Implicit in bumperm and pointatopoinb's posts is that you need enough capital to survive without a profit for 5-years. When I started up my consulting biz in '95, I had worked my full-time job long enough and saved enough money to make sure that I could live and eat for 2-years without ANY income. Even then it was darn close as my business sucked up all that money and it finally broke into the black on the 3rd year. If I didn't have enough funds to live for 2-years without income, my business definitely would've gone belly-up and I'd be back to working full-time for someone else. For me, working part-time wasn't possible, my start-up required 60-80 hrs a week minimum.. for 2-years straight.