The start-up blues.

You thought banks and venture capital firms help entrepreneurs launch their businesses. Guess again.

Jeremy Schlosberg is a New York writer

They're out there. Right now. Opportunities. The kind that can make you independent, rich, or both.

-BusinessWeek

It's not any secret that running a new business is rough going. The hours. The sweat. The risk. But what's less well understood are the incredible battles entrepreneurs must fight just to open for business-never mind face the competition. Like Walter Payton, they must weave past those institutions that are supposed to help. Venture capitalists who sneer. Bankers who smile politely and say no. Advisers from government development offices who have no useful advice. A tax code that encourages Michael Milken more than Joe Fix-It. Genuine encouragement is frustratingly rare. The best encouragement of all-it's green and fits nicely in a wallet-is all but impossible for many fledgling entrepreneurs to locate. Opportunities may be out there, as BusinessWeek says, but so are the landmines.

Of course, not everyone who wants to start a business is up to the task. But entrepreneurs face a kind of social Darwinism that can q...

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