Venture capitalist, Paul Graham believes there will be more and more web startups.

So my first prediction about the future of web startups is pretty straightforward: there will be a lot of them. When starting a startup was expensive, you had to get the permission of investors to do it. Now the only threshold you have to get over is whether you have the courage to. Even that threshold is getting lower, as people watch others take the plunge and survive. In the last batch of startups we funded, we had several founders who said they’d thought of applying before, but weren’t sure and got jobs instead. It was only after hearing reports of friends who’d done it that they decided to try it themselves.

He thinks that, although, starting a web business is difficult, it’s nothing like as soul-destroying as a 9-5 job.

In a startup you have lots of worries, but you don’t have that feeling that your life is flying by like you do in a big company. Plus in a startup you could make orders of magnitude more money. If the number of startups increases dramatically, then the people whose job is to judge startups are going to have to get better at it. I’m thinking particularly of investors and acquirers. We now get on the order of 1000 applications a year. What are we going to do if we get 10,000?

It’s hard to imagine the internet ever getting full up, so the prospects are there for anyone with a good idea, technical know-how and the initiative to carry it through.

Read the whole of the article.

Countless individuals have dreamed of quitting the day job to develop a new business online.

And why not? Working from the comfort of your own home, with low costs and being the master of your own time, must be better than slaving away in a 9-5 job, mustn’t it?

How about the complications? The technical problems, long lead-ins to a sustainable income, and, of course, the intense competition for a large, but limited pot of money on the internet.

John Evans, who founded Syntagma Media — an internet content provider — has given an interview about the trials of creating an online business to Gerry Reynolds, business consultant and retail analyst.

Here’s a preview :

Gerry : What are the economics of an online income stream? […]

John : If you set no upper limits, you’re really at the mercy of events. It’s no good having a $10m business if your costs are $11m. Mr Micawber defined that problem 150 years ago.

The trick is to set an upper boundary that gives you the best split between receipts and obligations, building in the vagaries of the tax system, of course, and depending on the amount of effort you can comfortably provide. Everyone will reach a different conclusion, but it has to be within your comfort zone. You are, after all, in this for the long haul.

Read both posts here : #

It’s the new American Dream, to shake off those corporate shackles and go to work for yourself. But where you start your small business may affect its chances for success.

CNN Money lists the states that are most entrepreneurial-friendly. Vermont has the highest rate of entrepreneurship of any state and South Dakota has the friendliest policy environment for entrepreneurs. Delaware ranks lowest with only 160 entrepeneurs per 100,000 people. The list from CNN also shows the survival rate of new small businesses in these states.

Check out the list at CNN Money.com and see how likely your new business is to survive on the Small Business Survival Index.

According to a Harris interactive poll on Attitudes in the Workplace, employees of smaller companies found more job satisfaction than those working for larger companies.

The survey also showed that employees of smaller companies were less likely to feel their job demands interfered with personal and family needs.

Income was higher for employees of larger companies with 17% of employees earning $100,000 before taxes as opposed to only 5% of employees of small companies attaining that salary.

But income isn’t always the most important factor. Many workers cite home and family obligations, job stress and other considerations as being key to their employment decisions.

Looking for a great place to work? The Great Place To Work Institute can help guide you with their list of the Best Small & Medium Companies to Work For in America.