I was thinking I needed a bit of a kick up the bum so I had a look into the idea of maybe trying to find a business mentor. First stop - Google. I looked at every site, which might be of interest, on the first few pages but found very little of any use.

I now wonder about the quality of many of these so-called mentoring services. One thing that made me laugh was an entry along the lines of "I am currently training to be a business coach. Can anyone mentor me in starting up a business as a business coach?"

There's also a lot of guff from the get-rich-quick crowd who offer 'mentoring'.

I know it's not realistic to hope for a dragon, but there must be something good out there which doesn't cost the earth.

Definitely online only. I don't have a large budget for this. Ideally I'd like someone to look at some of my sites and give me some ideas of how to take them up a notch or two, but I don't want to do it on a public forum.

I might also need to go through my portfolio and try to offload some of the stuff, but I've next to no experience of selling domains or websites. I could be doing with some hand-holding to get me through that. I did join a domaining forum but got a message from them saying I'd got a lifetime ban. I've really no idea why as I hadn't even made one posting. I was reading the forum rules prior to posting when the ban message came through._________________http://britishexpat.com

Thanks, Adi. I'm not really looking for a consultancy company, just a very web savvy person to give me a bit of a boost now and again. Perhaps a few hours would do the trick or maybe even a few hours a month._________________http://britishexpat.com

If youre looking for a mentor then i could refer you to businessownersonline.
It's a site who specializes sorts of business coaching and mentoring.
I think they will be of great help in your business.
just visit this http://businessownersonline.com/_________________business coach life

I've been looking for a good excuse to ban janicepink for her insightful <cough> rubbish.

That one will do me.

Goodbye, Janice.

To Kay... I'm not sure if it's a service he offers, but you might like to drop Old Welsh Guy a note, pointing out this thread. If he can't help you himself, I'm sure he'd be able to point you in the right direction.

I've worked with a local business coach (here in Sydney) and found it a real benefit.

I found him via word of mouth. A friend of mine had me with him and had nothing but praise for him.

The key to working with a business coach or a mentor is being prepared to do the work required to make it worthwhile for BOTH parties.

When I was preparing for my online magazine I had it all too much in my head, running circles and starting to do me in. Explaining it to Shane made me focus on the key issues and get more direction while he had two simple and logical ideas that can earn $10,000 each year - all because he had experience from so many other different businesses, he could see how various business models interconnect.

As for the cost of the sessions, we had 3 free visits and then agreed on a price that worked with my budget. Shane does a heap of corporate work so gets paid big dollars there and has just a few small creative clients that keep him sparking.

I think you need to be clear with what you want (which you seem to be) and put the word out there and you'll get the right one. I'd say your BS radar is fairly well tuned so don't be concerned about that - you don't have to deal with someone who is crap.

I don't doubt there are "guff" service providers ... don't know if that's from the "get rich quick" crowd or just those who are doing a piss poor job pitching services to those (such as you) who are ready for the mentor.

As you noted... the problem is sorting the credible experts from the wannabes.

Furthermore (and this is a big one for me)... it's also sorting the experts that know how to TEACH and COACH vs just those who are specialized knowledged experts but haven't got a clue of how to properly impart their knowledge on you.

I have done coaching. It has worked out well for clients. 13 pages of testiimonials and all sorts of lead conversion, lead gen, sales increase stats to prove in. Not here to pitch my service though... but I want to make one valid point: the reason I was actually of use to the clients was because "being a business coach" is not my primary business. In fact, it's just a small part of it.

Basically ... with any skill set...

You can learn it and do it.
You can learn it and teach it (ie: sell it but not necessarily have ever done it).
OR... the best ones...
You can learn it, do it and THEN teach it.

There are a good 1001+ things I'm an absolute knob at... but a handful of things that I know based on having done it. THAT is what made me useful to clients.

Again, no link, no pitch... BUT, consider the above when you select. Look into the person's credibility not just on paper, but in terms of the businesses they've actually invested their own time and money into.

And you may get a kick out of this next part but it makes sense when you think about it... I have offered my time for coaching/consulting and will do so in the future, but indeed I'm shopping around for a mentor/coach in one specialized area for a particular business model. It's an area of weakness for me but I see a lot of profit opps in it. But since I have minimal hands on experience with it... I'd rather find a qualified expert for it.

After a few hours my mentoring sort of fell by the wayside, but it was a very worthwhile experience all the same.

It turned out that my mentor is a personal friend and mentee himself of Philip Kotler. (Wow!) I have several Philip Kotler books in the house which had been gathering dust. (I'd only bought them because of a course I was doing.) It gave me the heads up to drag them out again. Very useful!

I believe some people are very good at doing this sort of thing, but too often you get people who are clueless and just see it as an easy way to make money online. By the way, I offered to pay for my mentor's time but he didn't want any money, he was pleased to help._________________http://britishexpat.com