How do I start my own business?

First off, great question and I'm happy to share my input on this topic. My advice is a summary of points that I believe are important in starting a business. There is a lot of research, online references, college degrees, etc. focused on this topic. Please review this as a summary on "How to Start Your Own Business".

I own and operate a few businesses (Posters2Prints.com LLC, eFamily.com LLC, Hosei Properties, LLC). I have started a number of businesses over my career (3GUPLOAD.COM, H.E.L.P., Hosei Lawn Care, etc.).

*1. Practical Business Knowledge
The first thing I'd recommend is immersing yourself in school, books, forums, and other business educational courses. I wrote an answer on what entrepreneurial books to read - https://careervillage.org/questions/4764/is-there-any-great-entrepreneurial-books?page=1#7679 Although I started my first business at 15 (Hosei Lawn Care), it was more of a sole proprietorship and not a self-sustaining entity. In other words, if I wasn't out there working and cutting there was no income. I believe the type of business you want to own is one that is able to produce income without you having to be present all the time.

*2. Testing Out Your Knowledge and Skills
I love the idea of starting small projects and testing your skill sets. For example, I launched H.E.L.P. in college to educate youth in my community about entrepreneurship and financial literacy. If you're interested in learning more about what we did, check out this link: https://www.scribd.com/doc/256281947/H-E-L-P-Helping-Educate-Lots-of-People

*3. Identifying Needs and Niche's in the Market
My first professional business I co-founded (3GUPLOAD.COM) with a business partner. He had identified a need in the market that was unmet. 3GUPLOAD grew to 40 employees and $8 million in revenue when it was sold in 2006. This experience has reiterated that point that focusing on a niche market that doesn't have good solutions in place is a winning strategy. When I was attending Indiana University and pursuing my degree in entrepreneurship, the 3 topics when evaluating a business opportunity was the following:
A. Identify a Niche Market that You can be #1 or #2 in terms of market share
B. Be able to make a Sustainable Amount of Money -- Needs to be a Real Opportunity with "Regular, Repetitive, Revenue"
C. Needs to be a Problem that You are committed to solving -- You wake up and are ready to go after that problem.

*4. Developing Your Business Plan
Business school will teach you how to craft a plan. This should be a living document, meaning that you should constantly be evaluating and planning. There is a lot of material online about how to create a business plan, but I would argue that you should constantly be challenging yourself to refine your plan based on feedback from customers and entrepreneurial intuition.

*5. Finding Complimentary Partners
This part is important. No person is an island -- we are all part of a larger community (A "Village"). Network with people at school -- find people you trust and have similar aspirations to you. Relationships truly do matter. Find complimentary partners for your business. If you're good at development -- find a business partner that can manage the marketing, accounting, sales, etc. I have found a lot of success when I partner with capable people that compliment my skill sets.

*6. Incorporating Your Business
This part is actually pretty easy given the State you live in. I can incorporate a business in a single day in Indiana, albeit I would recommend finding good counsel to help you draft legal agreements that protect yourself and partners before incorporating.

*7. Executing On Your Plan
This is the hard part and where "keeping your nose to the grindstone" (Google what that means) is important. I am constantly continuing to improve and learn as I grow my businesses. I am excited for you to enter the game of business.

In summary, I would argue that starting your own business is a series of decisions -- these decisions begin at an early age. Best of luck and let me know if I can elaborate on any of these points.

Hi,
That is a great question and depends on where you live. Since you are in Boston, I found this link for you:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/business/str_bus.asp
I would check the licensing section...for example, here in Texas I started a business by filing a DBA-doing business as, with the county. It costs me about $25 and then I was ready to go.
Now, the harder part is figuring out what you want to do...if you need to be licensed (as in the case of Electrician for example). Then you have to figure out how and where to advertise so people know of you and can find you. A lot of small, service businesses for example start out advertising on CraigsList or AngiesList. Then there is setting up a website, if you want or need one, and maintaining the website.

Hope this helps get you started on the right path...good luck!

The absolute first step is to find a problem to solve, or in other words, a need you can meet. And you must be able to write a business plan that will not only describe that clearly, but make a case that it is an important problem to solve, show that you understand the risks, and explain your needs and proposed milestones. There are many other ways to start a business without doing that, but they are likely to fail or be so minor as to provide little more than a diversion for you. Which is not really bad, but it depends heavily on what you need or expect to gain from starting your business. If you just want to provide a free service to neighbors, that's a good thing, too. But I suspect most people are not aiming for that. So start a business plan. Worst case, you learn a lot.