Call it what you like. Procrastination. Fear. Necessary preparation. Regardless, the fact is that many new
business owners fall into the trap of spending days, weeks and months staying "busy" without actually
doing business. Designing business cards and setting up spreadsheets are just some of the tasks that,
though necessary, make it tempting to put off doing business. After all, it's more fun to choose fonts than
to make cold calls.

It's true that starting a business requires a certain amount of preparation, or as Robert Spiegel, author of
The Shoestring Entrepreneur's Guide to the Best Home-Based Businesses, prefers to call it, "pencil
sharpening." Luckily, we're here to give you 10 specific ways to move past pencil sharpening and put those
pencils to work.

1. Make a List
Making lists is a common denominator in businesses that have moved forward during the startup phase.
"People take time-management classes and use various electronic tools, daily planners and software, but
all these tools essentially [help make] lists," says Spiegel. "Having a list [is] the most important way to keep
procrastination away."

Keep the list in front of you so it's always visible. Says Spiegel, "What worked for me was to color-code the
list, drawing [colored] lines beside items [to denote] whether they were to be done today, tomorrow or this
month."

2. Take Baby Steps
It can be overwhelming when your to-do list is changing and priorities seem to be wrestling each other, but
starting with small, manageable jobs can help thwart fears and minimize anxiety. Focusing on what really
matters often comes down to having discipline and a clear vision.

Ruth Ellen Miller, 43, and her father, Jack Miller, 76, had a lot of time on their hands in the early '90s when
they started NoUVIR Research in Seaford, Delaware. The company produces a light that helps museums
preserve artwork and historical documents. During more than three years of R&D and pending patents, the
partners knew where their priorities lay. "It was always our goal to stop the damage happening in
museums," says Jack, "but while awaiting patents, we had to pay the rent, so we did some consulting."
Annual sales are now $1 million to $5 million.

NoUVIR's philosophy is also framed on the wall for everyone to see: "Plan big. Start small. Don't borrow."
Says Jack, "That's our motto, and we never forget it."

3. Find a Customer
If you don't have customers or clients, you don't have a business. Yet finding and committing to that first
customer can be a difficult hurdle for many entrepreneurs.

Don Fesenmeyer, 44, owner and founder of Don's Custom Countertops in Longmont, Colorado,
recognized the value of customers from the get-go. He says, "Without a customer, you are simply not in
business. You have to bring in business first, then build the rest. The biggest thing you can do is try to get
customers and business, then use it for leverage in financing. We started with a single customer whom I'd
been working with at another company. The second customer came from a referral, and so on. With current
sales at $2 million, we are growing at a 30 percent to 35 percent rate."

4. Forget Perfection
It might seem ideal to have everything in place exactly as you envisioned, but perfection doesn't pay the
bills.

Barrie Shepley, 42, and Sheldon Persad, 38, co-founders of Personal Best Health & Performance Inc., an
integrated health and performance management, coaching and training firm in Toronto, Ontario, knew that
being perfectly prepared in the beginning was not an option due to a shortage of capital, even though their
business plan and corporate goals were clearly defined.

"Ideally," says Shepley, "we would have loved to have high-tech equipment available to conduct extensive
physical testing for our clients. But rather than waiting, we jumped right in, working from a small office with
little more than basic testing equipment, a desk and a telephone." That's about as far from perfection as a
business could be.

"After a couple of months," says Shepley, "we were finally able to buy a and a testing bike."

Less than perfect paid off for Shepley and Persad. Now their business averages more than $1 million
annually and includes corporate facility management, seminars, high-performance testing and training
camps.

5. Talk Business
Believing in yourself and your business might sound like hokey advice, but if you don't believe you're truly in
business, as opposed to "starting a business," how can you expect anyone else to believe it?

Change your choice of words when you're out in the world. Talk about your company like it is a business,
not like it's about to be a business--"I'm trying to start a business" sounds noncommittal. Even if all you've
done is print your own business cards, saying things like "I own my own business," or "I have to get back
to work," will get the word out that you are serious.

