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A succinct definition of what business mentoring is can be boiled down into a mere sentence: professional development activities supported by an experienced peer or colleague. But what a business mentor actually does for you and your company far exceeds such a simple explanation.

Most mentors, whether for a one-shot question or decades-long resource, offer new ideas and ways of thinking about problems that perhaps you or your company hadn't thought of. The best mentors work, or have worked, in similar fields' to your entrepreneurial venture, but some can be specialists in a particular field or problem not related to your business goals. For these and many other reasons, it is best to find mentors that you feel comfortable with, trust implicity, and are able to access on a timeline that suits everyone's needs.

Online mentoring has taken on in recent years because of these inherent needs. A list of online sources are compiled below, along with further reading if more in-depth information is required.

Online Mentoring Groups and Associations

With more than a thousand US-based volunteers, SCORE is one of the best and inexpensive (read: free) business mentoring groups around. Plus, if there isn't a chapter available in your area, most quick questions are answered within two days' time by online means.

The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) offers one-on-one tailored mentoring support to its young Canadian entrepreneurs to help them succeed in business.

For UK-based entrepreneurs, the Business Volunteer Mentor Programme (BVM) offers free or "heavily subsidized" business mentoring programs for those already succeeding in business or looking to start one from scratch.

Anyone under the age of 45 running a business with 50+ employees (and whose salaries paid total more than one million a year) can apply to join YPO, the Young Presidents' Association. This networking organization spans the globe, having had many well-known mentors join their ranks, such as Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro.

TEC: Chief Executives Working Together is an international networking group who meet one full day a month to discuss confidential, business-related practises for educational and professional growth.

Want More Information About Business Mentoring?

The Edward Lowe Foundation has a great article entitled, "The Importance of Mentoring Programs", while the Best Practice Guide: Vol. 4: Keeping It Personalized: Consulting, Coaching & Mentoring for Microentrepreneurs is available from The Aspen Institute for free download (note: this link opens to a PDF file). The extensive list of bibliographic materials that follows may provide you with the specific information you are looking for, but if not, please discuss what your needs are here and we'll find what you are looking for.

Further Reading: Business Mentoring

If interested in researching or learning more about business mentoring, please review the following scholastic and newsworthy articles about business mentoring.

Billington, Jim. "Meet Your New Mentor. It's A Network." Harvard Management Update. (August 1997): 3-4. http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=U9708A&_requestid=31315

Boyer, Naomi. "Leaders Mentoring Leaders: Unveiling Role Identity in an International Online Environment." Mentoring & Tutoring 11 (January 2003). http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=arxdn0gm1r2jxa15

Dahl, Cheryl. "Women's Ways of Mentoring." Fast Company 17 (1998): 186. http://www.fastcompany.com/online/17/womentoring.html

Eggeman, Robin Joy Galley. "Touchstone Mentoring: A Multiple Mentor Model That Mirrors Women's Career Development Needs." Ph.D. diss., The American University, 1996.

http://www.american.edu/cas/soe/dissertation_right.html#eggman

Evans, Daniel, and Thierry Volery. "Online Business Development Services for Entrepreneurs: An Exploratory Study." Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 13, no. 4 (2001): 333-350. http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=qe71yqlg8dw9165u

Hansford, Brian, Lee Tennent, and Lisa Catherine Ehrich. "Business Mentoring: Help or Hindrance?" Mentoring and Tutoring 10, no. 2 (2002): 101-115. http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=djuv83k4xmqj8c57

Helzberg Jr., Barnett. "Mentoring is for Entrepreneurs, Too." http://entreworld.org/Content/EntreByline.cfm?ColumnID=14

Hill, Linda, and Nancy Kamprath. "Beyond the Myth of the Perfect Mentor: Building a Network of Developmental Relationships." Harvard Business School. June 1998.

Kooiman, Perter. "Mentorships: The Ultimate Networking Tool." HomeOfficeMag.com. September 2001. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,292332,00.html

Koplovitz, Kay. "Mentoring is Fundamental." http://entreworld.org/Content/EntreByline.cfm?ColumnID=428

Mulhern, Charlotte. "Peer Power." Entrepreneur.com. December 1996. http://www.entrepreneur.com/mag/article/0,1539,226664,00.html

National Mentoring Center. "Assessing the Potential of E-mentoring: A Survey of Current Issues." 2003. http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/panel.html

Packard, Becky Wai-ling. "Web-based Mentoring: Challenging Traditional Models to Increase Women's Access." Mentoring & Tutoring 11 (January 2003). http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=fhpcp3pxy4py6nng

Wayshak, Corinne. "A Business Case for Formal Mentoring." http://entreworld.org/Content/EntreByline.cfm?ColumnID=431

Woodd, Maureen. "The Challenges of Telementoring." Journal of European Industrial Training 23, no. 3 (1999): 140-144. http://titania.emeraldinsight.com/vl=1279471/cl=86/nw=1/rpsv/cgi-bin/linker?ini=emerald&reqidx=/cw/mcb/03090590/v23n3/s4/p140

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