The CashFlow

Among the many hassles a startup entrepreneur has to contend with is sifting through reams and reams (or gigabytes and gigabytes, we guess) of conflicting advice about how best to succeed and what not to do. If Adviser A is telling you the sky is blue, chances are good that Adviser B is telling you the sky is falling.

Over at Forbes, Shaun Rein — the managing director of CMR Consulting, a leading Chinese market-research firm that he founded — wades into the fray with what we have to admit is sensible advice covering "commonplace but costly and unnecessary mistakes." "Most of the conventional wisdom about starting your own business is really just myths," he says, then offers three such pieces of wisdom:

     • You need to spend money to make money. "In fact," Rein writes, "you absolutely must keep your costs down and question and question again every purchase. Pennies really matter when you're starting out." Don't blow through cash on things like office space ("Clients don't want to come to your office. They don't want to waste their time. Go to them") swank travel ("On business trips we sleep two to a room in budget hotels") or frills ("Do you truly need that thousand-dollar cappuccino machine, or a mahogany conference table or video conferencing equipment"). 

     • You need an MBA or lots of experience to succeed as an entrepreneur. Baloney, Rein says, in part because "getting a business degree can often reduce your motivation, because it gives you too many high-paying career options — golden handcuffs." A nice problem to have, maybe, but probably not the best spur to action.

     • You should try to raise money from venture capitalists. This route can sometimes be useful, but venture capitalists "often have different motives from your own," Rein says. Turning over too much equity to outsiders means you're at their mercy — and you run the risk of seeing everything you've worked so hard for go up in smoke.