5 Biggest Risks Every Entrepreneur Must Take

Eric Kuhn didn't plan on building a company from scratch. He didn't intend to launch a startup, take it public, and struggle to keep it alive when the stock market crashed. But that's just what happened when, after going through law school, he realized that he had taken the wrong path. He didn't like his job at a big law firm. He wanted to get out and do something different with his life. This led to the creation of Varsity Books. Kuhn took the startup from a two-man enterprise to a promising public company in roughly two years. When the Nasdaq crashed, it could have ended his career as an entrepreneur. But he persevered and turned Varsity Books into one of the only companies that successfully returned to the Nasdaq after being delisted. Kuhn sold the firm in 2004 and took some time off. After that he decided to launch FoundersCard.com, a premier savings and networking club for entrepreneurs. "It is a niche business, but it's a profitable niche business," Kuhn told Benzinga. "We make money on the membership fees. To support the events -- because they're expensive [and held] at very nice venues -- we'll take sponsorships to help pay for the events." Having played the entrepreneur game several times, Kuhn knows what it takes to get started and survive. Click through the slideshow to see his list of the biggest risks that every entrepreneur must take. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.