If you're reading this, you've got high hopes big plans. To be your own boss-with no one breathing down your neck, no more deadly meetings, no more nonsense. Just you, your good ideas, and your internal drive deter- mining your destiny.

Does that sound liberating? It is! Does it sound scary? It's that as well. Making the jump from employee to entrepreneur is an alluring pros- pect that millions pursue every year, yet the odds of success are daunting. More than half of all new businesses fail within three years-many because of avoidable mistakes.

But now you can get the honest, real-world information you need about what it takes to succeed. Owner and cofounder of the award- winning ItsYourBiz.com (formerly SBTV.com, or Small Business Television), Susan Wilson Solovic has years of experience in the small- business trenches. In It's Your Biz, she delivers an unflinching account of the skills and atti- tudes prospective entrepreneurs need to get a business up and running, and a no-surprises game plan for making your venture profitable and sustainable.

From planning and funding to promotion and pricing, you'll get practical advice that can en- sure your success as you leave the safety net of being an employee to enter the high-risk, high- reward environment of business ownership. It includes how to:
* Gauge whether you have the qualities needed to succeed
* Prepare for drastic culture shock
Build a business plan that works

* Focus on providing market solutions

* Choose partners, advisers, and employees wisely

Promote your business on a shoestring budget

* Protect your company and yourself

* Make the most of bootstrap financing And much more!

SUSAN WILSON SOLOVIC is owner and co- founder of ItsYourBiz.com, a highly successful video news and information site for entrepreneurs. She is a weekly small-business contri- butor on ABC's Money Mat- ters and a featured blogger on The Huffington Post, AllBusiness, Fast Company, Constant Contact, and other sites, as well as a monthly columnist on WSJ.com. The author of several books, in- cluding The Girls' Guide to Building a Million- Dollar Business, Solovic has served on the National Women's Business Council and the Women's Leadership Board at Harvard Univer- sity. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

ELLEN R. KADIN is Executive Editor at AMACOM Books, specializing in business books, and a part-time writer. She lives in New York City.

Jacket design: Faceout Studio, Tim Green

Solovic photo: Suzy Gorman

Kadin photo: Lisa Crosby