A couple must have's to start the right way:
- Continuous Integration - use a continuous integration server to build your code and run automated tests. Jenkins is a great opensource example
- Version Control - Git is the trendy new (and better) choice, but SVN works too. FWIW, the organization where I work is moving from SVN to Git
- Write lots of tests - It will save you time and headache in the long run
- Work on something you are interested in.