It doesn't matter if you invest $100 or $100,000 into your own business. It doesn't matter if your net worth is in the millions or pocket change. If you self-fund what turns out to be a money pit, you're going to eventually put an equally painful dent in your future.

I've self-funded three startups to success - and by "success," I just mean the opposite of failure, and there were a lot more failures. My first self-funded startup ran profitably for 12 years. The second was acquired relatively quickly. The third, Teaching Startup, has been running for almost three years now on sustainable margins. READ MORE