home-based to keep overhead low, working from home brings additional distractions. Can you resist the temptation to eat cookies and watch reruns of “Law and Order” when you should be making marketing calls?

2. What are your expectations?

If your goal is to work fewer hours and feel less stress, then think again.

The U.S. Small Business Adm

Owning a home used to be the “American Dream.” However, this long-standing goal that so many aspired to, and ultimately reached, has been replaced with a new goal -- becoming a business owner.

At first glance it sounds perfect: Leave the corporate world behind and become an entrepreneur. No more commuting, office politics, difficult co-workers and demanding supervisors. You’ll be your own boss and reap all the financial rewards. It will be a brand-new lifestyle with incredible opportunities and much less stress.

Others have achieved the new “American Dream.” Look at the young kids who started Apple on a shoestring in the late 1970s. Don’t forget the two engineers who launched a little company called Hewlett Packard out of a small backyard garage. Mrs. Fields took a cookie recipe -- of all things -- and built it into a national model that is taught in many business schools.

Why not you? Yes, you could have the next great business idea, but that alone might not be enough. Ask yourself, do you have the right stuff to launch and run a successful business? Here are five questions to consider before making the big leap from a steady paycheck to business owner.

1. Are you a self-starter?

With no one looking over your shoulder, it’s easy to procrastinate. You must have the discipline that is needed to plan, set goals and stay focused.

Since many small businesses initially start out as home-based to keep overhead low, working from home brings additional distractions. Can you resist the temptation to eat cookies and watch reruns of “Law and Order” when you should be making marketing calls?

2. What are your expectations?

If your goal is to work fewer hours and feel less stress, then think again.

The U.S. Small Business Admi

anding supervisors. You’ll be your own boss and reap all the financial rewards. It will be a brand-new lifestyle with incredible opportunities and much less stress.

Others have achieved the new “American Dream.” Look at the young kids who started Apple on a shoestring in the late 1970s. Don’t forget the two engineers who launched a little company called Hewlett Packard out of a small backyard garage. Mrs. Fields took a cookie recipe -- of all things -- and built it into a national model that is taught in many business schools.

Why not you? Yes, you could have the next great business idea, but that alone might not be enough. Ask yourself, do you have the right stuff to launch and run a successful business? Here are five questions to consider before making the big leap from a steady paycheck to business owner.

1. Are you a self-starter?

With no one looking over your shoulder, it’s easy to procrastinate. You must have the discipline that is needed to plan, set goals and stay focused.

Since many small businesses initially start out as home-based to keep overhead low, working from home brings additional distractions. Can you resist the temptation to eat cookies and watch reruns of “Law and Order” when you should be making marketing calls?

2. What are your expectations?

If your goal is to work fewer hours and feel less stress, then think again.

The U.S. Small Business Adm

ed Hewlett Packard out of a small backyard garage. Mrs. Fields took a cookie recipe -- of all things -- and built it into a national model that is taught in many business schools.

Why not you? Yes, you could have the next great business idea, but that alone might not be enough. Ask yourself, do you have the right stuff to launch and run a successful business? Here are five questions to consider before making the big leap from a steady paycheck to business owner.

1. Are you a self-starter?

With no one looking over your shoulder, it’s easy to procrastinate. You must have the discipline that is needed to plan, set goals and stay focused.

Since many small businesses initially start out as home-based to keep overhead low, working from home brings additional distractions. Can you resist the temptation to eat cookies and watch reruns of “Law and Order” when you should be making marketing calls?

2. What are your expectations?

If your goal is to work fewer hours and feel less stress, then think again.

The U.S. Small Business Adm

business? Here are five questions to consider before making the big leap from a steady paycheck to business owner.

1. Are you a self-starter?

With no one looking over your shoulder, it’s easy to procrastinate. You must have the discipline that is needed to plan, set goals and stay focused.

Since many small businesses initially start out as home-based to keep overhead low, working from home brings additional distractions. Can you resist the temptation to eat cookies and watch reruns of “Law and Order” when you should be making marketing calls?

2. What are your expectations?

If your goal is to work fewer hours and feel less stress, then think again.

The U.S. Small Business Adm

home-based to keep overhead low, working from home brings additional distractions. Can you resist the temptation to eat cookies and watch reruns of “Law and Order” when you should be making marketing calls?

2. What are your expectations?

If your goal is to work fewer hours and feel less stress, then think again.

The U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that business ownership requires a tremendous commitment, with 12-hour workdays, often seven days a week. Needless to say, this can be a strain on family life. If you think it might be too much, then consider a job change instead or a new career with an established company rather than launching your own business.

3. What are your financial goals?

In the short-term your income will probably be lower, and it could stay this way for a long time. Additionally, no one pays for vacations, health care plan, profit sharing or stock options. You must set up your own retirement plan as well.

The U.S. Small Business Administration offers some sobering statistics. It reports that half of the small businesses started will fail within the first year. Furthermore, by the fifth year 95 percent will have ceased operations. While the reasons for failure vary, one of the most common is a lack of adequate financing. To beat the odds, meet with an independent accountant to honestly discuss your finances and expectations. The good news is that if your business takes off you will reap the financial benefits.

4. Are you a “water-cooler person” at heart?

When you become a business owner, your days of taking a long lunch or chatting with the guys around the water cooler are over. Can you make the transition from “worker bee” to boss? It can be lonely.

On your own, you’ll be makin