If you have a business you should be bartering goods and services with other businesses. You should try to trade for something before you buy it. Barter deals usually require little or no money.

Another option would be to network your business with other businesses. You could trade leads or lists. This will cut down on your marketing and advertising costs.

2) FREE AND LOW COST

You should try visiting thousands of freebie sites on internet before buying your business supplies. You can find free software, graphics, backgrounds, online business services, etc.

Have you ever purchased business equipment you only needed for a small period of time? You could have just borrowed equipment from someone else or rented equipment from a "rent-all" store.

Now don't panic, for many businesses, you don't need a big- production web site. You may only want a small stop on Net where customers and prospects can find your basics: your list of services and products, your rates, and your contact/order info. Quite often, less is more in this market.

You may be thinking, "But I don't know first thing about setting up a web site! This is going to cost me a million dollars!" Don't worry, you don't need big savings or Internet savvy to set up a web site. There are several companies out there that will do it for you for free!

One of easiest online web site builder's is AOL Hometown's 1-2-3 Publish at:

http://hometown.aol.com/hmtwn123/index.htm.

You don't even have to be an AOL subscriber to use it.

Just choose type of page you want to build, then type or paste your info into templates and you're done. This service uses all latest template design technology, and resulting sites look quite professional.

If you want to go even more high-tech, check into Netscape's SiteCentral at:

http://www.netscape.com/sitecentral/index.html

In addition to basics, this service offers headlines which are automatically updated throughout day, and a bar chart you can customize to report your sales information.