Setting up business/website.... how easy?

It looks like I might have to go back to work soon and Im struggling with the idea of putting my children into full time childcare. It wouldnt be worth going back part time by the time i paid for childcare, lost family assistance etc... anyway i have a few ideas for internet business's but just have no idea where to start to set one up. Is it easy to do and is it very expensive? How do you work the whole paying by visa thing?

if you just do internet banking though how would you work the payment/shopping cart side of it, you know how you pick what you want and then add it to your shopping cart. do you have to pay for the website hosting?

any info you can share would be awesome thanks. I just dont know where to start and there are so many options out there its hard to know which is the best way to do things.

Try Freeparking for your domain name. Should only cost $39.95 and the good thing about going through Freeparking is that you receive a free page to put on info about your products, while you look at building your site...

Once you have your domain, you need to look at who is going to "host" the site (the place where it lives.) Mine is through an Australian Company (my mum set this bit up for me..) which is only about $8.00 AUD a month to run. Again, freeparking have domain hosting available, but it is up to you were you put it. Just make sure that the package you choose has the ability of a shopping cart.

There is a free program out there called Zencart that a lot of people use for their shopping cart. (Greenbeans and the like...)

With regards to Credit Card payment, I would initially steer clear of this as there is a fee per transaction and a "comission" that is taken which relates to the dollar value of the transaction. Good old Direct Credit and taking cheques should suffice as you get started out.

In relation to the web page, unless you are computer minded and have a logo etc in mind, it may be better to ask around (friends etc)..... Although there are some free packages out there that are "drag and drop" theory to build a website. Apple do one called iWeb. Have also come across Nvu which is free (?)...Others use Dreamweaver. Look for a program that isn't too HTML minded...

If you want any other help (seeing as I am still building my site/business) drop me a PM...

We set up a small internet business about 18 months ago and it's going really well. We had a website designer set it up for us and they did all the secure payment stuff. We use OSCommerce which is great because it's so easy to use once it's set up - the only HTML you need is for the front page and DH just has a 'html for dummies' book and was able to figure out how to do it. I think OSCommerce is free too - it can sometimes be a pain but we get my fine with it. We have credit card payment on there, or otherwise they can choose the invoice option and either pay by cheque or internet banking. Don't know what our hosting or credit card fees are sorry. Our website is www.creativemusicproducts.co.nz if you want to see how we have it set up. Feel free to PM me if you want to know more

my2angels get Chovynz to set it up for you, he's doing my website, and he's lovely to work with. - sorry admin if its a shameless plug.

thanks everyone, will do a 'business plan' and list what i want/need then might take some of u up on the advice offer!

With the tax thing, does my husbands income get included or would it just be mine (providing i actually make anything)