Scott Shane, author of The Illusions of Entrepreneurship, shared 10 tips on BusinessWeek.com for starting a new business.  We wanted to share some of the information with our business owner readers, including nurse staffing entrepreneurs, medical transcription service owners and medical coding business owners.

Pick the right industry. Entrepreneurs “tend to choose industries in which they are most likely to fail,” Shane writes. Many never look outside the industry they used to work in, even if they don’t have any competitive advantage over their former employer. Pick a sector with a growing market where you can differentiate yourself from the competition.

Evaluate your ideas. Research shows “42% of new-business founders decide to start a company before they have identified a business idea,” Shane writes, and 28% never consider more than one idea. Think through lots of opportunities and pick the one most likely to succeed.

Start with a team. More than half of new businesses are started by individuals, “even though the performance of new businesses founded by teams is better,” writes Shane. Going in alone lowers your chances of success.

Sell to businesses, not consumers. “Most startups sell products or services to individual consumers, even though 90% of the fastest growing private companies in this country sell to businesses,” according to Shane. Founding a business-to-business company will raise your odds.

Launch full-time. Even though there’s lots of evidence that full-time ventures are more likely to survive, profit, and grow, Shane says, most entrepreneurs launch their companies part-time.

Click here to read the rest of the tips: A Better Way to Start a Business.  Click here to the BusinessWeek article on Scott Shane’s book, The Illusions of Entrepreneurship.