So How Do I Get Started?
Most everyone wants to jump in with both feet first and the nose stuck in a book. I've been paralyzed by wanting to make sure that I knew EVERYTHING before I started, but I was also wanting to dive right in. It's not the easiest thing to take a deep breath and say that it's OK to not know everything, that it's OK to make mistakes, and that it's OK to try something, decide if it works for you, and make adjustments on the fly.
So let's talk a second about mistakes. Most of your life, you're raised in school to circle your answers in red when it's WRONG, and you learn not to make any obvious mistakes. But then you don't accomplish anything new and exciting either. The key for successful mistake making is by thinking through the risks involved.
You want to start a business but if you make a mistake, you could lose a lot of money. Well, Ok, create a plan to mitigate that risk. Limit your startup costs until you're bringing in some funds. One friend kept her mini-blind business going until her online corset sales reached a certain point.
When I first started telecommuting in 1993, there were risks that I would miss out on hallway conversations if I weren't there all the time. The truth is that I couldn't be everywhere anyway, so I kept in touch with the people I knew were most important to the project, and with the people that I knew were most important for my career. You learn to overcommunicate with some people.
So, step one, identify the worst thing that could happen. And then find some options to reduce the impact.