As a business owner, it would be one of the questions to ask and the answers can vary widely.

Can mentoring be free?

You might be surprised but sometimes it can be free and there are certain schemes, often funded by governments, local councils or ‘not for profit’ organisations, that might provide business mentoring as part of them, and the mentoring to you might be free.

Alternatively your business might even sponsor a mentoring programme for you.

Or you could sign up to a mini MBA style scheme like the UK’s Help to Grow Management Course which includes 10 hours of free mentoring.

But there is often a trade off with ‘free ‘ mentoring.

• You might be restricted to how many hours support you can get. This may not meet your needs or last the duration of the change project you are running.
• The mentor may be chosen for you in some schemes. You may not get a choice of who you are assigned.
• Not everyone has time to volunteer to provide free mentoring, so it by default, limits the range of mentors you can choose from.
• The mentor may not have specific relevant experience to your business, your challenges or your sector.
• It being ‘free’ may create a lack of commitment for both the mentor and the mentee. Not what you want when you want to create change in your business.
• With ‘free’ mentoring, you may not get the a accountability you seek/need. When you pay for mentoring, there’s usually a structured process with expectations, timelines, and measurable goals.
• The quality of free mentoring may be inconsistent – Professional mentors often charge for their services because they’ve developed significant expertise and have a proven track record. Free mentors might offer guidance based on goodwill, but their advice can be generic, outdated, or misaligned with your specific context or goals.
• There is potential for value to be one sided. If the mentor is not being compensated for their time, they will need something else to keep them connected. A free mentor might not receive sufficient value in return, which can lead to disengagement over time. Effective mentoring relationships are mutually beneficial; when there’s no exchange—financial or otherwise.
• Mentoring is subject to supply and demand. Good mentors have limited availability as they are are often in demand. If they’re offering their time for free, it’s likely to be occasional or ad hoc, meaning the support may not be timely or consistent enough to drive real progress.
• Finding a good free mentor is likely to involve a lot of luck. Luck is not the basis for building a good business.

How much is paid mentoring?

There are also many professional mentors and they may charge quite a wide range of fees from £50 – £1400 an hour for some mentors. Here are some high profile examples:

• Alex Hormozi once talked about charging £5000 an hour for business mentoring in one of his podcasts. In another I heard him talking about turning down someone who offered £50k for a day as he could earn more focussed on his own businesses, why spend it on someone else?
• Helen Tudor talked about £750 an hour to provide LinkedIn mentoring.

Typically though you would be looking between £150-£350 an hour.

To some small businesses that may seem like a lot of money for an hour. But when you consider what you get for it?

What are the Benefits of Having a Business Mentor?

Engaging with a business mentor is one of the most strategic decisions a professional or business owner can make. Far beyond casual advice, mentoring offers structured, results-driven support that propels you forward—personally and professionally. Here’s how:

