Sometimes, you can get that information for free from someone. Other times you might actually hire someone for mentoring sessions. I hired someone a few years back and it was money well-spent.
I've also offered mentoring sessions, but I try to talk people out of it first. Here's why...
What I've found is that beginning graphic designers often don't do what they know they should do. Or they're simply looking for someone to encourage them or give them a kick in the rear-end. But do you really need to pay someone to do that for you or could you do it yourself?
Let me give you an example that I run into often:
Beginning Designer: "I need some help... I'm not finding any clients. What should I do?"
Me: "How many calls did you make to potential clients yesterday or how many letters did you send out?"
BD: "Uhh, none."
Me: "OK... how about the day before?"
BD: "Well, part of the problem is I'm not sure who I should be contacting."
Me: "What did you do yesterday to figure out who you should be contacting?"
BD: "Well..."
Now here's a really quick answer to this particular problem. You need to do an inventory of what you're able to offer as a designer. Maybe you love doing brochures. Who needs brochures? Well, anyone who puts their brochures in a brochure rack at your local airport needs them along with quite a lot of businesses in your local area. But you're not going to know who needs you until you call these folks, let them know what you do, then see if there's a need now or maybe in the future.
You do not need a mentor for that insight. It's Business 101: Knowing what you do well and then leaving no stone unturned finding the people who need what you offer.
The other big issue is motivation. People want a mentor to help motivate them. I've got some bad news: If you need someone else to motivate you to push forward in a new career, you're in trouble.
You have to ask yourself: If I need someone else to motivate me or help push me along, is this something I really want to do? Or am I just in love with the idea?
I don't want this to sound too harsh, but some folks are expecting a little too much hand-holding when a little bit more individual effort on their part could propel them forward.
My theory is that a lot of us (and I do include myself in this) got used to being told what to do as employees. Someone told us what hours we'd work, what we'd do during those hours, how much we'd be paid, how much vacation we could have, etc.
Now, as freelancers, we're completely on our own to map out everything. But we've sort of lost that ability to think things through on our own when it comes to business because we had so many years of those decisions being made by someone else.
It's not that we're stupid... we've just gotten a little soft in areas. So as you're moving forward, don't get overwhelmed by all the decisions that may be in front of you. Just break it down into manageable pieces and start with the most basic thing you can do right now to move forward. Don't make it more complicated than it has to be... quite a bit of this is simply going to be common sense.
Once you've got all the common sense issues out of the way and you know you've done everything you can possibly do on your own, go ahead and get a mentor if you feel you need one. Mentors can help you refine some of your ideas and tell you what has and hasn't worked for them.
It's at that point where you're really getting the most out of a mentor relationship and the push you need to get to the next level of your career.
