Let the business fund itself.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 494.

Peter Chapman's venture cost no more than stamps for postcards and dimes for photocopying publicly available court documents. Hurwitz only agreed to join Aronson's publishing venture when he discovered that start-up costs would be limited to the purchase of business cards.

Getting started with whatever resources are on hand is the best tactic, say successful entrepreneurs. Sowell-Scott describes a Temple student who ignored this advice when launching a legal personnel service. "She got her father to co-sign a large loan, got a big office and hired a staff. But she wouldn't go out and sell anything," Sowell-Scott recalls. "She was in love with the idea of running a business, but did no actual work before going under," a problem she calls "analysis paralysis."

Michael Tentnowski tried the opposite approach. With a fellow senior at the University of Montana, he formed a business that organizes and runs doctors' and dentists' offices. The pair began turning a substantial profit within months, capturing 85% of the local market, thanks to their thorough research and planning (and a war chest of less than $1,500).

Successful entrepreneurs really enjoy the enterprises they start and are willing to build them gradually, working part time at "real jobs" if necessary to keep cornflakes in the cupboard, say small-business advisers.