In 2021, Victoria Kochemasova founded Tvorets, a pottery studio in Uralsk, Kazakhstan. As the studio grew, she faced a new set of challenges: how to build reliable processes, lead her team effectively, and grow the business while maintaining a healthier balance between work and personal life.
Victoria realised she needed more than ready-made advice. She wanted experienced people who could offer fresh perspectives, help her prioritise competing demands, and turn day-to-day challenges into a practical plan. She joined Micromentor, a platform that connects entrepreneurs with experienced volunteer mentors for free, one-to-one business guidance. In Central Asia, the programme is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Through Micromentor, Victoria began working with four mentors: Galina Khan, Saule Simambayeva, Lilia But and Liubava Piterskaya.
Each mentor brought a different perspective to Victoria’s journey. Galina Khan and Saule Simambayeva helped her strengthen business processes, team management and leadership skills. Lilia But and Liubava Piterskaya took a coaching-based approach, helping Victoria understand her reactions, manage the emotional demands of entrepreneurship and make decisions with greater confidence.
While it is too early to assess the financial impact of mentoring, Victoria is already seeing changes that matter for the studio’s future. She feels more resilient in the face of challenges, responds to mistakes more calmly and is less critical of herself, both at work and in her personal life. That shift is helping her approach business decisions with greater clarity.
A particularly valuable insight came from Galina Khan: just like a living organism, a business can experience growing pains. This helped Victoria see the studio’s challenges not simply as problems to solve, but as a reason to rethink how the business was being run. She revisited why she founded Tvorets, refined her business priorities and identified concrete next steps.
Those insights are beginning to translate into action. Victoria is introducing new management approaches, organising day-to-day processes and building a clearer operating structure for the studio.
Her next ambition is to build a resilient, recognisable business that does not depend on her for every decision. She envisions Tvorets as more than a pottery studio: a distinctive creative space with its own philosophy, a strong team and well-established processes.
For Victoria, the value of mentoring comes from combining practical business guidance with room for personal growth. Working with four mentors with different strengths helped her identify gaps in the studio’s operations, find tools to address them and rethink her role as a business leader. That is the power of Micromentor: entrepreneurs can connect with experienced people who bring different perspectives to the challenges that matter most to their businesses.
“I would encourage mentees to be open to new perspectives and not be afraid to reconsider their own beliefs. Mentors, in turn, should remember that sometimes one good question can make a much greater difference than a dozen ready-made pieces of advice.”
Victoria’s story shows that the value of mentoring goes beyond immediate revenue growth. Sometimes the first meaningful results are clearer priorities, more confident decisions and stronger systems that position a business for the future. By connecting entrepreneurs with mentors, Micromentor helps turn fresh perspectives into practical steps towards sustainable growth.
