Kitten Caboodle

Don't be fooled by the cover's whimsical caricature of the "suits" manning a lemonade stand. Tips & Traps for Entrepreneurs: Real-Life Ideas and Solutions for the Toughest Problems Facing Entrepreneurs (McGraw-Hill, $14.95, 800-338-3987) comes straight from the trenches, featuring the hard-won experience of Courtney Price and Kathleen Allen, veteran business owners and internationally recognized teachers of entrepreneurship.

Tips and Traps stimulates the right questions and sharpens your focus for the tasks ahead, whether you're starting a business from scratch or buying an existing business. Learn how to test your idea through a feasibility plan--the critical precursor to a business plan and, the authors note, the missing link in many an entrepreneur's failed dream.

Fighting a Napoleonic complex? See the chapter entitled "The Virtual Company--How to Look Big When You're Not." Ready to think outside the box? Get your creative juices flowing with a boost from "How to Recognize Opportunities" and its thoughtful list of Idea Sources.

This article was originally published in the July 1998 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Kitten Caboodle.