Log In Frequently Asked Questions
About Digital Boost
What is Digital Boost?
We’re a free online platform that offers support to small businesses, charities and start-ups. We connect our community with volunteer experts so that they can learn essential skills and get the advice they need to grow their businesses.
As we’re owned by an educational charity (Founders4Schools), we’re able to offer our services for free!
How do you help small businesses & charities?
We support our community through:
- Unlimited 1:1 mentoring sessions with volunteer experts
- Small group live Masterclasses and events on popular business topics
- A Resource Centre with on-demand articles, blogs and videos to help you learn at your own pace!
All of our services are totally FREE.
We believe that everyone should have free and fair access to business advice, and that’s exactly what our community of volunteers provides for our small businesses & charities.
Join our CommunityIs it actually free?
Yes! We’re owned by a charity and believe that everyone should have access to high-quality, expert business advice for free.
We’re able to provide our services for free thanks to the generosity of our partners and volunteers who give their time to support our community. No catch, no selling, just friendly people who want to help.
What makes Digital Boost different from other mentoring and learning services?
- Personalised – you’ll meet with expert mentors 1:1 so they can offer you totally tailored recommendations to help you grow.
- Specialised – many programmes offer generalist mentoring, but at Digital Boost, we pride ourselves on offering bespoke mentoring in over 50+ business topics. So you’ll get advice from people who really know their particular subject (whether it’s email marketing, accounting or HR!) and leave your sessions feeling supported.
- Flexible – Our system is built so that you can book 1:1 sessions at times that suit you! Whatever your schedule, you’ll be able to fit your sessions in around your commitments and make our services work for you.
- Open to all – we believe in upskilling all small businesses. So our doors are always open to any small business or charity with under 250 employees, regardless of number of employees, revenues or location.
- Friendly – Digital Boost is a community and we pride ourselves on offering friendly advice to get you back on track for success.
- Scalable – Our platform is specially built so that we can deliver personalised services to 1000s of businesses around the world. Smart technology and automation allow us to efficiently connect people without wasting time & money.
For Mentees
What can I learn about with Digital Boost?
We cover nearly every business topic you need to start and run a business!
We’ve got 50+ topics to choose from that will help you achieve your business goals and grow with us. Our topics range from data analytics to GDPR, to content creation, business strategy and so much more!
See topicsWho are the mentors?
All of our mentors are volunteers. They have deep experience in a wide range of subjects and have chosen to volunteer their time to help small businesses and charities. They work for large organisations like Google, BT and NatWest Group, but also for smaller organisations and as freelancers.
How am I matched with a mentor?
You’ll be able to browse recommended mentors and select those you’d love to meet with. We’ll do our best to connect you with them. If they can’t make it this time, we’ll find you another mentor with similar skills who can help.
Is there a limit to how many sessions I can have?
No! With Digital Boost you get unlimited access to 1:1 sessions and Masterclasses for free – no strings attached.
We know it sounds too good to be true, but we promise it’s not!
Do your services actually work?
Yes! We’ve helped 1000s of businesses go from stuck and overwhelmed, to not just surviving, but thriving.
Read our success stories hereHow do you ensure all your mentoring is high quality?
We believe high quality advice should be available to all and shouldn’t need to cost the earth (or anything for that matter!)
We ensure the mentoring delivered through our platform always remains high quality through regular quality control checks, ongoing mentor training & support, and session feedback.
How soon can I speak with someone?
Once you join our community as a learner, you can start requesting support right away!
We have a buffer of 48 hours for booking all sessions with our mentors, to allow them enough time to prepare for the session 😊
What are Masterclasses?
Our Masterclasses our live, interactive sessions where one of our mentors will do a short talk about a business topic and then you’ll be invited to ask questions.
We pride ourselves on our sessions being interactive so come along with ideas and questions for the expert so that you can work with the group to overcome your challenge!
Having your camera on is strongly recommended so that you can get the most out of your session and really immerse yourself in the group experience.
Check out our Masterclasses here.How do I get started?
If you work for a start up, small business, charity or school and want to learn digital or business skills, you can get started straight away!
Register here
For Mentors
What do volunteers do at Digital Boost?
Our mission is to provide small businesses and charities with the skills they need to grow – free of charge.
Our volunteers join our platform as mentors to share their knowledge and expertise with our community. This pro bono support is delivered through 1:1 mentoring sessions and live Masterclasses & Workshops.
Who would I be mentoring?
When you join our community, you’ll be supporting small businesses, start-ups and charities around the world.
You’ll meet founders for one-off mentoring sessions so you’ll meet a huge variety of people and have the chance to really hone your mentoring skills through diverse questions and challenges!
How much time would I need to commit if I sign up?
We know everyone is busy and that it’s important to be able to build your volunteering into your everyday lives. So that’s why Digital Boost is totally flexible around you and your schedule.
When you sign up, you’ll be able to say how many hours a week you’d like to mentor and on what days you’d like to offer sessions. You can change these anytime in your Volunteer Dashboard.
Based on these preferences, we’ll send you requests from small businesses that fit your profile when we receive them. Each session is 60 minutes and you choose what sessions you accept to fit in your diary – commit just one session at a time. 😊
Do I get paid?
Our volunteers work with our community on a pro bono basis, so there’s no payment for working as one of our volunteers.
When you become one of our volunteers, you agree to not sell your services to our community in line with our Community Values.
Who can volunteer?
I am not in the UK, can I still volunteer?
Yes! We welcome experts from all around the world who want to help us support small businesses and charities.
How do I get started?
If you are a digital or business expert wanting to volunteer, you get started straight away!
Register here
For Partners
Is Digital Boost looking for new partners?
Yes! We’re always open to working with new partners who want to support small businesses and charities to learn and grow.
Partner with usHow does Digital Boost work with partners?
We work with our partners in a number of ways.
Read moreMy company partners with Digital Boost - how do I get involved?
We’d love to have you in our community!
To sign up as one of our partner volunteers, just click here to find your company’s partner page and click the sign up link.
Make sure to use your work email address and include your company name when you register as this helps us to shout out your company for being such an active partner in our community!
Our partners