Many of us long for the day we no longer have to work for the “man”. We want to be able to walk in someday and tell the boss ” Take this job and shove it, I’ve got my own business”. For most of us it will be a difficult task. We have to work, take care of the kids, and the house. This leaves very little time to start a business that can someday replace our income. Don’t despair, there is a way to start a business with little money and with the potential to replace or at the worst case augment your income. I’m talking about starting an online or ecommerce business.Why an online? Here are 4 big reasons:
1. It can be cheap to start.
2. Requires some effort but nothing at the beginning that will interfere with your present job.
3. You can reach a large customer base, without leaving the comfort of your home.
4. You may not need inventory in the early stages (think dropship).

There may be other reasons to start but these should do for now.

There are several types of online business you can start, most revolve around selling something to someone. An eBay business is probably the easiest to start and also comes with a very large customer base already in the place. The best way to start is to gather stuff around your house that you want to get rid of. Open yourself an eBay account, it’s free, then open a PayPal account. PayPal will allow you to accept credit card payments, as a well as electronic checks.

One you have that in place, take digital photos of your stuff, and list them on eBay. There is a ton of free information available to help you through the eBay process right on the eBay web site. Selling a few things on eBay allows you to learn the process. You’ll also get a feel for whether or not this is for you. Once you have determined that selling on eBay is for you then you’ll need to think about what you are going to sell. One excellent angle is to become a Trader Assistant. This allows you to sell things for other people on a commission basis. This is a great way to ensure an almost endless supply of stuff to sell.

You can also buy wholesale and sell retail. You can actually find wholesale merchandise on eBay to sell to others at a markup. Just make sure the person you are buying from has good eBay feedback.

Personally I chose the non eBay e-commerce route. I contacted several distributors of the products I wanted to sell on my e-commerce store and arranged for dropshipping for a limited time. This allowed me to test the products and the market. Once I know a product is going to be a good seller than I will order inventory and negotiate a good wholesale price.

You can also create your own products to sell. Information products such as DVD’s sell really well. You’ll need to do your research and know you market well. Find something that you know something about and create a DVD or instructional CD around that knowledge. You will be surprised what sells. I really like this niche as it allows to create you product once and sell it many times.

There is a lot more information on online businesses, do a quick search on Google for more insight.

Best of luck.

Here are some information links to get you started.

www.ebay.com
http://sell.ebay.com/sell
http://www.startupnation.com/