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A recent conference called Small Business, Big Impact drew an enormous crowd – hundreds of entrepreneurial hopefuls, some of whom are looking to take the sour lemons handed to them by the job market and start their own proverbial lemonade stands.

"There is a lot of opportunity for people who have been laid off who can start their own consulting company," said Butler Bag Company Chief Executive Officer Jen Groover. "They can freelance if they always wanted to be in business for themselves, it's a low overhead way to get started."

Anthony Pizzuto runs a home-based graphic and web design company called FreNzy Marketing. While business was booming for a while, he says his revenue stream has dried up with the economy.

"It's harder to find new business or maintain current business on a project to project basis," he said. "You know we brought in $8,000 in February 2008. And February 2009, we brought in you know $500, $600. So, that's a huge, huge short fall."

Making matters worse, he says the work that is coming in, is not paying promptly.

"It got to the point where there was so few invoices being paid over the past couple months that you know the cable and Internet and phone systems were all shut off because of lack of payment," Pizzuto said.

"One of the Holy Grails is being able to collect the money earned after they've completed the work that they do," said Onlybusiness.com CEO Daniel Meyerov.

Onlybusiness.com caters to small companies looking to develop a web presence. He suggests business owners collect a deposit and then set up critical milestones, with payments due at various stages of the project, so you aren't chasing the cash when the work is done.

"What that means is the customer cannot back out," he said. "To start, they are already invested, and by the time we get to the completion, we don't hand over code until we receive final payment and everyone's happy."

If you're looking to start a business or any size, experts, like New York Daily News Your Money editor Scott Wenger, say do not be afraid to ask for help. Other entrepreneurs and freelancers have been down this same path and you can learn plenty to learn from their mistakes and their triumphs.

"By going to the city Department of Small Businesses Services Solution Centers, there's one in every borough, by going to the Small Business Administration of the federal government, you can talk to people," he said, "usually for free, who can tell you what you need to do, the permits you might need, and it can make all the difference."