Are you secretly an entrepreneur?

After a dreary day spent crunching numbers in a cubicle (or standing at a cash register or toiling away on a construction site), becoming an entrepreneur can seem pretty appealing.

You might hope that you're secretly the next H. Ty Warner, who made billions selling Beanie Babies and has since diversified into hotels and resorts. Maybe you dream of being the next Bill Gates -- worth a jaw-dropping $54 billion, according to Forbes -- the software developer and philanthropist who is chairman of Microsoft Corporation (and a college dropout).

Perhaps you wonder if you have what it takes to be that successful (or even more modestly successful, which, let's face it, would still be really, really successful).

The amount of advice available in print and online is truly staggering, and much of it is conflicting. But most reputable sources recommend thoroughly assessing your skills and interests, choosing a highly focused idea that fills a real demand, and then creating a solid business plan.

There are many kinds of entrepreneurs and many ways to show entrepreneurial spirit, but for these purposes we'll define an entrepreneur as a person who spots an opportunity and launches a business in response. 

That usually means a degree of financial and professional uncertainty, which may not be the right path for the risk-averse. In the bestselling "The One-Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business" (Currency/Doubleday 2008), Ken Blanchard and Don Hutson (who wrote the book with Ethan Willis) list the top 20 traits of successful entrepreneurs. These include risk-taking, self-motivation, and integrity.

Other experts say your personality traits are less important than your willingness to pay attention to hard data. That's the view of Scott Shane, the award-winning researcher and professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western University, who has written extensively about business startups. He points out some of the common mistakes entrepreneurs make in his book "The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors and Policy Makers Live By" (Yale University Press, 2008). 

Among his findings:

- 90 percent of the fastest-growing companies in the country sell to businesses. Most start-ups, on the other hand, target the consumer market.

- Success rates for entrepreneurial ventures vary widely across different industries. For example, the four-year survival rate of new firms in the education and health services sector was 55 percent, compared to 38 percent in the information sector, according to data presented in the book.

- Most entrepreneurs fail to thoroughly research business opportunities, instead sticking with the industries and work experiences they know.

- Many entrepreneurs try to get ahead of the competition by offering lower prices, when in fact their business would be better served by competing on service or quality.

Paying attention to the details early on will greatly contribute to a startup venture's chances of success, Shane writes.

So even if you don't approach the wealth of Ty Warner or Bill Gates, you'll still have a growing business you can be proud of.