Few Businesses Sprout, With Even Fewer Jobs @ WSJ.com. Pictured above, A circuit board by Tesla Controls, one of many new companies with no workers beyond its founder… Derek Smith, owner of Tesla Controls, handles his own bookkeeping, emails and circuit-board fabrication.

…entrepreneurs today don’t need as much money, or as many people, to start new businesses. Software, communications technology and high-tech equipment are far cheaper and far more powerful than they were a decade ago.

At Mr. Smith’s one-man San Diego start-up, Tesla Controls Corp., circuit boards, semiconductor chips and other components litter a plastic folding table he uses as a workbench. “The hardware stuff is all cheaper,” he says. “Any of these chips are $5 or less.”

Much of Mr. Smith’s economizing is the result of necessity. With a family to support, he doesn’t want to borrow against his house.

We are seeing lots of one-person companies in the kit world too – many sell direct and have resellers and many thriving!