NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Many small-business owners started businesses with their own money, and with relatively small amounts, according to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index study.

Small-business owners spend an average of $10,000 to start their businesses, the study said.

Seventy-three percent of business owners surveyed primarily funded their businesses with their own personal savings, while 37 percent obtained loans and lines of credit.

More than half of those surveyed, or 53 percent, indicated they would have had an easier time had more money been available at the outset.

Yet just 31 percent of small-business owners surveyed started with business plans, the study found.

Forty-nine percent say they would have had an easier time had they asked for more advice from experienced business owners, while an additional 39 percent indicated a better understanding of financial management would have been an asset.

"The reality of owning a small business is both exciting and a bit scary," Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, executive vice president and head of the Small Business Segment for Wells Fargo, said in a statement.

"The survey results provide us with real insight into what it takes to start and run a small business, and what many small business owners wish they had at the onset - more capital and more financial management education."

The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index surveyed approximately 600 small-business owners nationwide. Results were based on telephone interviews conducted May 22, 2006 through June 9, 2006. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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