Local mentors for local businesses — structured support for the leaders navigating the hardest phase of growth.
Growing a business past the start-up phase is one of the most demanding things a person can do. The decisions get bigger, the team gets more complex, the financial stakes get higher — and the support structures that larger organisations take for granted simply don’t exist.
Most business mentoring either costs a fortune, comes with an agenda, or delivers generic advice that doesn’t fit your situation.
TwoCan® is different.
Our mentors are experienced business people in your region, matched to your specific situation — not a list of frameworks.
People leading growth-stage businesses often tell us about:
These aren’t signs of a business in trouble. They’re the normal experience of someone doing something genuinely difficult.
Mentoring creates a protected space to think it through — with someone impartial, experienced, and completely on your side.
Without time to pause and reflect, it is easy to:
Mentoring creates protected space to step back, gain perspective and move forward with confidence.
Twocan mentoring provides non-technical CPD that helps people to:
Think clearly through complex growth decisions
Build confidence as leaders, not just operators
Develop people-management and communication skills
Navigate change, scaling and increasing responsibility
Learn from others who have been there before
Feel less isolated as the business grows
This is not consultancy or advice-giving. It is about having an experienced, trusted person alongside you as you work things out for yourself.
TwoCan’s SME programme is geographically anchored. We connect growing businesses with mentors from their local area — people who understand the regional economy, the local talent market, and the specific pressures of building a business where you’re based. This programme runs in partnership with Growth Hubs and local business support organisations.
Participants benefit from:
This creates mentoring that is practical, relevant and rooted in place.
TwoCan partners with Growth Hubs to deliver structured mentoring programmes for their SME communities. We currently work with the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub and are expanding to new regions.
If you’re a Growth Hub looking for a high-quality, structured mentoring solution for your businesses — we’d like to talk. Get in touch: mentoring@twocanmentor.co.uk
Twocan offers a structured, professional mentoring programme, delivered either in person or online, designed to support meaningful and lasting development.
Participants take part in an in-person or online programme that builds the skills and understanding needed to get the most from mentoring, ensuring mentoring relationships are effective, focused and valuable.
Our bespoke mentoring matching software carefully matches mentors and mentees based on experience, preferences and development goals, removing guesswork and improving outcomes.
Participants are supported throughout the programme with clear structure, guidance and a point of contact, ensuring mentoring remains purposeful and sustainable.
Participants also have access to ongoing personal development courses, supporting continued growth beyond the core mentoring relationship.
Whether you want support or want to give support, there’s a pathway for you.
This programme is designed for SMEs beyond start-up, typically entering or navigating a growth phase.
It is well suited to:
We are also seeking experienced local business leaders who want to give back by mentoring others in their area.
Mentors benefit from:
You do not need to be from the same sector – shared experience of growth and leadership matters more.
Twocan runs multiple cross-ecosystem mentoring programmes, each designed around a specific sector or context – including healthcare, professional services and growth-stage SMEs.
While the settings differ, the human challenges of leadership, responsibility and decision-making are remarkably similar.
That is where mentoring delivers the greatest value.
Whether you are leading a growing SME, looking to support your local business community as a mentor, or exploring a place-based mentoring programme for your area, we would love to talk.
We will be in touch with more details soon
I am a rural researcher at Savills, focusing on agricultural, environmental, rural property, and land use issues across the UK. I lead a team of research analysts and a specialist rural data team, analysing the impact of policy changes on rural businesses and the land market. Alongside this, I run our family arable farm in east Lincolnshire and am busy investigating ways that we can evolve our combinable cropping system to make the business more sustainable.
I joined the programme as I was keen to benefit from an outside perspective on my development while also offering my experience back as a mentor. I really like the matching process and that there is training to help make sure you get the most out of the programme.
I am a passionate agriculturalist with a fierce thirst for learning. Farming is in my blood; I see agriculture as an industry that is often overlooked despite its global importance. As an Agri-Business Consultant I specialise in advising on business strategies, improving farm efficiency, and addressing the unique challenges of the agricultural sector, combining my deep-rooted understanding of practical farming with modern business practices.
Land management is vital for food production, environmental conservation, and energy generation. My aim is to help facilitate, empower UK farmers, showcasing them as world leaders in our industry.
