If you're thinking about starting a home business, whether it's to make a little more money during a lousy economy or to give yourself more freedom in your career, you may be worried about how much time and money it actually entails. Starting a home business needn't break your bank or take tons of time. A few steps will streamline the process and your business can be up and running in weeks.

The first step in starting a home business is to decide upon an area of business to pursue. A home business can be anything from traditional businesses like tutoring, babysitting or housecleaning to new businesses based on the existence of the Internet, like Web 2.0 marketing or search engine optimization. The latter businesses have a lot of competition because there is so much demand for these services, but if you can excel at them you can really make money quickly.

Having a good website will give you a real advantage, and you need every advantage you can get during the current recession, when people pick and choose very carefully about where to spend their money. A professional looking website will give your customers confidence in your ability to deliver.

Even if you don't know how to do this yourself, though, starting a home business in two weeks or less is really within the realm of possibility. There are web hosting sites that will allow you to create your own website with templates for a small fee, or if you want to go all out for a custom site, shop around and you can find one that will do it for fewer than five hundred dollars. Such companies have to offer quick turnaround to be competitive.

You'll also need to advertise your new website when starting a home business. You can get business cards printed, design a flyer to put on bulletin boards or in mail boxes, or take out an ad in a local magazine or newspaper. You can advertise on the Web as well, with pay-per-click ads or other forms of Internet marketing. (Banner ads are probably too expensive at this stage of the game but they're a good choice when your business takes off.)

You can also promote your website and business online through commenting on blogs, using e-mail sigs, and posting on forums. This needs to be done very carefully, as overuse of such tactics can look like spam. However, if your comments are spaced out well and add value, it's a good way to find customers who are interested in the topic of your choice.

Don't put up links to your website before it's up and running, however. There's nothing that annoys people like finding a link they're genuinely interested in and finding out the site is under construction. A better way to handle this is to scout out where you want to place your links, bookmark them, and then do them once the site is up.

Starting a home business isn't as tough as you may have thought. Getting the website up and advertising can be done relatively quickly and inexpensively. You probably should be giving more thought to fulfillment; if your website is successful, you need to have the ability to deliver on its promises. One of the biggest mistakes people make in starting a home business is being unable to respond to high demand.

by Danielle Martensen

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