Imagine advising an aspiring entrepreneur who is starting a business ... after being in prison. What advice would you give on key things to do/avoid?

BEST PEOPLE TO ANSWER 1. Those who have bootstrapped their own business without any support from family, friends, investors (especially those who come from a challenging background) 2. Those who have worked with low-income entrepreneurs who are pursuing "Main Street" businesses ... restaurants, car repair, home repair, courier services, shoe shining, etc. BACKGROUND ON WHO WE ARE For the past ten years, the Prison Entrepreneurship Program has offered "entrepreneurship boot camps" in prison, coached incarcerated participants through writing a full business plan and then helped them to refine their plans through "Shark Tank"-style pitch events to executive volunteers who visit them inside a Texas prison. Our graduates now earn a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business. We then continue to support these graduates after release from prison, providing them with housing, job placement and start-up support. We have had 150 of our graduates start their own businesses, including two that are now generating over $1MM in annual sales. While we are proud of these results, we want to do even more in the future. Your advice could be very beneficial to us as we expand our post-release support for small business development. (Learn more about us at http://www.PEP.org)