I decided to join the cultivate success program in the hopes to engage and learn from experienced professionals who can offer different perspectives and further my own professional development.
I hope to gain invaluable personal insights, constructive criticisms, encouragement, and enhanced industry knowledge as well as new friends and connections.
Doctoral Researcher/PhD Candidate
Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, London, UK
I am a dedicated food systems researcher and final-year PhD candidate focused on the cascading effects of disruptive shocks on agri-food value chains (AFVCs). My research has equipped me with a strong background in systems thinking, qualitative research, and stakeholder engagement. I am passionate about building resilient food systems, with a focus on sustainable and equitable solutions for global food security.
I decided to join this program to connect with like-minded professionals and mentors who can help guide my career in food system resilience. The opportunity to engage with a diverse network is invaluable to my personal and professional growth.
Through this experience, I hope to gain insights into practical applications of resilience-building strategies, expand my network within the agriculture industry, and strengthen my skills to better contribute to the global challenge of food security.
Environmental Assistant
I was recently made redundant from 7 years in breeding Barley in the research and development sector, upon this crossroads I joined the Twocan Mentor programme to hopefully gain direction and open up vision to other career options within agriculture that are not sitting on a tractor all day long.
My mentor is expertly matched and first session in going swimmingly well. So far this programme has given me purpose and a road in which I feel I can progress.
I look forward to what the next few months holds!
Studying for her PhD at Harper Adams University
Originally from inner-city Birmingham, I was attracted to the broad range of subjects that agriculture encompasses so completed a degree in Agriculture at Harper Adams University. During this time, I developed an interest in poultry nutrition and am now pursuing a PhD in slow growing broiler nutrition and environmental impact assessments. In my spare time I enjoy French classical dressage, cooking, knitting and exploring fashion.
I decided to join the Twocan Mentor program to develop a good foundation for a career in agriculture once I finish my PhD. I am passionate about networking and building communities and believe these factors are essential for personal and professional growth.
I hope to have great conversations with people from the sector that will lead to lasting networks and communities. I hope that through the mentorship I will develop clearer goals for my future and gain confidence about heading out to work in the industry.
MSc at Bangor University
I am a dedicated agriculturalist with my first degree in Agricultural Economics and Farm Management from Nigeria. I am also a recipient of the Commonwealth Scholarship and OFC Scholarship. I am currently pursuing my MSc in Agroforestry and Food Security at Bangor University, Wales. I am driven by the desire to use my knowledge to address global challenges related to food security and sustainability.
I joined Twocan Mentor to expand my knowledge and experience while advancing my career in the agri-food and forestry sectors. Through Twocan Mentor, I aim to gain valuable experience, develop my career, and pursue my passion for farming.
I look forward to leveraging my education, experiences, and opportunities offered by Twocan Mentor, to make a meaningful contribution to UK agriculture and beyond.
Knowledge Exchange at AHDB
I was brought up on a mixed livestock farm in East Yorkshire. After studying Agriculture at Newcastle University, I moved down to Warwickshire for my first ‘proper job’ at AHDB in the beef & sheep genetics sector. I did that for 3 years before taking a secondment into the Knowledge Exchange team at AHDB, being the point of contact for beef & sheep producers between Lincolnshire and Herefordshire. A year secondment, turned into 2 and then I got invited to stay! I’ve now been in the role 5 years and enjoy the variety my role brings – no two days are the same.
I love my job and my team, but I was looking for a new challenge when I came across Helen and Twocan Mentor at an industry networking event. Being mentored sounded like a great idea and opportunity to push myself. Having been in the same organisation since I graduated and the same role for a while, you can sometimes become a little sheltered from how other organisations and job roles work. This seemed the perfect opportunity to get an alternative opinion on my career and development from people that have a very different experience to me and don’t really know me, so have no bias.
I would love to have some goals and something to aim for, I don’t know where I see myself in 5/10/15 years, so I’m hoping this scheme will help me bring some clarity to that and work out what I do and don’t want from my career. I’d also like some different opinions on how to deal with work challenges – especially when people have different ways of working. I’m a planner who likes a reasonable amount of detail, a fair amount of control and time to think things through, so working with people who don’t work in that way is inevitable, but can be frustrating
