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      ■ What are your business skills? What are your leadership and management qualities or other personality traits that stand you in good stead when pursuing your passion? Do a careful inventory of your business skills at this point, because it will determine whether and how you should bring in other individuals to complement your skills, or what additional education or training you need if you hope to go it alone. Can you motivate others? Can you communicate well? Are you willing to learn these skills if you don’t currently possess them? Keep in mind that your inventory of business skills should include not only the ones you have now, but also the vital ones you’re willing to work on or develop.

“The gig economy” entrepreneur

      Not all paths to self-employment involve starting a traditional business. A growing portion of people is engaged in offering their services on a contingent basis—often as independent contractors or freelancers in industries undergoing considerable disruption and transformation. Responsible estimates project that 40 percent of the American population will be employed in “nontraditional” work by 2020.

      This new form of self-employment is often referred to as the “gig economy,” especially when providers find and connect with customers through an online platform, such as ride services Uber and Lyft, short-term rental services such as Airbnb, or a freelance labor market such as TaskRabbit or Upwork. These platforms act as a marketer and an intermediary, taking fees on every transaction.

      Your best chance of succeeding as a gig economy entrepreneur is to think of your gig economy gig as a business rather than a job. In other words, bring the same kind of thoughtful planning and management to your platform-related activities as you would to building a more traditional service business.

      These nine tips will help you succeed:

      ■ Forecast income and expenses. Forget the glowing claims from the platform companies about how much money you’ll make. They’re typically overly optimistic. Instead, estimate how many hours you can actually work, and research online to find averages earned by real participants. List all likely expenses you’ll incur—such as gas, insurance, and cleaning if you provide ride services—or cleaning, repairs, and insurance if you provide short-term rentals. A good rule: underestimate income; overestimate expenses.

      ■ Manage and track money. This is a business, and as such, you’ll be paying taxes and filing paperwork. Moreover, you want to make certain you take every legal deduction you’re entitled to. Get a bookkeeping program and track all your expenses and all your income. Ideally, set up a separate business bank account and use one credit card solely for business expenses.

      ■ Manage and monitor reviews. Positive customer reviews are critical to your success. Some platforms will only send customers to those with consistently excellent reviews. In addition to providing excellent service, encourage satisfied customers to post positive reviews. Whenever possible, respond to posted reviews with your own comments—either thanking the reviewer for positive comments or explaining any negative comments.

      ■ Compare and shop platforms. Just because a platform is well-known doesn’t mean that it will make you the most money or be the best to work with. Investigate the competing platforms you can work with. Typically, you can work with more than one, so try them out.

      ■ Get insured. Closely examine any insurance offered by the platform you’re interested in—to see what it actually covers and when—and purchase supplemental insurance if necessary. Personal insurance will typically not cover events that happen while you’re earning money (such as renting a room or driving for a ride service).

      ■ Provide a little extra. If you rent out your home, perhaps you want to provide a welcome basket of goodies for your guests. If you drive people in your car, maybe you want to offer bottled water or a chance for them to charge their phone. Make sure everything is clean and neat.

      ■ Create a customer database. Although customers find you through these services, it’s more profitable if they return to you directly. So give out your own business card, and whenever appropriate, ask for satisfied customers’ contact info, create a database, and use an email newsletter service like MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) to keep in touch.

      ■ Get healthcare. If you don’t have a day job, you’ll need to take care of your own benefits. With all those people in your car or home, you may need to see the doctor more often.

      ■ Be careful. If strangers are coming into your car or into your home, use reasonable care. While some platforms do basic background checks on providers, none do on customers. Don’t rely on the platform to protect you. Be cautious and use your own judgment if a situation feels unsafe.

      The bottom line: You can make some money in the gig economy; just know what you’re getting into. If you’re highly entrepreneurial, you’ll likely quickly outgrow participating in one of these gig economy platforms. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for you to grow your income dramatically or to scale. After all, you’re selling your time—typically at a discount—and that’s limited. So think of your participation in these endeavors as a “training wheel” opportunity to help you learn some entrepreneurial skills before you launch your own great venture.

      And remember, the entrepreneurs who succeed the most in the gig economy are those who build these platforms rather than those who provide the services.

From dream to reality

      If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you probably have many dreams for your future. Dreaming is vital. The first step in starting your business is to be able to imagine a new reality. It can be a truly unique reality: a zero-emission car such as the Tesla, for example. Or it can be a down-to-earth reality: starting a retail auto-parts company that enables you to earn a decent living while creating respectable, long-term jobs for your employees.

      Most—if not all—successful businesses start with a dream. Yet there’s a difference between those who merely dream and those who make their entrepreneurial dreams come true.

      REAL-WORLD RECAP

       The dream scale

       Moving from your dream to a business reality involves the following steps:

       1. Fantasy

       2. Dream

       3. Concept

       4. Goals

       5. Business plan

      The steps that move from dream to reality make up the entrepreneur’s “dream scale”—from the least-achievable stage of dreaming to the most achievable and action-oriented one.

      1. Fantasy. These concepts are impossible or highly unrealistic to achieve. Hucksters make fortunes off people who fantasize about getting rich in their spare time. Whether it’s an infomercial, a weekend real-estate seminar, or a multilevel marketing program, what most of these people sell is the fantasy that you can make money without hard work or risk. Most of these schemes drain money and time away from achievable goals, such as going back to school or starting a realistic business.

      2. Dream. Although these concepts are potentially achievable, at this stage, you see only the positive side. Most people have a dream business they’d like to run—a bed-and-breakfast, a wine bar, a fantastically successful social-networking site. Are these fantasies? No. Some people do run delightful B&Bs on Cape Cod; others start Facebook or Twitter.

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