Words to the Wise Glean pearls of wisdom from this entrepreneur's experience.

Dale Bathum, 38-year-old founder of Bite Golf, a golf shoemanufacturer and retailer in Preston, Washington, knows a thing ortwo about running a successful business. A 2000Entrepreneur young millionaire, he expects year-endsales to hit $8 million. Here, he reflects on his smartest start-upmove--and biggest blunder:

What was your biggest start-upsuccess?

Bathum: I put a lot ofeffort into [building] a strong team early on. That's whatcarried us through--if it was just me and I didn't have astrong team, I don't think we would have survived. So [I wouldrecommend] putting together a really strong team [internally] and[externally] of accountants and lawyers and a board ofadvisors.