Making The Leap 10 tips to help conquer your start-up fears

After helping others build three businesses in the mental-healthfield, Holly Dorna was confident she could do better on her own.But starting PsychTemps Inc., a Cincinnati recruiting and staffingagency for the behavioral health-care field, turned out to be anexercise in mental terror.

"Making the transition from working for someone else toowning everything was scary. Many mornings, I'd wake up at 5a.m. feeling panic-stricken," Dorna says. "I'd been asuccess three times and made money for other people, but maybe thiswas the time I was going to fail. I thought of myself as anentrepreneur but, for awhile, `entrepreneur' became afour-letter word. Putting myself on the line, seeing my bankaccount shrink month by month and not knowing if my idea wouldwork--I was more frightened than I'd ever been in mylife."

Let's face it: Starting a business is an unnervingproposition. Whether you succeed or fail, every aspect of your lifeis affected, from bank accounts to friendships. Yet while fearssurrounding start-ups are normal, they add pressure to an alreadystressful situation. Avoidance is not the answer. Instead, you mustface your fears and learn how to cope. Here are 10 tips to smooththe way: