Andrew, here are three things you should consider as you are starting your business.

1. Why are you starting a business?

Are you doing this "because you can"? Are you looking for a summer job you might do poolside? Have you designed a few sites for family or friends and now want to see if you can make something more of it? Is this a school assignment? Did your greatest rival start a business last week so you need to do it too? Something else?

There is no wrong answer, and you don't need to articulate your reasons here, but knowing why you want to start a business feeds into question 2:

2. What do you want from the business?

Are you looking to create a successful business that you'll sell for millions when you're 18 and so fund your university education? Is a formal business a way to keep people from expecting you'll do this work for free? Do you want to use the experience to find out if you have what it takes to run a business? Something else?

3. Who are you going to work for, anyway?

Once you're up and running are you going to pound the pavements (so to speak) to find clients, or will you count on people you already known to help you find clients?

As you can probably tell from these questions, I believe it's important to identify some goals for your business, a way to help you figure out what to do. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as The Goal Police --if you change them or don't meet them, nobody comes after you.

And, if you haven't already checked them out, there are a number of online sites where you can learn about the basics of setting up a business. The US Small Business Administration--www.sba.gov--has a mini-course that lays out the basics succinctly. You can find similar information at My Own Business, Inc (see http://www.myownbusiness.org/course_list.html). A problem with these and many other sites is that they assume your business is manufacturing based and that high volume sales is your goal. For most small service-based businesses this is not the case.