Mind Your Manners Impress clients and prospects with these no-fail rules for business etiquette.

You've been taught since you were a youngster not to chew with your mouth open, to always put your napkin in your lap before a meal, to say "please" and "thank you" and to perform all those other niceties that mothers instill in their kids. But did your mother ever tell you when to turn off your cell phone? How much time it should take to respond to e-mail? How to leave a nice voice-mail message?

Feeling less than confident about your etiquette skills in the electronic age? Lucky for you, we tracked down some leading etiquette experts to get the skinny on how to behave properly in the 21st century--how not to offend clients and customers with poorly written e-mails, how to make a good first impression in the first days of your start-up and so on. Now, get your shoes off the table and listen up.

It's those less common etiquette mistakes that can get a start-up into trouble. For instance, you should never shake hands with someone while sitting down--always stand up, says Phyllis Davis, etiquette expert and author of E2: Using the Power of Etiquette and Ethics in American Business (available from Entrepreneur Press in April 2003). Speaking of handshakes, "You never initiate a handshake with a senior executive--you wait for him or her to initiate a handshake with you," she says. Just like it's impolite to ask for business cards from senior executives--instead, wait for them to offer business cards to you. And don't think you can get off the hook by just offering them your business card first--you have to create a reason to offer it.