Guiding Light Feeling a little lost at the helm of your business? Don't worry: A peer group can help you find your way out of the darkness.

It is a Thursday morning, and normally, Cynthia Malcom would betending to her business. But today, she's sitting in aclassroom, listening to a lecture with a handful of otheradults.

Actually, she is tending to her business. It just doesn'tlook like it at first glance. Malcom is attending BYOB, and no,it's not what you think. This is Build Your OwnBusiness, a 10-week program for anybody who wants to run acompany. Situated in a spacious but almost barren room on thesecond floor of the Cincinnati Business Incubator, BYOB targetsresidents in underserved, urban neighborhoods. Malcom and herclassmates are paying $50 for 20 hours of instruction from aseasoned entrepreneur; after the class is over, they can receiveongoing free services, like financial counseling and taxpreparation from BYOB's nonprofit organization, Smart MoneyCommunity Services in Cincinnati.

But Malcom has already mastered one important lesson in startinga business, one that entrepreneurs new to the scene would do wellto learn: You are not alone. No matter how bleak things might seem,there are always people willing to aid and comfort a strugglingentrepreneur.