Damien Mulley has list (lists are cool), of five people who own their own business and each have listed five points, on starting out with your own business, this is a topic close to my own heart. My favourite points in this are:

Find a business partner: Start-ups are lonely work and there is lots to do, a business partner will keep you sane, shoulder half the work and help stamp out some of your more loopy ideas

And

Google and YouTube are the exceptions rather than the rule.

Check out the rest of the points here, a must see!