Once a great idea is matched to a ready market, alumni business owner Alicia Graves (CWR '05) says there's no excuse not to get down to business.

Lots of would-be entrepreneurs talk themselves out of making the leap into their own business. The economy sucks. I don't have enough capital. I just got a dog.

Recent start-up owner Graves' advice? Don't wait. "Chances are, you're already running your business, you're just not getting paid for it," she says.

Graves discovered a flare for finances in high school and has been giving out advice on budgets and savings strategies ever since. Her company, A. Graves International LLC, which she launched in 2010, allows her to keep doing just that, but now as a paid financial consultant.

Maybe that big, scary initial investment is standing in your way. While kick-starting a business back in the day might have required a sizable chunk of change, Graves says the internet's changed all that.

"Particularly if you are your product, you don't need that much money in the beginning," she says. That makes the internet one of the most valuable items in Graves' entrepreneurial utility belt. The other? Old-fashioned face-time.

You've got to get out there, she says, and joining an association for small business owners is a great way to start. You never know who you're going to meet. In fact, it was a fellow small business owner she met at a networking event that gave Graves the push she needed to launch her own company. "Talking to other business owners is essential," she says. "Never underestimate the power of networking."