Shepley humorously recalls how he incorporated this idea: "When people would call me at the office,
Sheldon would answer the phone and ask them if they could wait while he checked to see if I was in my
office. In reality, I was sitting right next to him, but we wanted our new clients to visualize a large, stable
business, so having to wait 60 seconds for me would lead them to believe we were a larger organization."

6. Reward Yourself
Rewards--we all love them. But it's time to get honest with yourself. On a weekly basis, ask yourself if you've
really done anything worthy of a reward--something that will have a tangible impact on your business in the
near future. Then choose your reward carefully and make it only as grand as the task completed. For
example, landing a major client might be worthy of a celebratory champagne dinner, whereas getting the
brochures in the mail probably only merits a handful of chocolate-covered strawberries.

7. Be Accountable
Find a partner, organization or another business owner to hold you accountable. This was helpful during
startup to Jill Duval, publisher and founder of Albuquerque, New Mexico, business magazine New Mexico
Woman, now published monthly, with annual sales of $275,000 and 42,000 readers. "I was sidetracked by
things like phone calls, record keeping and organizing," says Duval, "but a group of us got together and
decided to be accountable to each other at regular meetings. We each had a list of things to accomplish by
the next meeting, and if those things were not accomplished, we had to pay $5 into a fund that we later
donated to nonprofits or used to celebrate birthdays."

Whether you choose to buddy up with another business owner or be regularly accountable to a friend or
family member, be sure to pick someone who won't let you off the hook too easily if you don't meet your
goals.

8. Predict the Future
A sure way to determine if what you are doing right now is furthering your business is to look ahead. If you
stay in the pencil-sharpening stage, where will your business be next week or next month? Chances are,
you'll be in debt.

Guy Kawasaki, author of eight books, including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries and How to
Drive Your Competition Crazy, suggests that entrepreneurs use the following test to determine if what they
are doing can be considered progress: "Would you call your spouse to tell him or her it's done? For
example, you wouldn't call your spouse to [say] that you ordered stationery."

Do something today that makes you want to call home, and your odds of future business success
dramatically increase. Or if negative motivation is more your style, picture your future if you don't take some
steps forward now.

9. Remember Your Dream
When the going gets tough and it's time to tackle those things outside your comfort zone, keeping your
initial dream in mind might be the motivation you need.

Jeff Jump, 38, president of Prentice Products, a custom print shop in Fort Wayne, Indiana, says, "It had
been my lifelong goal to have my own business . . . it didn't matter what I had to do. I could have been taking
out the trash, [but I was] still excited about it because I finally owned my own business. Now my vision is to
grow the company so I [will] have a print shop in each region of the United States."

Changing goals and creating new dreams can keep your excitement as fresh as it was in the beginning.

10. Do the Hard Stuff First
When Jump purchased his business in 2001, it was clear early on that there were tough decisions to be
made if he was to achieve his financial goals. "I had to eliminate some long-term employees in order to be
profitable," says Jump. "I almost drove my business into the ground by waiting too long," he recalls. "I
overcame [the problem] by taking the emotion out of my decisions." Jump had $2.1 million in 2005 sales
and projects $3 million in 2006 sales.

Emotion can kill a business before it even gets off the ground. Human nature dictates that we are first
drawn to the things that bring us pleasure, and business tasks are no different. By getting responsibilities
that seem distasteful out of the way rather than avoiding them, we can more fully enjoy the other parts of
business ownership.

Put Out the Welcome MAT for Success
Guy Kawasaki recommends you prioritize by weaving a "mat"--milestones, assumptions and tasks--for
yourself. here's how.

• Milestones: "The first priority is achieving milestones," says Kawasaki. "Milestones are the handful
  of steps like finishing the design, shipping and collecting the first check."
• Assumptions: These, says Kawasaki, "are the key guesses you are making about your business.
  For example, how many sales calls a person can make in a day might be considered an
  assumption. As milestones are achieved, assumptions can be tested and revised based on
  results."
• Tasks: "Do [tasks] only to achieve a milestone or test an assumption," says Kawasaki. "Everything
  else is of secondary importance."