Tamworth residents Graham Manvell and Matthew Sweeney are two of the online helpers for viewers of national TV reality program The Mentor.

On the show, Wizard Home Loans and Yellow Brick Road founder Mark Bouris coaches struggling small businesses.

Behind the scenes, Mr Manvell and Mr Sweeney are among about 40 mentors who share tips with people on how to set up or boost their business.

They give their time to answer questions from across Australia on the Ask the Mentors forum, both saying it was a way to “pay it forward”.

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Mr Manvell, a longtime restaurateur, chef and culinary competition judge, said mentors tended to stick to answering questions about their industry.

But one general tip he had was that people in business should “never stop learning”.

“I was a judge in an international chefs’ competition in Thailand the other day, Thaifex, and I saw things and said, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before’,” he said.

“Whenever I get the chance, I like to try different things and learn different things.”

Another must was to “keeping positive and keeping striving”.

“Sometimes I’ve seen people give up who have just been so close,” Mr Manvell said.

“They see the money going out but sometimes don’t realise how close they are to getting into the ‘nice area’.

“So another important factor is basically having a great system in place to know where you stand.”

Mr Sweeney has experience in corporate finance and investment banking, and is a chartered accountant and business consultant.

He said he was “quite happy” to reach out a hand of support to people who were often “desperate for answers”.

“These people aren’t asking questions at 9 o’clock in the morning or 2 in the afternoon; it’s 9 at night or 2 o’clock in the morning,” he said.

“They’ve exhausted their own knowledge and probably everyone else’s around them, and they’re wondering where else to go for answers …

“We can give them at least some guidance, even if it’s what to search on Google and what they need to do next.”