You can make as much as you want depending on how much you want to work and how smart you are and how great a team you put together. But there are reasons people shy away from entrepreneurship, for one, it's not easy. When people decide to become entrepreneurs and work for themselves, they have to make lots of decisions, but they are riskier than you might think. Kevin Harrington best known as an investor on "Shark Tank" shared this, "Any kind of a retail business with build-outs, is extremely expensive. Even a small store such as the popular yogurt shops today can run $300,000 or $400,000 to setup. The typical business start-up story is the same, small or large, new or experienced, you are taking a risk and can win big or lose it all, and most entrepreneurs lose it all two or three times before they make it. Richard Branson is a great example of this. As a very wealthy English business owner and investor, he has lost at least 15 businesses over the years. businesses crash and burn within their first 5 years, many in the first 18 months. In the face of this reality, still 72% of Americans would love to be their own boss, according to a current Gallup poll, but they don't know how to get there. There are actually only four options for the average new Entrepreneur: You can buy an existing business - The first question to ask is why are the owners selling? Commonly it's because they are tired, it is hard, or maybe they are not making the money they had hoped for. Here there is less risk and it is a proven system, but it is very expensive any where from $100,000 to $1 million. You could start something from scratch, a completely new business, but most people don't have the confidence that their product or service idea would really go big, or they are afraid to borrow that much money, or they don't feel they have the skill set to start a new venture, especially in our regulation ridden and litigious society. They could become an investor in other people's ideas and start-ups, but that can prove to be very risky indeed. Harry Dent says, "Venture capitalists, who are the very best and the most sophisticated at investing in new break-through businesses make it on 1 out of 11. That means 10 out of 11 are mediocre or fail, with most of the 10 failing. And Angel Investors are lucky to get 1 out of 15 or 20. Robert Kiyosaki relates, "A business is a team sport. Like I have to have accountants, I have to have engineers, I have to have system designers, I have to have office staff and management, I have to have maintenance and sales and marketing, I have to have mission statements, I have to have legal, and all that. The average joe-smo, even me, I go out there, I don't have the skills to put a business together on my own. The food and hospitality industry has even a greater risk of failure. Authorities say that 90% of all first year non-franchise restaurants fail. Even though 72% of Americans say they want to be entrepreneurs and be their own boss, the bottom line for the four traditional options is that each takes money, sometimes a lot of it, they take expertise and they take time. All of that adds up to just too much risk for most people. But what if there was a way that you could have all of the proven aspects of business ownership and still control your own life? What if you had the proven product, the proven systems already in place, proven training, and you were in charge. And you didn't have to risk a ton of money. What if you had all of these good aspects of business minus the employer? Do you think more people would be open to working for themselves in that environment? To began, it is extremely crucial to approach sport investing with realistic expectations and goals. A sports Investor simply needs to register a winning accuracy rate of 52. 4% to be successful and stay profitable. While the majority eventually don't succeed in hitting the 52% threshold, it is a task that can be done if you're dedicated and disciplined. To be more precise, if your intention is to become an effective sports investor, you will simply have to follow basic rules which comprise proper money management and being able to pick winners. If you're only interested in sports investing as a way to get rich quick then I would suggest you to look elsewhere because that will most likely not happen for you. To be frank with you, there's no short cut in this industry and all the professionals will tell you sports investing is more like running a marathon than a sprint. Patience and long termed planning is necessary to come out on top. The idea is to win just enough bets to slowly build up your account on a month to month basis. As long as you're in profit at the end of each month or week, nothing else should really matter. By looking hard enough on the internet, you will come across more than a few handicappers who have great winning percentage when it comes to betting on sports, but their downfall is their inability to control the amount of money they are placing on each bet. This is where money management is so essential if you wish to always stay profitable and not lose money. No matter how good the odds looks, you must stay discipline enough to bet the same amount of money on every games and this amount should be no less or no more than 2% of your total bankroll. That surely means that if you have $1000 on your betting account, the amount of money you should place on each bet is $20. The hardest part in becoming a successful sports investor is to understand