In a world that’s knee deep in a financial recession, a lot of people are looking for ways to earn more money. Whether as a replacement for what they do, or as a means to complement their existing income, the fact of the matter is, money is harder to get by these days. One of the easiest and safest way to augment your income without breaking the bank is by setting up an online business. With the Internet explosion, this is a good idea.

When you start a business, for the sake of the discussion let’s say it is a store that sells blankets, in a physical store you have to spend for a business license, rent for the place you will be setting up in (unless you are lucky and own your own space in a commercial area), hire a staff, renovate the place to suit your business, pay for the utilities, spend for security, furniture, and many other expenses. Add that all up and it can total to a small fortune. Not really feasible in the recession we are in.

Let’s go to starting a business online then. for starter you’d spend around $5 more or less to purchase a domain name. Then you’d have to hire a website developer to build your site, unless you can build it yourself. Then you’d have to hire an SEO expert to handle the marketing end, and also you’d have to pay for “click to buy” services” if you want to start earning. Add all it up, and it’s still a fraction of what you’ll pay for a physical business. But to really save money, you can bypass the above and instead use a free blog, use the templates in the blog to build your site and learn SEO to handle the marketing yourself. That leaves us with an initial capital of, zero! Sounds good?

Now as for the “click to buy” service, what can we do to bypass that part? You can start the trustworthy route and ask buyers of your product to send money to your bank account, or you can use paypal. Paypal is your best bet since it’s free and it gives relative security for both the buyer and seller. Of course having a paid service will work better, but if you are really strapped for cash then paypal is the way. But you would have to work overtime to build up your buyer’s trust of course. Not many are willing to give cash instantly to someone they don’t know.

Now, of course starting a business online is more than what is written above. There are other things to consider, and though not all may have workarounds so you can avoid paying more, the overall money you will be spending as capital is very minimal as compared to a brick and mortar store. One other thing that’s great about having a business online is that you get to work when you want to , wherever you are. You may have to invest on a mobile phone with Internet access so you can check incoming orders regularly, but that’s just a small cost considering you can do business while on the beach drinking a pina colada or margarita. It’s either that or you can choose to personally visit your physical store everyday and endure the stresses of the daily commute. Doesn’t paying for a data plan now seem like a good idea?