You've been thinking about starting your very own business. However, as we are well aware of, starting one is extremely tough. Unless you personally have deep pockets, such as inherited wealth, figuring out where you're going to get the money to start and getting the financing in place beforehand is one of the most important components of planning your business. Or is it? If you have no money, no business experience, and absolutely no idea about how to start, what can you do? Keep on reading...

If you've been wanting to work from home, the internet offers wonderful opportunities. You don't have to have a college degree, and you don't have to take out a loan and prepare a business plan to get started and you DON'T NEED MONEY.

While the age-old adage is usually true - that you have to spend money to make money - in the online world, you don't always have to spend a fortune. In this article, we're going to talk about some ways that you can start a business with little or no money at all. It is possible and may be easier than you think. Here are 5 ways to do so:

Leverage the power of Amazon.com

Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer according to the New York Times with nearly $15 billion in annual sales for 2007, is one of the iconic companies of the Internet era. It has also positioned itself as a technology company through a fledgling effort called Amazon Web services, in which it rents out parts of its back-end infrastructure to other companies. Another effort is the so called "aStore", which allows for the creation of a dedicated web area where you can sell all Amazon products, or display only the categories you choose, so you can create a custom store featuring Natural products, books about solar energy or whatever you want, FOR FREE. You can check this article describing the process of creating an aStore.

Create your own Search Engine

Search Engines are creating a huge market for businesses and little people to exchange information. The more information we exchange, the more powerful the Search Engine becomes and the more money is poured into the marketplace. Harness the power of Google search technology to create a Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests - and make money from the resulting traffic. That means you can create your FREE custom search engine, adapted to your own needs. Check this article describing the process of creating it.

Open a Customized Portal

Personalized Home Pages is a growing and very competitive market. They're basically repositories for Web information, gadgets and widgets. The difference from old-style web portals is that the user can personalize them much more (with RSS, inline email, etc), the content is greatly enhanced, interactive and potentially more useful. You can create and share custom homepages with the world and monetize the traffic if you can get enough eyeballs. Check this article describing the process of creating a FREE personalized homepage using one of the most popular online tools.

Create and sell promotional items

Promotional products are a great way to attract people's' attention. The business of these products is mind-boggling - over 3,000 manufacturers supply their products to about 20,000 distributors across the US alone, and the resultant annual sales are worth a whopping $17 billion USD! Using online design tools, you can create a custom shop with t-shirts, all sorts of other apparel, fine art prints, drinkware, and much more. You don't have to worry about inventory, shipments, payments or products return. Check this article that shows you how this can be done, and for FREE.

Sell Products from Established Merchants

If you don't want to design promotional products, why don't just choose from over 6 million items available from hundreds of top Internet merchants? Display as many as 1,000 products in up to up to 20 different stores. You don't actually need to have anything to sell. You don't have to worry about stock or shipping, either, since orders are fulfilled by large online retailers. Just pick the products you like and put it on your custom Shop to sell. Similar to Amazon's "aStore", but including the inventories of hundreds of online retailers, you have greater choices and options. Check this reference to see how you can create your own online store FOR FREE in less than 15 minutes.