Effective Start-Up Strategies For Launching Your New Business Advice for those who want to explore new entrepreneurial waters

Ken Fox is a great believer in grabbing hold of an opportunity the first time it comes around. Rather than finish college, Fox used his job as manager of a Sacramento, California, "spy store" as a springboard to start Fox's Spy Outlets, which today sell $400,000 worth of personal protection and surveillance products annually.

Here's his advice to those who want to explore new entrepreneurial waters:

Act immediately on a good business idea. "I was told by my family I should get a college degree. And yes, that's important, but when I saw how new the security equipment industry was and how profitable it could be, I didn't want to wait until it was too late," says Fox. In the fall of 1991, he resigned from his job in Sacramento to move to Seattle, where he opened his first spy store.