If anyone should be giving advice about how to become a successful entrepreneur, it would probably not be me. While I am earning money on my own outside of my day job, it’s not consistent or reliable. Part of the reason for this is that I never intended on becoming a business owner of this form. I’ve had a strong interest in computers since I was young and in web design and programming since 1994. While I decided I could see myself designing websites on the side, I never thought that writing would be the driver for the online business. Even when starting Consumerism Commentary five years ago, I didn’t start it with the intent of earning money.

I wouldn’t call my approach a “mistake” for me, but this approach is not the best for creating a successful business from scratch. Some of the best advice would be the opposite of my original thought process. Have clear goals, solicit social and financial support, be an expert in your field, research the market for your service or product, seek advice or mentoring from other similar, successful entrepreneurs, and don’t quit your day job.

The last piece of advice has been one that I have followed. At the end of last year, I decided that I would determine by the end of June 2008 whether I would be in a strong enough position to quit my moderately-supportive day job at a financial services company and give working for myself a try full-time. I decided not to quit.

There are strong arguments for maintaining a relatively secure job while laying the groundwork for your own business. With a stable income, you can fund your endeavors. With benefits from your day job, you don’t have to worry about making enough money from your side work to support you if you encounter medical emergencies.

On the other hand, there are some reasons why you can’t be a successful entrepreneur if all you can devote to the business is your spare time. The more aggressive your goals, the more risk you must be willing to take.

Abandon your day job. If “wild success” is an integral part of your goals, keeping a day job is a distraction. Yes, this means giving up your income. For driven individuals, this is strong motivation to develop the business to a point where it can support you as quickly as possible or to aggressively seek financial backing.

If I were to quit my day job, where I earn less in terms of gross pay than I earn from side projects in total, I would be able to focus on building my business with all of my effort rather than my “spare” effort at night and on weekends. Perhaps I’m not a risk taker, but I’m going to need a stronger sign of viability than what I’ve experienced so far. This is a risk a budding entrepreneur must take.

Don’t expect to have more time with your family. One of the main reasons people say they would like to become an “entrepreneur” is that it would allow them to spend more time with family. That may be fine if your intent is to sell products made by someone else on eBay but if you are trying to build a unique business that provides an original product or service or if you are trying to be the best at what you do, you will have less time for friends and family than you had when all you had to worry about was your day job.

All the other typical entrepreneurial advice still applies. It’ll take dedication and a detailed plan for a would-be entrepreneur to become successful. But that success requires sacrifices and risks. It’s easy to sell the idea that you can become rich “in your spare time” or in the “comfort of your own home” like the infomercials promise. A real entrepreneur, someone at the top of their niche, has no “spare time” and very little “comfort,” particularly when they are still building their business.

This article is part of the July MoneyBlogNetwork writing project. Here are more articles from around the web about entrepreneurship.

• 5 Tips for Starting a Small Business (Get Rich Slowly)
• Are You Thinking of Quitting the Nine to Five? (Mighty Bargain Hunter)
• My Best Advice for New Entrepreneurs (Free Money Finance)
• Advice for Entrepreneurs (Five Cent Nickel)
• My Best Thoughts for the New Entrepreneur (No Credit Needed)
• How to Encourage Your Budding Entrepreneur (All Financial Matters)
• Create a Business Plan by Answering 4 Simple Questions (Wise Bread)
• Basic Business Advice From an Accidental Entrepreneur (The Digerati Life)
• Of Exit Strategies and Small Businesses (Blunt Money)
• My Advice for New Entrepreneurs (No Debt Plan)
• So You Think You Can Sell Banana Peelers? (Personal Finance Analyst)
• 6 Key Tips for Starting a Part-Time Business (Think Your Way to Wealth)

It’s important to impart a financial education to younger generations, just like the Rogersons who are teaching their children about investing. When you invest, you are relying on other companies before you can make any money. The companies in which you invest must perform well and brokerages must stand between those companies, their profits, and you. This is likely one of the reasons that entrepreneurship—finding ways to grow a business from the inside—is a lesson some parents would like to impress upon their kids.

This is the case with the Becks, another family profiled in a recent New York Times article. Ted Beck is the president of the National Endowment for Financial Education and his wife is a former banker, so it’s likely that he has a good handle on how to provide children with valuable lessons about money. His method involves garage sales. Mr. Beck allows his children to plan garage sales, from inventory to pricing. By working together, the kids have learned about themselves and about effective teamwork.

“What really struck us was that the kids knew each other’s strengths better than we did,” he said. “They split the $100 that they earned, but they agreed not to split it equally because Katherine had done the most.” Mr. Beck was quick to add that projects like this one wouldn’t necessarily interest all children equally. While his children all participated and cooperated well, he said, only Katherine showed real interest in business. She is now majoring in marketing in college.

As long as entrepreneurship isn’t being forced upon the children, I’m happy with the idea. The article mentions that the projects don’t interest all the children equally; I would hope that if one is not interested, they would be encouraged to find an activity for which they are more suited. Business lessons are fine, but it’s not for everyone. Matters of managing money are more important, in my opinion. Also, children are not adults and shouldn’t be expected to consume their lives with more adult-like activities. Every person only has one chance to be 16, and an upper-middle-class teenager should appreciate that he or she doesn’t have to work to support his or her family.

