Finding Mentors - Joining a Network

So in the continuing discussion of Entrepreneurship in DC - I want to bring up the mentor option. Over the past 3 years as I've worked to get my first business to grow and as I'm considering the development of a 2nd business I've looked and looked for mentoring opportunities.

One of the most obvious opportunities for instance is SCORE - the community of retired executives. I'm definitely a fan of this but you really want to hold out and reserve your most challenging thorny obstacles for folks like that. Also - you've got to keep the dialog concentrated and to the point. This is not necessarily my strong suit when brainstorming and trying to flesh out thoughts that I'm working on.

So what else is there? Well of course there are free and sometimes nominal fee courses provided by the business development organizations of the state of virginia and fairfax county. Definitely worth remembering but this is not really the answer to the mentoring question.

What's next? Well there is the "friends and family" approach. Good if you have some good friends or family who are in the executive literati of the world, but not as helpful if everyone is sort of in the same boat as you.

Then, of course, there are the executives of your various government and commercial organizations in which all of us work. If you've got a very open organization and if you are working in an HQ location then this can be pretty great, but sometimes mixing business with business can be an uncomfortable option.

All is not lost however - it has come to my attention recently that there are a huge number of www.meetup.com groups dedicated to entrepreneurship and professional growth. I think we have a winner, Bob! Recently I went to the Arlington Entrepreneurship group meetup in Ballston. This was exactly what the doctor ordered. Although I didn't necessarily get my specific questions answered immediately I feel like this is the kind of group where a diverse dynamic set of folks who are all pursuing entrepreneurship can share experiences and grow with one another. Cheers then to the MeetUp concept for solving what for me has been a challenge in DC. I'm looking forward to meeting with other MeetUp groups in the area to see how this all progresses and maybe even start my own. We'll see... but for now? I think this may be an excellent way to go for the day in day out sorts of challenges that all of us face starting a business.