For almost 20 years the Raj Manek Mentorship Program has been helping Saskatchewan business owners succeed, some even in the Humboldt region.

Manek was a highly successful business leader in the Bridge City before he passed away in 1996.

Now his wife Kanchan and daughter Sona have continued to work for the program and on Tuesday they spoke to a business luncheon crowd.

Sona explained more about what the program does.

"We will match them with a mentor, they will have one-on-one mentoring opportunities for a year with that mentor. Networking opportunities, monthly city-wide seminars, all of that kind of good stuff, lots of good tools and resources as well to help support."

Sona outlines some concerns that can come up among the clients.

"Lots of things have come up in terms of difficulties in expanding the business where they're just expanding so quickly it's been difficult to manage that and getting advice on that. Perhaps some marketing difficulties, some HR, lots of different challenges that come up."

The program is open to all Saskatchewan businesses and they have recently expanded to Edmonton and northern Alberta.

During the luncheon a number of local business people that have taken part or are currently in the program were on hand including former Graphic Ad owner Bob Pitzel and current Diamonds of Detroit owner Olivia Coffyne.

Sona admits it's nice to hear positive comments regarding the program.

"We have very supportive both mentors and proteges in the community, somebody like Bob Pitzel has been involved for so many years and been very supportive of the business community coming up and just wanting to give back to the people that helped him in his early years."

Business success rates are below the 50 percent point, clients of the Manek program see a rate of succession over 80 percent.

You can hear more from Manek below in her interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.