• Achieve Clarity and Strategic Focus – A business mentor helps you cut through the noise and distraction to focus on what truly matters. They support you in defining a clear vision, setting aligned goals, and creating a strategic roadmap to achieve them. You’ll walk away with renewed clarity, direction, and a plan of action that’s grounded in real-world results.
• Get Answers and Practical Solutions – Mentors don’t just ask good questions—they help you think through your challenges and guide you toward effective solutions. Whether you’re facing a specific obstacle or exploring a new direction, you’ll leave conversations with actionable steps, not just theory.
• Be Held Accountable – Having someone hold you to your word, challenge your progress, and encourage consistency is critical. A mentor does exactly that—not only for your tasks and goals, but for how you show up as a business leader. This accountability fosters discipline, momentum, and measurable results.
• Access Experience and Avoid Costly Mistakes – Save time, money, and energy by learning from someone who’s already walked the path. A seasoned mentor brings decades of lived experience—what worked, what failed, and why. This insight helps you avoid common pitfalls, challenge assumptions, and make faster, better-informed decisions.
• Tap into Expertise—When You Need It – Gain access to a trained professional mentor on your schedule—available when you want, not when you don’t. Whether you need support monthly or during a critical period, the time you have is focused entirely on you and your business, without paying for services you don’t use year-round.
• Gain an Objective Sounding Board – Running a business can feel isolating. A mentor offers unbiased, emotionally detached feedback—an external lens that helps you see what you may miss internally. Especially valuable during change or growth, this objective perspective ensures your decisions are well-grounded.
• Expand Your Network and Leverage Their Contacts – Access a network of trusted advisors and skilled professionals—relationships that have taken a lifetime to build. A mentor can open doors and make introductions that accelerate your business growth and credibility.
• Benefit from Deep Knowledge, Insight, and Techniques – Mentoring gives you on-tap access to insight, tools, techniques, and proven strategies. It’s like having a high-level advisory board in your corner—without the corporate price tag.
• Grow as a Professional and Business Leader – Mentoring isn’t just about business growth; it’s about personal evolution. A good mentor will challenge and support you to grow in confidence, lead more effectively, communicate with greater impact, and influence others with integrity.
• Save Money by Investing Wisely – Instead of paying for full-time support, you gain high-level expertise only when you need it. This flexibility allows you to receive exceptional value and insight without unnecessary overheads.
• In essence, a mentor acts as a catalyst—accelerating your growth while helping you avoid the missteps that cost others years to correct. Whether you’re scaling, pivoting, or just getting started, the right mentor can make the difference between merely surviving and truly thriving.

However, sometimes as business owners we look at ‘costs’ in the wrong way. We look at the cost to ‘buy’ something, but fail to consider the cost of NOT having it.

What is the cost of something going wrong in business?

How much cost is created by:

• an inefficient process?
• a poorly set up or integrated system?
• a underperforming team?
• a completely missing people, systems or processes and you did not realise it or the cost of not having them?
• something not optimised with your own performance or skill? What impact does this have on you long term?

I had a finance director client of a £25m industrial manufacturing business explain they were on yet another cost reduction. More redundancies more time spent managing contraction. I asked him about why, ‘we are not performing and our sales are below target’. So I asked about sales, sales management, sales training, how sales operated, where they got leads from, what marketing they did to engage their end customers. They did not do marketing and relied on ‘over the wall’ reactive selling. So I explained the function of marketing and asked how sales could do their job, without marketing. It was an eye opening experience when the mentee reaised that by not engaging with their customers and the end user, and by relying on distributors to give them orders, they were severley restricting what sales could achieve.

Having run businesses and supported many clients, from both big blue chip global corporate companies and small/medium business owners and even startup’s, it can be obvious when you look at the real numbers with an external perspective, but it’s also so easy not to pay attention to them when you are in the middle of running a business.

Inefficient or badly run processes and systems and even the wrong people, can significant impact business performance and their for costs or profits that overshadow any investment in mentoring.

You can find good professional mentors in the range between £150-£350 an hour. How much can you spend when your business is not running right?

What factors affect the cost of Business Mentoring?

The cost of business mentoring will vary depending on factors that you, the mentee, affect and the situation and work of the mentor.

Variables affecting costs of business mentoring that depend on you

1. What your requirements are?
   • The size of your business and its complexity (e.g. single person business or international conglomerate, or something in between);
   • When you want to be mentored (e.g. during the business week, or only at evenings or weekends or even timezones).
   • How many people need mentoring? If multiple people need mentoring as part of your business it may make sense to have the same mentor across separate sessions. If you want to have group mentoring then fewer mentors will offer that, but whilst the session cost is higher, the cost per individual might be lower.
   • Do you require significant customisation and personalisation of the mentoring program? Mentoring programmes that are tailored to the specific needs and goals of the mentee may cost more than generic or standardized programs.
2. Duration of the engagement
   • How long the commitment is for? (e.g just 1 session or a block of 5 or 10, or 6 months or 12 months commitment?);
   • The length of the mentoring sessions will affect how much they are. Typically they are 30 mins (short) to say 2 hours (longer). Personally I think around an 1.5 to 2 hours works well.
   • Frequency of Sessions: The more frequent the mentoring sessions, will impact the overall cost but if you do more sessions, the cost of individual sessions may be less.
3. Complexity of your business or your personal needs
   • The size of your business and its complexity (e.g. single person business or international conglomerate, or something in between);

