,” Sakher said.

Sakher had no budget for his business, just a powerful idea that he knew will be successful if dealt with properly. Sakher and his team developed their first online game “Earth Rage” and it is available on Google’s Play Store now. Sakher and his team are now working toward developing another game. He says that things are easier this time because he now has a wide variety of mentors that he had already met and connected with through the MicroMentor platform.

“My goal is to learn more about how to successfully market my current application and develop my new application in a more creative and efficient way,” Sakher added.

The MicroMentor platform witnessed an increase in its number of entrepreneurs and mentors during the pandemic. Many people lost their jobs and people had more free time on their hands; which led to the increased number of registered entrepreneurs that focused more on their small businesses, as well as the number of registered mentors who had time and energy to invest.

During the COVID‑19 crisis, MicroMentor launched a task force for its mentors. The task force provided training to mentors in order to enhance their skills, created webinars explaining how the pandemic is changing the business world and conducted surveys to see how mentors can better engage with entrepreneurs in the context of the pandemic.

In addition to that, the platform created badges for its mentors to both identify, as well as to better understand, which businesses were most affected by the COVID‑19 pandemic. MicroMentor then provided those businesses with training sessions, webinars, and also engaged them in online surveys to understand emerging challenges.

MircoMentor has a total of 2,423 users in Jordan (570 mentors and 1,853 entrepreneurs) and a total of 4,050 users in the MENA region (1,013 mentors and 3,037 entrepreneurs).

MicroMentor is a project that is funded by Mastercard, Google, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and implemented by Mercy Corps.