As for running your business: The MOST important thing about running a business is running the right one. You can be the best salesman/accountant/marketer/inventor and it wont mean a thing if you start a snow-blower shop in Florida. Even though I used an exageration there, most start-ups fail because they never saw how BAD an idea there busines really was. For instance, you cannot start an electronics shop next to BestBuy. Your own overhead will over-price your merchandise and you are competing with invesment dollars you would retire on if you had yourself. Small businesses have to be specialized today, and if your specialty is too special then you dont have a customer base to sell to. If your not special enough, everyone else will jump on baord and compete against you (can you say rapidifre?). And no matter how succesful you are one year, you are a failure the next. It is a seasaw at best.
Quite honestly, the fastest and easiest path to success is a corporate ladder. Your hard work always pays off (but be prepared to be political, otherwise someone else will take your credit). It is actually alot less effort than most imagine to make a big company more successful. And in teh end, you earn more than you could have made from a small business. Plus, if having a family is something you might want to consider in the future, having benfits handed to you vs paying the whole $40,000 medical bill is a reality you should face sonner than later.
As for me,....
I'm a Toys R Us kid......
