You need to find a business advisor.

Dive in the pool; you'll catch on quickly. The marketplace is the best business advisor; cruel but efficient.

I always tell folks just starting out that you are going to take some beatings. They are inevitable; you just have to keep them to a minimum. They never stop either. Just got one from a 84-year-old man. Good luck.

Disregard your relative's advice too. Especially your father-in-law's. Naysayers, the lot of 'em.

Be sure that you understand business math. Markup and margin are two different animals. Make sure that you are thinking beyond just paying yourself a wage. To grow a business, you need capital reserves. That new customer management software, or that new truck, or new Festool, all of that needs to be paid for by reinvesting money into that business.

Absolutly do not skip the basics of licensing and insurance. That protects you and your customer. It might save you money in the short term, but it will cost you in reputation and risk long term.

Referrals are a gold mine. As are past happy customers. If things are slow, start calling those past customers to see what other projects they or their friends have been thinking about. Then send them a nice gift certificate or basket if it leads to a job. Do the same thing at the end of every job. Build it into your price structure. Saying "thank you" by giving them $500 off a future job over 5K, plus a bottle of wine or even a $10 Starbucks gift card for a small job will have them calling your number.

Stay consistent! It's a long road ahead with potentially great rewards. Those that succeed are consistent in the small daily things...sales calls, networking, financials, taxes, leadership, etc. Enjoy the ride, stay consistent, and you will find success!

There is a shortage of good people in the trades right now, so do a good job and people will be lining up to do business with you. Do shoddy work, and with the internet, that will get around too and ruin your business.

Do consider some small business classes at a Community College. I have also found instructors at Community Colleges are often willing to answer questions pertaining too real life situations concerning their students.

Most important is don't take job where you don't know what you are doing. Do not learn on somebody else dime. Educate yourself constantly and always look at the way other Co's are doing the same work. You can learn or take way something from anyone. The biggest mistake is people saying that they have been doing this so that for 20 years. That does not mean they have been doing it correctly which is displayed on here daily.

The hardest part is finding workers with the same ethic that don't want to move on to do their own thing. Always have someone in training and don't base your business on that one good guy or girl. Use the best you can find. Stand by your word and your work. Don't ever be satisfied with a job and make the next one that much better.

"Most important is don't take job where you don't know what you are doing."

I talked an architect into changing (10) maple Newal post balls into gloss Midnight Corian once. I had no clue and didn't make much, but I pulled it off; the customers loved 'em.

Sure, you can't do something new profitably right away, but a stretch is always a good thing. And exciting. When you're playing with your chips, you'll be amazed at your focus.

Get used to the idea of always being at work, please. There is very rarely any real time off for a small businessperson, just days of working a bit less than others. Phone rings at dinner? You're taking it. Get your wife used to it early if she wants the house payments made on time.

Love what you do and do what you love and you will never work a day in your life. Take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. A couple of old anecdotes but they work. Hire good people, treat them like family and pay them well.

Whether you're a dentist, a grocer or a carpenter, you need basic business skills -- payroll, risk management, personnel management, project management, business law, tax reporting, etc. etc. Put your team together. Invest in software. Understand cash flow or you can starve even while you're making money (on paper). Don't neglect social media -- it's the go-to for anyone under the age of 50, and plenty of people over the age of 50, too. Good luck!

Practice saying "No" There are a ton of opportunities out there and not all of them are good for you and your business. If you decide to take a chance on someone and do a project for a cheap price as an introduction, figure out first how you can raise your prices for additional work without the client being upset with you.

Limit the size of your projects while you get the business started. You are going to underbid some jobs and you don't want to take a chance on underbidding a big job. If you lose money on a one week project, that just takes a bit of tightening your belt and working a few extra hours to get back on track. However, if you lose money on a several month project, you may be at risk of going under.

With this little information, I say don't do it. In addition to Sophie Wheeler's comments, I see two other things missing:

Passion and expertise. Without those two things, it's a venture destined to fail. Doesn't mean it can NEVER happen, but your odds are very slim, especially if you don't have the business skills- or clients waiting in the wings- to get you off the ground.

That said? It could work. But keep expectations low and cash stores very high. You'll need both, to carry you through.

Perserverance beats passion and expertise every time. If you hang in long enough, you can get passionate and you can hire expertise immediately. If you can't slog, get a job instead.

To start, you need an accountant (a CPA, not a bookkeeper), an attorney, and a banker. Definitely take basic business courses at a community or local college--the part-time instructors are usually experienced business professionals and you can learn a lot from them (stay away from the tenured PhDs--they only know theory and book knowledge). And since your father was in business for himself, you already know that you will work harder and take on way more risk than if you worked for someone else!