There will always be time for work later. No one on their death bed at the age of 90 has ever said, “I wish I worked more when I was a teenager.”

photo: colros

This is a guest post from Bri M. Bri is a recent college graduate and aspiring web entrepreneur. He writes about online innovation at Trailblogging. Here he presents eight ways beginning entrepreneurs like himself can save money while working on their endeavors.

1. Moonlight as an Entrepreneur. This is the one that many people think of the most often. Do your day job and then put in as many hours in at night and on the weekend as possible until your venture is netting you enough money to do it full-time.

The pro is that you can still count on your steady paycheck while being in control of your venture, the cons are the risk of overworking yourself into losing motivation, not being as productive because you have to switch from one mode of thinking to another, or not having any time to live life.

2. Find a Part-Time Job. This is the spin-off from moonlighting as an entrepreneur. Instead of moonlighting as an entrepreneur, moonlight in another career. Whether that is being a waiter/waitress or working in a retail store part-time, it just would have to be something that is less than 40 hours a week.

The advantage of this route is the extra time you get for your venture (which you still control), while still having some extra cash coming in. The disadvantages are that you are still not devoting all of your time to your passion and you lose the benefits that are often associated with a full-time job (health, etc.).

3. Save Up and Stretch Your Dollar. Instead of trying to kill yourself by working two jobs, you can stay at your current job and pinch pennies or work overtime for a while as you save up some extra money. Most financial advisers will tell you to have three to six months’ worth of expenses saved in a way that it can be immediately accessible in case of an unexpected job loss or other emergency. In this case, you are going to need much more than that. Not only do you have to cover your regular living expenses, but you need to have cash on hand for business expenses (which can be a lot or a little depending on what your venture is) as well.

After considering start-up capital and business expenses, you should try to shoot to save up two years’ worth of expenses, with at the least one year’s (most successful businesses take at least two years to become profitable). During this time, especially at the beginning in order to get into the habit, you should be stretching your dollar to the maximum possible.

The good thing about this approach is that you have complete control over where your business is heading and you can devote the maximum amount of time possible to it. The bad thing is the risk of having the bottom fall out and running out of funds. In which case, don’t despair, you can still jump into the other avenues at this point as well.

4. Get a Personal Loan. Many banks offer personal loans for new businesses to get started. You get your money that you need to start and work on your business and you pay the bank back later with interest. Very simple.

The good thing is that like #3, you can devote as much time as possible to your business. The bad thing is that you owe the bank money (and nobody likes debt), so not only so you have to pay the bank back, but you are also exposing yourself to a lot of risk to your personal assets. This can be very bad.

5. Get a Business Loan. Similar to #4, get a business loan. The big problem with this one is it can be very very hard, or nearly impossible for a new business to get a business loan from a bank. Existing businesses often have to problem, but getting approved for a business loan with no personal exposure is something that many banks shy away from. The good thing is that unlike a personal loan, you don’t have to worry about the bank coming after you.

6. Get an Angel Investor. “Angel Investors” are typically wealthy individuals who believe in your idea or goal and are willing to give you some money to achieve it. What’s great here is that you are not exposing yourself personally as you are with the personal loan, and often these investors often do not set up the same requirements as banks do for schedules payments. Instead they often receive partial ownership of your venture, and that’s the bad part. Some investors may be relatively hands-off, others will view will want to become involved because their money is invested.

7. Get Venture Capital. Oh, venture capital, the doubled-edged sword. With venture capitalists, the biggest concern to keep in mind is that they are looking to make a profit with their clients’ money. Maybe your idea can help many people, but the venture capitalists are looking to turn a profit from your noble idea. Not to say that they don’t agree with it, but it’s the business they are in.

The upside is that you can work on your idea and you have the funds to start, as well as many venture capitalists can bring some useful experience to your disposal. However, there is a price and that’s a large part of your venture, including the decisions that will be made.

8. Borrow from Friends or Family. If you can swallow your pride and ask for money, which many people cannot bring themselves to do, this can be the best and worst thing that you can do. Why is it the best? These people (typically) have your best interests at heart and genuinely want to help you, and it you make it, then people close to you are coming away with some green, too.

Why is it the worst? Money is a touchy subject and no matter how well you think you know someone, money can turn that relationship sour if things don’t go well. Also, you can get some very opinionated people talking about things that they know little about.

Personally, I have been directly involved with #1, #3 and #8 for my ventures. I would recommend #3 above all because then you are your own boss without any outside interests controlling you, yet you get to devote as much time as possible. I should tell you though that I am a fan of pancakes for every meal and multiple blankets in the winter. In all seriousness, #3 allows you to work as hard as you can on your idea while, at the same time, giving you complete control over the direction it takes, though it is definitely the hardest route, it is the most rewarding.

Read more from Bri at Trailblogging.