spreadsheet and track your expenses meticulously dont leave your day job and expect to live on credit cards until your business breaks even if you are starting a company with a partner or two make sure each of you takes on an equal share of creditcard debt manage your risk and go into your venture with eyes wide open the sad truth is that earlystage businesses are quite likely to fail be careful not to make so many creditcard applications that youll be hurt later think of credit cards as a temporary solution not a longterm strategy consider the other sources of funding available and consider them far earlier than you think you need to whitehead advises start looking at more sophisticated sources of funding such as bank loans or private investors from day one of your business it will take longer than you think to make that next step probably six months or more he says businessweek the author is a los angelesbased writer who covers entrepreneurship and smallbusiness issues