People who have “been there and done that” offer one of the most understated resources entrepreneurs can benefit from: mentorship.
A good business mentor can help you avoid common mistakes early on, solve troublesome problems, offer up valuable connections, secure funding, and provide advice while helping you realize your full potential.
Ahead, discover how to find a business mentor, learn why every entrepreneur can benefit from having one, and how to find right mentor for you.
What is a business mentor?
A mentor is an experienced industry professionals who provides priceless advice based on their own experience. Having a business mentor allows you to learn from their mistakes and successes, and get guidance on how to grow your business. They are willing to pass on their learnings, and develop a trusted professional relationship with another entrepreneur.
How much do business mentors cost?
The price of a professional mentor varies. You can find one for free through networking or government-sponsored programs. Some mentoring program charge between $30 to $500 per month.
How to find a business mentor: 10 ways
- Start by looking into your personal network
- Use cold outreach to find a mentor
- Get to know experienced entrepreneurs at meetups
- Hop on a Clarity call
- Look in forums and online communities
- Connect with potential mentors on LinkedIn
- Find mentors on X
- Form a mastermind group
- Find a volunteer mentor on SCORE
- Explore your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
1. Start by looking into your professional network
Begin your search by reaching out to the people you’re already connected with. They’ve seen your work and have a better idea of ways you could improve.
However, you may need to expand your horizons a bit if you have a smaller network. Consider anyone from family connections to local small businesses. Try to attend local networking events or start being more active in your niche on sites like LinkedIn and X. This can help you nurture relationships before you begin your outreach.
2. Use cold outreach to find a mentor
Cold emailing or messaging is a good way to network, create business partnerships, and develop your business. But it’s also a good way to seek out advice from experienced strangers.
Here’s a template you can adapt that’s based on cold emails that have both worked for those looking for career advice.
Hi (FIRST NAME)!
I stumbled across your profile on (WHERE YOU FOUND THEM) while I was doing some research into (WHAT YOU WANT TO DO). I really liked (COOL WORK THEY DID).
I’m looking to (YOUR GOALS AND WHAT YOU’RE DOING NOW TO ACHIEVE THEM) and would love to learn more about how you (WHAT THEY’VE DONE).
If you have some time this week, even if it’s for 15 minutes over a Zoom or phone call, I’d love to meet you.
Have a great week!
Ideally, you’ll want to get some face time with a potential mentor—whether it’s in person or over Zoom—so you can establish a better connection with them and show them that you’re serious about success.
Keep in mind that these people likely have an inbox full of others asking them for things. So try to be as accommodating as possible.
Here are some tips for entering into your initial conversation with a potential mentor:
- Prepare a list of specific questions about both their story and your business.
- Start by telling them about yourself so they have context around your pursuits and your problems.
- Be conscious of their time and express your gratitude toward them (if you’re meeting them offline, offer to pay for the coffee, drinks, or food).
- Toward the end of the conversation, ask them if it would be OK if you stayed in touch or if you could shoot them questions if you ever have any.
But above all, get a sense of how much you can be yourself around your potential mentor. A good, lasting mentorship is built on a solid foundation of friendship and openness and a mutual interest in a particular field.
3. Get to know experienced entrepreneurs at meetups
The internet has done a great job of drawing passionate people with shared interests into online and offline networking events.
You can find these events on sites like Meetup or Eventbrite and sign up for the ones that are relevant to you. Be sure to check out these networking tips before you attend.
4. Hop on a Clarity call
While Clarity isn’t a mentorship platform (you have to pay to speak with these mentors), it offers on-demand consultant calls with experienced professionals and entrepreneurs.
It breaks experts out into specific business areas (business development or pitching to investors) for focused phone calls that cost anywhere from $1 to $10 a minute.
There’s also a place where you can post your questions and get answers from knowledgeable entrepreneurs, similar to Quora.
5. Look in forums and online communities
There are also plenty of online communities for experienced and new entrepreneurs to talk about their businesses. These forums are a good place to seek out mentors directly, as long as your post communicates your promise as an entrepreneur and you put yourself out there in the right places.
Reddit is home to all manner of subreddits where you can look for mentors, including r/entrepreneur or r/smallbusiness. Do a search for “mentor” in these subreddits for examples of how others have asked about mentorship opportunities in the past.
If you’re a Shopify store owner, there are also plenty of Facebook groups you can join to ask for feedback or casual mentorship, including:
Be wary of any offers you find through online forums. Sometimes they’re consultants who only want to offer you paid services, or those offering mentorship may not be as experienced as they appear.
