Five Steps for Getting Your Business Up and Running Five steps for getting your business up and running successfully.

If you're reading this, it means you're interested about starting a business. Now it's time to focus your entrepreneurial spirit using the following five steps.

1. Look for that "aha" moment
Sometimes the inspiration for business ventures comes from what's around you--or from what isn't. Take Entrepreneur magazine's home base of Irvine, Calif. The lack of fast-food restaurants in the business area meant treks across town for lunch, prompting two young men to ponder, "Wouldn't it be great if we could get some good food delivered?"

Rather than waiting for someone else to capitalize on the idea, they purchased one of Entrepreneur's business startup guides and launched a restaurant delivery business. So far, it's served more than 15 million people.