7 tips if you want to start your own company, by Richard L. Hudson

Richard L. Hudson is CEO and Editor of Science|Business.

The economic news is grim these days. But so what? If you have a dream to start a company, just do it anyway - or so say some experts that the EIT invited to discuss the do's and don'ts of starting a business.

Don't let the environment of the economy stop you; just do it now. There's a lot of risk in being an entrepreneur. When you're young you can pick up the pieces and move on. So don't wait.Bruno Claude, a Belgian entrepreneur and former CEO of Swiss Cablecom.

That advice, from one of the international cable-telecommunications industry's most successful entrepreneurs, was among several tips offered at the EIT entrepreneurship conference organized in Krakow Oct. 21-22. Promoting entrepreneurship is central to the EIT's mission - and is also why it recently launched its first EIT Awards contest. For that, nine start-ups have been nominated for three prizes, to be awarded at a conference and awards ceremony on 21 February in Brussels.

Read the 7 top tips to become a successful entrepreneur