To find a good business mentor for your creative business, look for somebody who has run a business like yours, who is completely in your corner, and who is brave enough to tell you the truth. Ask founders you trust who made a real difference, get to know a mentor’s work over a few weeks, and try something smaller first.
Updated November 2026
It’s one of the questions people ask most, of Google and of AI tools, about the kind of help I offer. And I think part of what makes it hard is that we often don’t know what we’re looking for. We don’t know the right questions to ask, because if we did, we’d probably already have half the answers.
So I’d love to share exactly what I look for, from the coaches and mentors I’ve worked with myself… the ones I’ve loved working with, and the ones that didn’t quite work.
Why is choosing a business mentor such a big decision?
You’ve built something real. Whether you make and sell products, offer a service, or create experiences for people, your creative business has months or years of your work, your instincts and your decisions inside it.
So letting somebody in, and trusting them with the direction of it, is a big decision, and it has to be taken seriously.
Without knowing what to look for, you end up comparing websites and testimonials and prices, and it’s very hard to tell from the outside who will actually make a difference.
What makes a good business mentor?
The short version is that a good mentor is completely in your corner, and brave enough to tell you the truth. Everything else comes from that.
In a little more detail, there are six very specific things I look for.
1. Somebody who has been there and done it. Somebody who knows exactly what it feels like, because they’ve been through the lows and the highs themselves. Somebody who has lived and breathed running a business like mine, who understands exactly what needs to happen, and who has achieved the kind of things I’d love to achieve. It’s the difference between somebody who understands your situation in theory, and somebody who knows how it feels at eleven o’clock at night when an order’s gone wrong, or a client’s gone quiet (or the absolute opposite, and a client is anything but quiet), or a decision just won’t settle.
2. Somebody who’s positive. Obstacles are inevitable in every business. What I want to know is that my mentor has tackled their own in a positive way, taken all the learnings from them, and carried on, because that’s the energy they’ll bring to yours.
3. Somebody who puts the people they’re looking after ahead of themselves. Somebody who is as passionate about your business as they are about their own. The ones I’ve loved working with were deeply passionate about my success, and you could feel it in everything about them. They were there, they were available, they celebrated with me, and they were fully in my corner. And I never felt I had to tiptoe around them, worried I was taking up too much of their time.
4. Somebody who’s open, real and practical. Somebody who shares openly what they’re working on, doesn’t pretend to be perfect, and is realistic about what’s possible. Somebody who shares things that are common sense and make sense, and explains them in the most straightforward way, without dressing them up in marketing speak or frameworks or the latest trends. I’ve had mentors in the past who I felt were putting on a more polished presence than was really them, and it made it so much harder to trust them. I want the real person. And when they don’t know the answer, they say so, and we work it out together, which I love.
5. Somebody who can see in you what you can’t see in yourself. This is the one I think matters most. A good mentor knows the right question to ask, and can see what’s really underneath when you can’t see it yourself. From there, they have really big goals for you… but goals based on evidence, on what you’ve already done and what’s actually possible, rather than sky high ideas that sound exciting and lead nowhere.
6. Somebody who’s brave enough to tell you the truth. When you get things wrong, they say so. And when you think you’re doing the right thing, and it’s actually the wrong thing, they’re brave enough to say that too. They share generously, and they’re open about the hard truths as well as the positive side.
All six really come back to one thing. Somebody who really cares, who has your best interests at heart, and who knows what it takes and what you’re experiencing inside out. That’s when it has really worked for me, and you can always tell when somebody doesn’t.
Where can you find a good business mentor?
When it comes to actually finding somebody, there are a few places I’d start.
Ask. Ask the founders you trust who they’ve worked with and, more than anything, what actually changed in their business because of it. That tells you far more than any website ever will.
Get to know somebody over time. Listen to their podcast, or read their newsletter, for a few weeks before you do anything else. You’ll very quickly get a feel for whether they’re open, whether they’re practical, and whether they’re really in it for the people they work with.
Try something smaller first. If they offer something smaller, it’s a lovely way to see how they work, and how it feels, before committing to anything bigger. (If you’d like to see how I look at a business, The Missing Piece is a short free series I made for established creative founders, to help you find the one clear thread at the heart of yours.)
Look for stories from businesses like yours. Whether you make products, offer a service or create experiences, hearing from somebody whose business looks like yours is so much more useful than a page of general testimonials, although the testimonials are definitely helpful to read too.
And if budget is the deciding factor right now, there are free mentoring schemes as well; GOV.UK lists free and paid-for options. If you’re weighing up what different kinds of support cost, I’ve written about that in detail in [how much a business mentor costs for a creative business](LINK TO COST POST).
What should you ask a business mentor before committing?
Before I committed to working with anybody, the thing I’d most want to know is what they can see in me, and what they can see in my business. Their honest take on what’s possible, and what they can actually see.
If they can’t see much yet, that tells you something. And if they can see something you hadn’t noticed, something that comes straight from your own work and your own clients, that tells you a great deal.
The other thing I’d want to feel is that they believe in what I’m doing, and understand my vision. That, to me, is really, really important.
Everything else should already be blatantly clear by then… whether they have the experience, and whether their approach is the right one for you.
So if you’re already speaking to somebody about working together, ask them what they can see in you and in your business, and listen carefully to the answer. Listen for whether it comes from your own work, and whether there’s anything in it you hadn’t seen yourself. You’ll know very quickly whether it feels like somebody who’s in your corner.
What are the signs a business mentor isn’t the right fit?
The clearest one is that you’re never being pushed. Everything is golden and rosy, and whenever you suggest something, the answer is always “that’s brilliant”. It feels lovely, and it doesn’t move you anywhere. You’ve got to feel that you’re being challenged, and taken to places that are a little bit uncomfortable at times, because that’s where the real change happens.
The others follow from everything above. A polished presence you can’t quite see behind. A sense that you’re taking up too much of their time. Goals that sound wonderful but aren’t built on anything you’ve actually done. And a quiet feeling that they don’t really have your best interests at heart, which you can almost always tell, if you listen to it.
It’s exactly what I hold myself to inside The Bright Line, my six month programme for established creative female founders, and it’s why I’m so careful about being in the community every day, and about being honest with people, kindly, when something isn’t working. You can read more about how I work on my creative business mentor page.
So, what does a good business mentor look like?
A good business mentor for your creative business is somebody who has been there and done it, who is positive, real, open and practical, who puts you first, who can see in you what you can’t see yourself, and who is brave enough to tell you the truth.
In your corner, and honest. That’s the person to look for.
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