Starting your own business is one of the American dreams. It gives you the freedom that most in America can’t even start to imagine. Owning your own business does have its advantages, but it also takes hard work and financial backing. Some of the biggest and best businesses in the world started with small ideas that blossomed into huge mega-corporations.

An idea big or small, the chance to have a successful business that you built from scratch is a draw for most want-to-be business owners. Selling a new product that you’ve invented or just successfully selling a product that has been around for a while doesn’t matter as much as being able to do it and call the business your own.

There are many stories about the start up companies that were created in basements on the weekends by assertive young adults who were in the right place at the right time. We read these stories and believe that it is possible – which it is. However, for every success story, there are 100 stories of failed small businesses. This is not to disenchant the prospective entrepreneur, it is to convey the understanding that along with dedication, hard work, funding and knowledge, a lot depends on being in the moment.

Building a business from scratch is a very rewarding experience. Whether the business becomes big or stays small, expands to other countries or just to a second location down the road, anyone that has done it will attest that it is The American Dream.