6. Connect with potential mentors on LinkedIn
LinkedIn should be a fairly obvious avenue for connecting with potential mentors. With more than 1 billion members in more than 200 countries and territories, you’re bound to find a potential business mentor.
LinkedIn profiles let you search for specific skills or experience that you’d want in a mentor. If you find someone you like, you can reach out to them directly with a connection request, even if you don’t have their email.
Try searching for mentors through hashtags like:
- #OfferHelp
- #Careeradvice
- #Mentorship
These hashtags will keep you informed about mentorship opportunities. You can even follow the hashtag to stay updated on the latest posts and motivational quotes from groups and people.
7. Find mentors on X
Similar to LinkedIn, you can find potential mentors on X (formerly known as Twitter). X has 421 million active monthly users and is a great place to start conversations with industry leaders.
If you have an X profile already, look first at the people you follow. Who is your role model? Who do you want to learn from? Send them a direct message and ask if they’d be interested in mentoring you.
Don’t have a profile just yet? No worries. You could also browse hashtags like #MentoringMonday, #mentors, or #mentorshipmatters to find mentorship opportunities.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re an experienced entrepreneur or a first-time store owner, you can find a good mentor on X.
8. Form a mastermind group
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely adventure of lifelong learning, but it doesn’t have to be with a mastermind group.
A mastermind group is a form of peer mentorship. It’s an ongoing support group of like-minded people working on their own projects while helping each other out. They share real world experience and talent, and keep each other on track towards achieving their goals with regular meetings.
9. Find a volunteer mentor on SCORE
SCORE matches you with an experienced small business mentor to receive free advice in person or online. Many SCORE mentors are successful entrepreneurs themselves, openly sharing their real-world business experiences and knowledge to help you grow.
10. Explore your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
Over 1,000 Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) operate across the US. Congress funds these centers through partnerships with the US Small Business Administration (SBA) in public and private institutions.
SBDC programs provide free business consulting and training to entrepreneurs. This can be a great place to meet other entrepreneurs and connect with a business mentor.
They also offer proven business tools to support your startup or expand your business.
You can get help with:
- Building a business plan
- Getting business funding
- Understanding finances
- Marketing and sales support
- Sparking motivation and innovation
- Public speaking tips and skills
Find your local SBDC by entering your business ZIP code.
Why every entrepreneur needs a business mentor
A mentor doesn’t just have a good grasp of the specific knowledge you need to succeed, like how to create better Facebook ads or how to bring a product to market. They also possess an intuition developed over the course of many years doing what you hope to do. Their knowledge can help you confirm, abandon, or shape some of your own business instincts.
An experienced mentor helps you find your best self faster than time alone would allow.
Mentorship occurs naturally in nearly every industry. But in the world of business, especially, you’d be hard-pressed to find a success story that didn’t involve a trusted adviser along the way:
- Warren Buffett credits Benjamin Graham with helping to shape him into a savvy investor.
- Richard Branson says his uncle Jim taught him how to harness his eccentricity into entrepreneurial endeavors.
- Oprah Winfrey recognizes the influence that poet Maya Angelou had on her, not just through her writing, but as a friend and mentor.
In fact, according to a survey of over 180 business owners conducted by UPS, 70% of the entrepreneurs that underwent mentoring had businesses that survived for five or more years.
That’s double the rate of businesses that didn’t have the advantage of a mentor. According to data compiled by the National Mentoring Day organization, 55% of businesses also feel that mentoring positively impacts their profits.
Perhaps most important to note is that a mentor isn’t a consultant. A true mentor won’t charge you a fee for their advice. Nor will they do the work for you.
A mentor, in an ideal situation, becomes a valuable friend. They see you as a good investment of their time because they value you as a person, and vice versa.
What to look for in a mentor
When you’re looking for the perfect mentor for your startup or to reach specific career goals, there are a few traits you’ll want to consider.
Good at listening
A trusted adviser should be a good listener. It would be hard to guide you without listening to your entrepreneurial challenges. Good mentors know the balance between listening and giving the right advice during a mentoring session.
Willing to share skills and expertise
A good mentorship relationship should be honest and transparent. Look for a mentor that treats the engagement as a two-way street, with both of you sharing knowledge, experiences, and skill sets.
Interested in your professional and personal development
A good mentor doesn’t need to know everything about your personal life, but they should help you set goals in life and tie them into your profession.
