Avoiding the Pitfalls Common to Startups

As an entrepreneur during the dot-com boom and subsequent bust, Bruce Judson has seen more than his fair share of failed small businesses.

The co-founder of Time Warner Inc.’s Internet initiatives and the founder and operator of two successful go-it-alone businesses, Mr. Judson has learned what it takes to make a small business prosper even during tough economic times.

Now a faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management, Mr. Judson founded Speed Anywhere, an online service that compares broadband providers, and Health Plans Today, an online health-insurance marketer. He also is co-founder of Web Clipping, a pre-Google service that provides companies with daily Web clippings of news articles in which they are mentioned.

Striking out on his own when many online enterprises struggled, Mr. Judson, who also has written several books on Internet marketing and strategy, learned that using your personal talents and keeping a small business small is the best way to build a successful enterprise.

Below, Mr. Judson discusses the misconceptions about starting a go-it-alone business, how to determine whether you’ve got what’s needed to take the plunge, and when to accept that you might not be the person for the job.

By AMY CHOZICK
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Full Story: http://www.startupjournal.com/runbusiness/failure/20050512-chozick.html?sjcontent=mail