Not just any mentor, but the right mentor, can be a boon to your success and business. A poor one can trip you up just as any other potential pitfall in the path to your success. So look for:

1) A person who is in your industry with a proven track record, complete with client testimonials you can check out, products / services with examples to share with you and an executive resume for your consideration.

2) Someone with reasonable instructions for you as a mentor and contact information that works and works well for both of you. In short, don't get someone with only a Support Desk link who rarely, if ever, replies to it. You want tried and proven communications, emails that get responses, phone calls, etc.

3) Someone with a mentoring program targeted for what you want to accomplish, in your time frame and in your budget range. In short, you don't need someone to fly a man to the moon, when you don't need all that technology, time, energy and money spent there. You want someone who can help you with your short list and long list of goals, in a timely manner and in your budget range.

4) A commitment with check points all along the way, and no long-term contract you cannot get out of. In short, month to month programs work well, but annual ones of 5-figures and more are not good for beginners.

Start small and see how your mentoring works out for a month. See if you get anything worthwhile accomplished. Then grow with your mentor, tackling larger and more expensive project tasks as they come up, even doing joint ventures together down the road.

Find a Mentor

There are many ways to find the right mentor. Popular ways are:

a) In industry newsletters and other offline publications. Ask your local librarian to help you locate print magazines, newsletters and other timely publications in your niche. Then check ads in them and on their company website, especially look for classified ads.

b) Seek industry forums, blogs, ezines and other online publications. Open Google in your web browser or other popular search engine, and type in "your niche + forum" or "your niche + blog" to get a list going of sites to check out. Popular ones often have blogs on them at the folder's domain + /blog or /forum files; for example: MyWebsite.com/blog or MyWebsite.com/forum.

c) Ask your friends and business associates for recommendations. Many are happy to share their resources, programs, contacts and trusted mentors with you. Share any with them, too.

Once you do get ahead, don't forget to give back. You may be called upon to mentor others coming up in the industry!