“Everyone needs a mentor in their career, just like you want friends that inspire and support you in your everyday life,” says Trilce Jiron, an ecommerce entrepreneur. “Most people think you should follow a mentor in their footsteps, and that’s just not true. Your method is your own.
“Find a mentor who is constant in your life and can give you advice on things you’re not good at,” she adds. “I’m horrible with business administration and finances, so I found a mentor who guides me through those weekly topics.”
Tips for finding the right mentor
Understand why you want a mentor
Before you look into finding a mentor, you need to understand what you’re hoping to get out of a mentorship. Create a list of goals you have for your mentor relationship to help you understand who might be the best fit.
A few things to consider are:
- What you’re hoping to learn
- What tasks you’ve been told you could improve in
- What projects you might need help with
Once you have specifics on what your goals are and what types of professional tasks or development you’re looking for help with, you’ll have a better idea of who may be a good fit for your mentor.
Put together a list of potential mentors
Once you know what professional areas you’d like mentoring in, put together a list of people you’d love to partner with. Include some dream mentors and realistic ones with whom you’re already connected.
Put them in preference of most likely to least likely to agree to mentor you. From there, pull some names from the top of the list that you can start reaching out to.
Maintain the relationship with your mentor
One of the common misconceptions about mentorship is that the structure of a mentor and mentee relationship is like that of master and student (think Yoda and Luke Skywalker or Batman and Robin).
But that puts the responsibility on the teacher’s shoulders.
Instead, look for mentorship opportunities where friendship, honesty, and mutual respect can co-exist with a large gap in experience between you and your mentor.
According to Lois Zachary, author of The Mentee’s Guide:
“We’ve come a long way from the mentor as the sage on the stage. Rather, the mentor is the guide on the side that asks questions that take people to deeper places of insight. It’s a dance, it’s a partnership, and a mentor should not be giving the answers, they should be raising the questions and should be helping the mentees to seek answers to their own questions.”
Don’t expect your mentor to do anything for you or even show you how to do something (there’s Google for that). Instead, rely on your mentor to check your own gut, validate your work, and learn how to think about your problems.
When you’re learning, you’re not supposed to look good. Be vulnerable and be curious. Mentorship is all about asking questions.
Often, the most stupid thing about so-called “stupid questions” is not asking them.
It can be hard to gauge how much commitment you’ll get out of a potential mentor. Some will offer you a more structured relationship where you regularly meet to check in on how you’re both doing. Others will offer the occasional advice when you ask for it or help you out over a Google Chat when you get stuck.
Whatever the case, the relationship should be founded on friendship and a common passion. Don’t ask for too much from your mentor, but if you’d like a bit more structure, ask in a considerate manner that respects their time: “I get a lot of value out of these conversations. What do you think about making this a regular thing—maybe once a month?”
The opportunity to watch you grow and develop and realize your ambitions is the main reason a mentor will give you their time. But you should also try to offer them something in return—whether it’s to contribute one of your skills to their project or just to spread the word about their latest venture. Even a thank-you card or email is a nice token of appreciation.
Read more: The Best 32 Entrepreneur Books of All Time
Mentorship: a cycle of learning and giving back
There is no cutting corners when it comes to becoming an entrepreneur. You need to throw yourself into your problems and figure things out as you go. But you can accelerate your growth by finding a friend in a mentor, gaining access to free experience they already paid for themselves with time and effort.
You don’t need to rely on a single mentor either. As long as you’re curious and put yourself out there, you can learn from people with different experiences that you don’t have yet.
Those who benefit from mentorship also tend to be compelled to give back. I’ve found this to be especially true within the Shopify community. Maybe you will too. And so the cycle continues, with today’s entrepreneurs helping tomorrow’s see their own version of success.
Illustration by Mikyung Lee
Business mentor FAQ
Mentors offer guidance and support for small business owners and entrepreneurs, with tips and tricks they’ve gathered through their experience. A business mentor can teach you anything from budgeting tactics to daily operations, whether you’re in the early stages or building a nonprofit.
What are the 4 types of mentors?
- Career mentor
- Life mentor
- Peer mentor
- Reverse mentor
What mentors should not do?
Mentors should not place unrealistic expectations on mentees. From the beginning, both parties should define the commitment and set goals. Business mentors should also provide constructive (not critical) feedback, and listen to mentees to genuinely understand their problems and share valuable solutions.
What is the difference between a mentor and a coach?
Mentors share their knowledge, skills, and experiences with others to help them grow. Coaches help clients achieve their goals and help them reach their full potential by providing guidance.
