Objective of the investigation is to point out the characteristics and determinants for a business startup of liberal professions and entrepreneurs (other self-employed) in the Federal Republic of Germany based on the socio-economic panel (SOEP) for the years 1991 to 2001. Over 1.500 establishments, pooled during the observation period, are examined of which 459 are liberal professions. The empir ical method used is logistic regression. Clear differences between the group of liberal professions and entrepreneurs could be determined. The results show that the group of liberal professional startups differ significantly compared to entrepreneurial startup according to the personal characteristics, the microsocia l environment and the human capital.