Fifteen years ago a bought a $5000 computer-cut vinyl sign cutter and I was going to put every other sign shop in town out of business with it. Well that didn't quite happen, I made every mistake in business. But I learned some important lessons and somehow made a living from it for quite a while. I found a niche in the market that I learned to service very well (making custom vinyl banners) and once I had that figured out, I advertised it and made a sh*tload of vinyl banners! So here are my condensed rules for succeeding in any new business.....
1) Are you SERIOUS about going into business and actually making real quit-your-other-job money, or do you just want an excuse to buy a new toy? Think about this one long and hard. Do you really want to stay-up for 48-hours straight cutting a watchable 20-minute video out of 20-hours of garbage VHS tape that wasn't white balanced properly and wasn't shot with a tripod or a decent microphone? Your reputation depends on it, dude.
2) Know your market -- your customers, your competitors, your true costs of doing business -- in advance. Successful businessmen often spend six months researching their market before they even open their doors. Their plans may change 180-degrees from what they initially intended. Then they usually do really, really well.
3) Choose a tiny niche in a very big market, and service it very well.
4) Don't get lost in the technology. An old iBook G4 running iMovie should still be perfectly capable of making decent money in the video editing business, if you reach the right customers.
5) Take $1000 of your $2500 and use if for targeted advertising. If you take the time to learn your market, you'll know exactly where to spend it.
6) Always deliver exactly what you promise.
Good luck!
