Salary
Average Salary: $68,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $2,838,864
Gumption, gumption, gumption. You want a big fat paycheck as an entrepreneur? You better go out and get it, homeboy/homegirl. There's a wide gap between the highly successful niche food salesman and Mister or Misses Modestly Successful Entrepreneur. We're talking a few million a year in profits versus a few measly thousand.
The nice thing about sales is it's easy to work out your profit margins so that you know exactly how much you can make on each product, as well as how many you need to sell to get by. In the beginning, if you keep costs low, you can turn a modest profit and get by. As you make the plans and connections, you'll heat up and start expanding.
During the research, development, and general set-up phase of an operation to sell a commercial product, odds are that you're not going to be making any cash at all. You'll want to get up and start selling as quickly as possible. Like, get moving. Like, now.