"It's a shock when you come out of the comfort zone of working for someone else," says Weaver, the founder of JWA Prague. "It took me 10 years not to feel like a fool."

To encourage and ease the transition of others considering the leap to small-business ownership, the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic has started a mentoring program to bring successful entrepreneurs such as Weaver together with newcomers to the field.

It is thought to be the first such mentoring program in the country. CzechInvest organizes seminars and offers project funding for entrepreneurs through the Industry and Trade Ministry, but not mentoring.

"There's not a strong entrepreneurial culture here," says Rick Kovar, co-chairman of the chamber's small business council. "There's always the preference to go and work for big companies because there's a lot of prestige in working for IBM or DHL. ... And the people who do want to start a small business don't necessarily have the tools to do it."

He and fellow co-chairman Michael Gold started the program with the support of Weston Stacey, the chamber's executive director.

The program is free to members of the American or British chambers of commerce. Small-business memberships are 17,000 Kč ($763) per year for the American Chamber and 12,200 Kč per year for the British one.

The council started a similar mentoring initiative in the spring of 2005 using mentors running large businesses. It received little interest. Kovar and Gold resurrected the idea when they took over leadership of the council early this year, and proposed using mentors closer to their small-business roots.

The mentors — four total for the program's start — will meet several times in 90-minute group sessions with two to three newcomers to small business. Sales pitches to the mentors are prohibited, though business relationships formed after the sessions are not. The mentors are not paid for their time.

The emphasis, Kovar says, is on exchanging ideas and giving advice that would be unaffordable if it came through a consulting firm or an MBA program.

Nine people attended the program's introductory seminar Sept. 12; the group was nearly split between Czechs and expatriates.

"We were hoping for more," Kovar says. He attributes the low turnout to the local business community's unfamiliarity with mentoring.

The mentors will begin English-language sessions this month in various locations. They are: Pavel Bobošík, founder of a beerglass company; Petr Nevický, co-founder of APP, an IT services company; Sanjiv Suri, owner of three restaurants in the city center; and Weaver, founder of JWA Prague and chairwoman of the British Chamber of Commerce.

Despite the program's availability to members of the British and American chambers, it is only officially sponsored by the American Chamber, though Kovar hopes the British Chamber will be involved in an official capacity.