how to correctly pick winners consistently. For this, you will need to do your homework and properly handicap each games that fits into your betting strategy. When it comes to handicapping or analyzing games to bet on, there are more than a few ways to go about it effectively. I may go more into details about specific handicapping strategies but that may be for the next article since this one is getting a bit too long. But the bottom line concerning handicapping games is that you need to stay inform about the specific games you believe offers you the best chance for success. In 1980, a husband and wife, purchased their first home in Arizona. The husband was managing a vacuum cleaner store, and the wife was a cashier at a grocery store. The husbands only day off was Sunday, and the wife was off 2 different days of the week, so, they never had much time together. They had no children, but the wife was breeding Afghan Hound dogs. The husband was watching TV one peaceful Sunday afternoon, and all of a sudden the TV sparked, smoked, sputtered, and lit on fire. He jumped off the sofa, opened the front door, unplugged the TV, picked it up and threw it in the front yard. Even with both the husband and wife working, they didn't have enough money to buy a new TV. The new house had eaten up all of their extra money, and there were a lot of new expenses in owning a new home. The husband was talking to a friend of his about his financial problems. His friend mentioned that his father used to own a vacuum business, and said, "Why don't we go to the Flea Market in Phoenix on weekends and sell vacuum cleaners, bags, belts, and parts". I told him that it sounded like a good idea, but my only day off was on Sunday. We agreed that he would work Saturday, and we would both work on Sunday. The only other problem was that this person had no money for inventory, so his friend said that he would put up the money for some inventory to get their business started. They both agreed that they would put all the profit into buying more inventory, and vacuum cleaners that they would both rebuild and sell. They followed through with their plans, and their new business was a success. They were selling huge amounts of bags, belts, and parts, as well as buying old vacuums, fixing them up, and reselling them. All of the profit they made went back into the business, and they started doing more and more business. It was all very exciting, but the only problem was that one of the partners was now working 7 days a week, and still didn't have enough money to buy a new color TV. After about 2 months, the one partner mentioned that he would like to get a little money from the business to buy a new color TV. He was kind of surprised when his friend said, "No Way". He tried to talk his friend into it, but his friend was totally against the idea of taking any money out of the business. His partner said that he would rather just buy him out of the business that they started, and have the business all to himself. They agreed, and the one partner was paid about $800. Finally the one partner was able to go out and by a new color TV. Then, he thought of what he could do with the other $400. Well, right or wrong, he called the vacuum parts distributor that they were both buying from, and ordered $400. 00 worth of bags and supplies, and the following Sunday, he went to the Flea Market, and started his own business. His friend ran into him and kind of smiled and said, "Oh well, I guess we didn't talk about you doing your own thing out here". The other partner said that all he wanted was some money to get a new color TV, and that he was the one who wanted to split up the partnership. They both laughed and remained good friends and competitors that helped each other for many years. The one partner continued to buy more and more supplies, and soon had a huge display of parts, bags, belts, and new and used vacuum cleaners. He was so busy that most of the time, he had no way of going to get lunch, or a coke, or anything. After a couple of months of suffering alone, he needed help so badly that he asked his wife to quit her job which she did, so that she could help out with their new business. During the next several years they continued to grow, and soon they had a 30 foot trailer and 4 employees helping them at the Flea Market, and at their home, where they were repairing and rebuilding vacuums during the week. They got to know all of their neighbors at the Flea Market, including the ones who sold futons behind near their stand. After a few more years they became friends with their futon friends, and they decided to rent a store together. It was their first actual store, and they split the store space and rent. I all seemed to be going well for both of them, but one morning, after a couple of months, the vacuum people went to open their store, and all of their futon friends things were gone. All of their futons, desks, computer, everything was gone. All that was left was a note explaining that they weren't making it, and that they felt bad, but they had to abandon ship and move to Seattle. This was quite a surprised to the vacuum people, who were left with all of the expenses of the store, but luckily their business was able to handle the bills. The first day that the futon people were gone, they had 2 or 3 people come into their store and ask them where are all of the futons were? They could have told them that the futons were gone, and that all there were now were vacuums.