Point #2:
I am so sick of people thinking that they can just hop on the Internet, start a “business,” and retire with infinite wealth a year later.
An actual business takes work. It takes time. If you’re not willing or able to put in both, then there’s a good chance you’re just not going to succeed. I’m all for the power of positive thinking, but just visualizing success isn’t going to get you a fraction as far as actually working to make it happen.
I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who are creating a “business” by writing a blog. They seem to think that after a few months, their PPC/AdSense/Opt-InWhosit revenue is going to send them into retirement. Yeah. Good luck with that. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but putting a couple of hours a day into a website is probably not going to earn you a full-time income, especially not at first.
If you want to be successful in creating a business, then you have to be able to do the work. You have to be able to spend the time. And you have to be able to spend the money. Even if there’s very little money needed to get started (which is the original point of this whole debate, right?), you’re likely to be sorely disappointed if you think you’re all of a sudden going to get rich. On the plus side, watching your income grow is waaay better than sitting around waiting for an annual raise!
There is overhead involved in freelancing. It is much, much lower than a zillion other businesses, but you do need to take it into consideration. Likewise, you have to build a clientele. Even if you do it on the cheap, it’s still going to take time. If you’re lucky enough to have a bit of a safety net, that’s awesome. If not, then you might want to create one (get a part-time job, build up some savings before going freelance, etc.) You absolutely can be successful, but you should be realistic about it.
And a Bonus Rant:
Finally, Tamara and I are of the opinion that you need some actual skills to be successful. There are a lot of folks out there who call themselves “writers” that I wouldn’t pay to write my Christmas cards. We occasionally get messages from aspiring freelance writers who either think that freelancing is super easy and anyone can do it, or they really, really overestimate their skills. (I’m not talking about you. Or you.)
The best way to be successful is to do a great job and get repeat clients. Otherwise, you’re going to be running on a treadmill of low pay and constant worry over finding new clients.
Last but Not Least
James posed a really good question with his last post on this subject:
“If you had less than $500 in your pocket with no partner, no financial backup and no other income in sight, what would you do? Would you hit local stores? Would you sell some gadgets? Or would you freelance?”
In my case, I think I would freelance. BUT. That’s because I already know how. It’s taken more than a year for us to get to this point, and we have built a reputation and knowledge and such. If I wasn’t at this point but realized it was possible, I would go find a job that paid the bills, and I would do everything I could to start building a freelance business on the side.
As for calling us “girls” in his post’ we know that James meant no harm by it; although he’ll probably think twice about using the term with others. I let it go a long time ago and have simply satisfied myself by passively-aggressively referring to them as “the boys” once in a while. No harm, no foul. 
We want to thank James and Harry profusely for being a part of our first cross-blog debate. It’s been great to see all of the involvement on both sides. If you’re interested in doing something like this with us, feel free to send us a message; as we’d definitely consider debating another topic down the road.