Patent a process

I have been through the patent process three times and have found that patent lawyers will generally listen to your story and give you some idea of whether or not your idea is patentable and not charge you for this. I think you should first educate yourself on the basic principles of the patent process. If you are in the US, uspto.gov has excellent articles.

I don't know of any guides, since processes are especially difficult to patent: http://keithsawyer.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/can-you-patent-a-process/

You can, however, do some preliminary research on google.com/patents or uspto.gov to see how others have filed patents for processes.

At first try to answer yourself why you need to file patent application? Is your solution patentable, is it new? As already answered, best what you can do at first is to conduct background research. Use Google, patent databases, startup directories, etc. Is there anything similar done before? If you are still convinced that you need to file patent application, try to find patent attorney or patent lawyer and prepare to describe your solution and answer to questions what makes it different, etc. Good luck!