MORE THAN 100 MILLION PEOPLE ARE expected to play online games by the year 2005. Intrigued? Considering that computer and video games generate billions of dollars in sales every year, there's quite a lot of money that can be made in taking the concept online.

But getting into it--therein lies the challenge. How does an entrepreneur really get a piece of the online video game market? Check out Game Wisdom (www.gamewisdom.com) to start. This educational Web community is a prime place to find everything you'll need if you plan on starting an online video game empire. For a monthly membership fee that ranges from $7.95 to $24.95 (depending on what services you subscribe to), aspiring entrepreneurs can learn every aspect of how to design an online video game, from working with the technology involved to coming up with creative content A part of Ultimate Arcade Inc. (www.ultimatearcade.com), Game Wisdom was launched in May of this year by Tina Louise Feldman and Alan Balode to help start-ups break into the growing industry. "People don't realize that making a good online game requires a lot of effort and team cooperation, much like real hard--core video games," says Feldman, senior vice president of licensing and sales at Ultimate Arcade.

The many step-by-step tutorials the company offers let you polish your skills in everything from graphics and animation to sound effects and music. And if you're looking for partners or employees, check out the Talent Search Application. Says Feldman, "If you are at all interested in getting into game development as a career or as a hobby, the time has never been better." YOU'VE DREAMED OF OWNING A RESTAUrant since the first time you sauteed on your family stove. Now, with start-up capital in hand, you have to design your restaurant from the inside out--or "from the heart of the house," says Michael D. Owings, founder of restaurant design firm Creative Culinary Design in Costa Mesa, California.

That means starting where your food begins--the kitchen. Imagine it: You have the greatest ambience in the world, but the food takes forever to prepare because of an inefficient kitchen layout. It's critical to lay out the pantry, saute and cooking stations wisely. "In designing kitchens," says Owings, "lay your cook line out so that there's no cross traffic [and] people aren't running up and down," he says.

Try to find someone who is already in the restaurant business to help you out. He or she can tell you that your broiler is too small to actually create all the food on your menu or that your refrigerated drawers are hard to get to. And according to Owings, success comes from two things: "A good strategic plan along with a design that understands [your] market, location, staffing requirements and management skills--those are critical issues."

Need more design ideas? Check out Entrepreneur's Business Start-Up Guide, How to Start a Restaurant.

A Penny Saved...

AND YOU'VE TAKEN YOUR FIRST STEP TO STARTING A BUSINESS.

YOU AND YOUR SPOUSE BOTH WORK, and you're barely making it--how will you save money to start a business? We asked David Bach, author of Smart Couples Finish Rich (Broadway Books), to share some money-saving tips:

* TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT YOUR EXPENSES. Keep track for a few months to see exactly where the money goes. (A program like Quicken or Microsoft Money can help.) Divide expenditures into fixed (every month) and variable (change from month to month). "Go through it, almost with a knife, and figure out what you can cut," Bach says.

* REDUCE SPENDING. If one person quits working to start the business, you'll only have one income to work with. Practice living on that one income now. Things like switching from "super cable" to basic cable can save you from $50 to $80 per month. Clip coupons and buy generic--simple changes add up.

* OPEN A DREAM ACCOUNT. Get a separate money-market account for your business and set up an automatic deposit for every payday--$50, $100, whatever you can afford.

* GET YOUR SAFETY NET. Before you quit your day jobs, make sure you have health and disability insurance in place. You'll need it out there on your own.

* PAY YOURSELF FIRST. The moment you start your business, get a retirement plan like an SEP or IRA. Says Bach, "The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is to put every dollar they make into their business--it's really important that you pay yourself first.