IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Mentor Consultations Guidelines for TFI Members
General rules
- As a TFI Member, you are entitled to 120 minutes of free consultation time with our volunteer industry mentors during your membership year.
- Mentor appointments are by application only, exclusive to current TFI members and are dependent on the mentor's availability.
- You can use your time in ½ hour or 1-hour blocks, depending on your schedule and the mentor’s availability.
- Consultations can happen via phone or other channels suitable for both parties. In-person consultations are currently unavailable due to the COVID19 pandemic.
- Student Membership: due to the greatly reduced membership fee for full-time students and the number of regular TFI Outreach and Resident members, we are unable to offer consultation time to TFI student members. Please contact TFI if you wish to upgrade your membership at a pro-rated rate and access 120 free minutes of mentoring time.
Confirming a consultation
- TFI staff will contact you as soon as they can after they receive your request. Please do not email or call TFI to say you have placed a request; wait for us to contact you. It might take a few days to hear back from us, but do not worry. TFI staff might be waiting to hear from your mentor before contacting you.
- Members can submit one request at a time. Once your request has been scheduled, you can submit another one.
- TFI reserves the right to disregard requests that do not follow procedures.
Cancellations, late arrivals, and unused consultation time
- To cancel a consultation, please email tfi@fashionincubator.com with a minimum of 2 business days' notice.
- If you cancel your mentor consultation appointment without providing at least two business days' notice, you will lose that amount of time from your allocation.
- If you arrive late for your mentor appointment, your session will conclude at the regularly scheduled time.
- No-shows will count as used time and you will lose that amount of time from your allocation.
- Your 120 minutes of mentor consultation time EXPIRES on your MEMBERSHIP EXPIRY DATE and all unused allocated time cannot be rolled over to the next membership year.
- We strongly advise members to submit this Mentor Consultation Request Form EARLY and to allow up to 6 months for an appointment in order to not be disappointed. Please refer to your TFI membership card for your expiry date or refer to the date in your TFI “welcome" e-mail message which you received when joining or renewing. You can also contact TFI and we can let you know when you expire.
- All of TFI's mentors are busy professionals who volunteer their time. Please be respectful and grateful by being on time and being prepared for your session.
Additional info - preparing for your consultation
- It is important to establish clear objectives for your meeting and to have as much background info as possible in advance. Don’t go to meetings with broad questions such as “I want to grow my business”. Do your research. Mentors are here to help you with specific answers that you can’t easily find.
- Prepare at least 2 to 3 questions as these will help you get the most out of your meeting.
- Mentors might ask about your background and education. Make sure you have information about your company at hand.
- If you've scheduled a Zoom meeting, have your laptop or tablet with you if you want to screen share and show your website, images from your line or important references. If your meeting is a phone call, upload the material in your Consultation Request Form (see field above to upload) and we will forward it to the mentor.
- If your meeting is about financials or business planning, prepare a profit and loss statement and/or draft a business plan and 3 cost sheets. Please upload the documents to your form and we will forward it to the mentor.
- If your meeting is about design or production, make sure you have samples of your product(s), sketches, fabric swatches, magazine tear-outs; anything visual that can aid in explaining what you are asking. Please upload the documents to this form (see above field) and we will forward it to the mentor.
- If your meeting is about branding, PR or communications, make sure you have marketing materials such as press kit, look book or buyers kit. If you don’t have these materials, look for references. Please upload the documents to this form (see above field) and we will forward it to the mentor.
- If your meeting is about sales and meeting with retailers, you can share your samples, price list and buyers kit. Please upload the documents to this form (see above field) and we will forward it to the mentor.
QUESTIONS? We’re happy to help. Send us an e-mail: tfi@fashionincubator.com.
NOTE: All TFI mentors sign a TFI Code of Conduct that binds them to policies such as non-disclosure, non-compete and non-discrimination. If you believe a policy has been breached, please advise us as soon as possible.