Your Good Side Don't quit your day job. Really, we mean it. Start a business on the side while you work full time for someone else.

You dream of the day you can quit your day job and start your dream business. But you realize that in the real world, mortgages and car payments have to be paid. So, instead of forgoing that day-job paycheck just yet, you start your business part time.

"The biggest benefit of starting a business part time is that it lowers the risk threshold," says Melvin Gravely II, founder of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking in Cincinnati. "It makes business ownership viable to most people." The benefits are many-you can start with the cushion of your full-time job and test the waters to see whether there's actually a market for your product or service.

Still, starting part time is not easy. "It's not a hobby," Gravely says. "If it is a hobby, call it a hobby [and don't try to make money at it]. But if it's a business, call it a business." That means you'll have to work during most of your free time, grow your business more slowly than if you were running it full time and do whatever it takes to get your start-up off the ground, from sending e-mails out to customers at 2 a.m. to making deliveries with your car.