Starting up a business on your own is never easy, but the demands can be compounded for a female entrepreneur. "First of all, you have to have a really good game plan," says Pamela Bayer of Pamela Bayer Interiors in Hudson. "The first two years are going to be the hardest years you've ever had to deal with - on an emotional, on a physical, and on a financial level. But it's worth it, to be independent, to be financially set."

Ms. Bayer offers some tips specifically for women interested in starting their own businesses:

• Balance family and work; manage time. "The most important thing for me was the balancing act of mother vs. professional," says Ms. Bayer, who used to bring her child to work. "I think they have to be extremely realistic about what time frame they can work, especially raising a family. I have a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week business."
• Win over skeptics. "I hit a tremendous number of walls, trying to get in with builders, plumbers, electricians, explaining I understood it. I had to really prove myself. It's annoying to have to prove myself, with the work I've done, but I truly believe women have to do that."
• Make yourself distinctive. Be picky about where your advertising dollars go. Devise a storefront display that makes shoppers "stop dead in their tracks." Create a need, as well as an appeal.
  
• Commitment. "Once you start your own company, you literally are married to that company. And marriages don't work sometimes. You can't lose hope."