Old Tricks, New JobShorten the road to success by using skills learned during your days as an employee.

You may have hated spending your days slaving away in a cubicle, but your employee days aren't all bad. You can use the expertise you gained working for someone else to start your own business, just as Lara Chabina-Crowe, founder of Global PM Group, did.

Chabina-Crowe had more than 20 years of travel industry experience when in 2004 she started Boca Raton, Florida-based Projects by Lara, providing project management services to tourism and airline companies. Soon she had a bevy of project managers working with her, and as her company's focus expanded, she rebranded as Global PM Group in 2007. "I was lucky because [while I was with my previous employer], I was exposed to all the airlines within its network, so my name got out there," says Chabina-Crowe, 39. "I definitely tapped into the contacts I had within the airline industry." She has since pushed sales to about $300,000.