My Advice:
--Sign as a member.
--Start taking the Access courses from the beginning.
--Don't start writing any code until you reached an advance level.
--If you are in a hurry, contract a developer to work with you can find them here

Absolutely, what Sami said.  

You can also start working on building a detailed plan/outline for the project including what outputs are required and what are optional.  Set the optional pile aside until the required pile is gone.  For the required outputs, detail which inputs will supply the information.  Your plan will evolve as you learn, but the better you know the business part of the project, the smoother the build will go.

I also found that learning a little bit about normalization helped me grasp the benefits of a database over a spreadsheet.

Richard does a fantastic job teaching both how and why.  He wasn't the first place I looked for instruction but when I found this site, I quit looking.