Variables depending on the mentor

1. Experience and Expertise of the Mentor.
   • It can be the case that Mentors with extensive experience and expertise in their field may command higher fees due to the value they can offer. But it is not a fixed relationship as some of the best, may also mentor for lower rates, and some less experienced mentors may charge more, because they can. At the end of the day like any buying decision, you have to get to the point that you feel that you will gain sufficiently to justify what you are being asked to pay.
   • Mentors with recognized credentials or a strong reputation in their industry may command higher fees due to their perceived value and credibility.
2. Scope of Services Provided
   • The range of services provided by the mentor can affect the cost. Some mentors may offer additional services such as networking opportunities, access to resources, or ongoing support outside of sessions, which can increase the overall cost.
   • Some mentors may charge extra for expenses such as travel, materials, or access to specialized tools or resources.
3. Demand and Availability
   • Mentors who are in high demand or have limited availability may charge higher fees due to their scarcity.
4. Location
   • The cost of business mentoring can vary depending on the location.
     • Mentors in major cities or affluent areas often charging higher fees to reflect the higher cost of living or demand. There also may be travelling costs or expenses which may increase overall fees.
     • Should you consider virtual/online mentoring then there are no travel costs or time spent travelling so naturally these expenses are not incurred.
5. Payment Structure:
   • The payment structure can also influence the overall cost, with some mentors charging
     • hourly rates,
     • flat fees per session, or
     • monthly retainer fees.

Top tips: Your next steps to selecting a mentor

1. Prepare yourself – Think about what you want to achieve, what factors are important to you, what support you might need, how you want to work with someone.
2. Do Your Research – Look online or use professional bodies like the Association of Business Mentors to identify and select qualified trained professional mentors. When you have identified a few people in your shortlist, then then check the mentees credentials and LinkedIn profile. Are they insured? Are they a member of a professional body? Are they trained?
3. Evaluate and Select Potential Mentors – Contact your prospective mentors to arrange a discussion about your requirements and the support you want. Evaluate the Chemistry, do you feel like it will work with this particular mentor?
4. Discuss and agree how you will work together – Most Business Mentors will then request you to agree to a contract or similar document. Often these are a statement of expectations but may also include terms and conditions including on how things will be managed. Agree frequency and duration of sessions with your mentor. You can alway re-arrange if needed if work or life gets in the way. Understand that what is discussed is held by both parties as a confidential discussion. This should be explained at the outset by the mentor.
5. Ask the mentor about:
   • how they adapt dynamically to your needs during a session or across sessions?
   • do they solicit ongoing feedback and how? It’s important for you and the mentor to reflect on the process of mentoring you. What is working? What can be improved and how?
   • how they develop themselves through ongoing Continuous Professional Development
   • what they professional mentoring qualifications are?
   • what happens if its not working? In the unlikely event something goes wrong, are you able to stop the process of mentoring? A professional mentor will work with you to terminate in a reasonable way.
   • does your mentor belongs to a professional body? If they do they will adhere to the bodies professional code of conduct. This provides you a path to escalation should you need to you could raise a complaint with the Professional Body. Its not something that good professional mentors are afraid of as its part of professional practice.
   • do they have a qualified professional supervisor? We all need to learn to be better and mentors of a high standard get supervision.

If you have any questions about selecting a mentor, please Contact Us to discuss them.

Good luck!

Phil Howell