Take Away the Fear

Starting a business can be a scary proposition. But if you take five important steps, there is a way to eliminate the anxiety.

1. Research. Knowledge about your market, your targeted customers, your own advantage, and your competition can supply you with clarity -- and position you to be critical about your chance.

2. Protect Your Idea. Proceed to http://www.uspto.gov to find out about what steps you can take to protect your idea. When you haven't yet, get in touch with a respectable intellectual property attorney to help you through what the procedure is for applying for a patent or registered trademark.

3. Start Part-Time. Rather than making the jump from your current job to conducting your own startup"cold turkey," think about keeping your job for safety and start your company on the side part time. This can allow you to avoid taking unnecessary risks and it'll facilitate the transition financially.

4. Outsource. To keep the complexity of your startup to a minimum, consider outsourcing functions like accounting, payroll, information technology, public relations and much more. You might even wish to outsource production, packaging and shipping, and earnings. Maintain your strongest skills and many strategic activities--maybe things like design, advertising, or client interaction--in-house.

5. Be Ready to Fail. Come to terms with how the best entrepreneurs neglect. But if you are smart you can restrict those failures to little battles on the way. The trick is to win the war! Know that failure is something that's just part of business--because it is in life--and you could work through these failures on your way to success.