Customers are bound to surprise you.
Company: Ledbury, a luxury men's clothier with headquarters in Richmond, Virginia
Founders: Paul Trible (left) and Paul Watson (right)
Question: "What's the strangest request you've ever gotten from a customer?"
Answer: "Every summer a handful of women come into the store and buy a dozen of our shirts to use as beach cover-ups. They buy these beautiful, Italian cloth, luxury men's dress shirts. Then they just use them as bikini cover-ups," says Trible.
Don't be afraid to fail.
Company: Jive Jerky, a homemade jerky retailer based in Moscow, Pennsylvania
Founder: Tim O'Grady
Question: "What advice would you give to an aspiring small-business owner?"
Answer: "You can spend your whole life trying to plan something out, thinking about the best way to go about it, before you realize the years have slipped by and you never did it. Just go out and start it. If it fails, it fails. But at least you went out and tried."
It helps to be versatile.
Company: Num Pang, a Cambodian-style sandwich chain in New York City
Founders: Ben Daitz (left) and Ratha Chaupoly (right)
Question: "What is your greatest talent, professional or otherwise?"
Answer: "You need to have many different strengths, every day. One day, you could be a plumber. The next day, you have to be an accountant. Then you have to be a chef," says Daitz.
You may take on strange gigs before you find your calling.
Company: Music City Pizza, a Nashville-based restaurant that supports local bands and charities
Founder: Keith Hayman
Question: "What's the weirdest job you've ever had?"
Answer: "I was on the Anheuser-Busch account helping with branding for O'Doul's nonalcoholic beer. I had to drive a 24-foot beer truck with 30 kegs of nonalcoholic beer. I can't think of a bigger waste of time than driving around with lots of beer that can't get you drunk."
There will be tough times ...
Company: DPS Skis, a carbon-fiber skis retailer in Salt Lake City, Utah
Founder: Stephan Drake
Question: "What advice would you give to an aspiring small-business owner?"
Answer: "Cultivate the ability to persevere, get tough, and mentally prepare yourself to weather storms, because there will be many. I think that's what separates those who survive and those who don't."
But it helps to look on the bright side.
Company: Great Raft Brewing, the first post-Prohibition brewery in Shreveport, Louisiana
Founders: Andrew and Lindsay Nations
Question: "What is your greatest talent, professional or otherwise?"
Answer: "I'm pretty good at finding the positive in things and moving forward," says Andrew. "It took us two years to get off the ground."
