I currently sustain a 60 hour a week full time professional job as well as spend about 25 hours a week on my 4 side ventures. I find that once you get into this mindset, you start to identify people with similar mindsets and goals and you soon fall into an entrepreneurial crowd with a wide swathe of experience, skills, abilities, and personalities but all of those things can be an amazing learning experience.
The first business I got into was a very rude awakening. I invested the most into that one and it's the one I'm probably going to lose the most on because I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't critically analyze the business plan the partners created to a gruelling enough degree. I didn't research the market. I didn't protect myself financially. I didn't have an exit clause, the legal agreements didn't favor me, etc. I can only really stomach the loss and consider it a good learning experience.
Since then, every new venture has been a positive learning experience even if soul-sucking at times...you also learn to suck it up when you look at the positives of additional revenue streams and lessons learned. You need to be very, very emotionally strong and not attached to your personal free time or social life and realize you will get those back one day and that can be an additional goal.
Mentorship can be difficult to find. Look at other successful entrepreneurs. Look to bank advisors, financial advisors, lawyers, etc. who have been involved in other start-ups. I am fortunate enough to now surround myself with those kinds of people and it's better to get good advice than to go in blind.
I just opened another company about a month ago and opened an account at ATB. ATB has a "Entrepreneurship Centre" on 17th avenue across from the Tim Hortons. They had a good business package and it looked like they had a lot of resources for someone starting out. That might be a good place to ask around.
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