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I would suggest that you contact one of the SBAs Women's Business Centers near you. I'm not sure if you need investors -- angel or VC -- or if you would qualify for a conventional bank loan. However, your local WBC should be able to provide guidance regarding the best source of funding, based on your current circumstances, as well as general help in developing your business. They may be able to connect you with a consultant and/or peer mentor(s). Additionally, I suggest that you contact SCORE, a network of over 13,000 volunteers who offer entrepreneurs free, confidential business counseling services. They offer email mentoring and in-person mentoring at their 350 chapters throughout the U.S. They may be able to connect you with a mentor who is either actively engaged in, or retired from, a similar type of business. -- Kathleen Maroney info@thestoryexchange.org

I would like congratulate you for asking your question. The process of thinking about starting a business is an exciting one. It offers you the opportunity to identify what you have a passion for, reflect on what you are knowledgeable about, and then think about how you might create a business out of these things. Many successful business women today started out where you are right now, by thinking about many different business ideas. Their curiosity and ability to dream is wonderful because it allowed them to have an open mind and be able to consider the possibility of building something new. For a someone such as yourself, I would encourage you to first ask yourself: What am I good at? What am I passionate about? Once you have done this—I encourage you to take these questions a step further and consider them through the lens of looking for a potential business opportunity. Look at your answers to "What are you good at?" and identify which of these things could benefit others and be something that they might be willing to pay for. Another helpful way to rephrase the question is, "What unique value do I offer?" The word value is important, because when you build a business you will ultimately be selling something of value that someone is willing to pay for—this is what make it different than a hobby. I next challenge you to give yourself the freedom to take your answers to the "What am I passionate about?" and respond to “What am I passionate enough about to invest my time, money, skills, etc. into trying to build a business?”There are no wrong answers to your questions, but it is important to be able to be specific. Once you have taken some time for self reflection, you should take a step back and look outwards at the different industries you are thinking about entering. Everything is part of an industry, even if it is a local, one woman run, home-based business. Find answers to these questions: What does the market look like? Are there many actors in this field or only a few? Is there more demand than supply? How much does it cost to offer a product or service in this industry?” Would people be willing to pay me for this? (The paying part is key!—Are there enough people out there that are willing to pay for this product or service so you can turn your idea into a business?) I recommend you ask these questions because what you are looking for is a space in a market or industry for you to apply your knowledge and your passion to create something—a business. This process will take as long as it needs to, and it can be helpful to also ask friends, family, and others these questions. I also recommend you visit one of the Women's Business Centers where you live. You can find centers in your state here: http://www.sba.gov/about-offices-content/1/2895/resources/13729 The Story Exchange has a primer on the site called Get Started which also offers helpful information about starting up. http://thestoryexchange.org/get-started/ -- Sujatha Sebastian info@thestoryexchange.org

While it is critical to budget how much one wants to risk and to walk away should that money be spent, I want to focus on something mundane that too often receives little priority yet is essential for any business- Record Keeping. Far too many businesses place little effort on capturing all of the costs of running their business. They run up credit cards, don't track cash expenditures, don't track how much debt they go into, or something as simple as not tracking their balance in their checking account and one day it all blows up and they're forced to close. A good recordkeeping system tracks all of the items listed above so the business owner is always aware of exactly the state of the financial condition of his enterprise. This process begins with selecting the appropriate accounting software package for their business. This is easily done and then it gathers dust as the owner focuses on more exciting aspects. A good accountant is critical at this juncture to guide you for software purchase and, more importantly, establishing a simple system to keep track of all of your business activities. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish, invest in this fundamental area of your business by seeking a CPA to guide you.

– Brian C. Greenberg

To start you could search in Google for how to create a website. The good news is that you’ll get good results. The bad news is how many: 89.1 million hits. I have a step-by-step suggestion that takes work but not money, and not too much work, in my opinion.

Go to WordPress.com* and sign up as a free user with a new blog. And don’t worry, I understood the question – I’m recommending this as a way to make your first company website, not a blog. But WordPress calls it a blog, regardless; so I use that term here.

Choose a unique name for your blog. Try your company name or something useful for marketing. The WordPress site will give you any unique name you choose followed by “wordpress.com.” For example, Sabrina Parson’s Mommy CEO blog is at mommyceo.wordpress.com.

Choose a theme for your new blog. WordPress will help you. There are thousands of themes, each of which gives you an already-designed format related to fonts, colors, placement of links and buttons, and so on. For our purposes, make sure it’s a theme that shows buttons for pages.

Now do some pages: if you don’t feel competent writing about yourself or your company, find somebody else you trust to do it. You’ll probably start with an “about” page, and then maybe a general contact page showing your address, phone, and email addresses. You can get wordpress plugins to customize a contact form, but for now, list your email address in text with the @ written out as “at” so web crawlers won’t pick up your email address.

Now, if you’ve followed these steps, you have a company website, having spent maybe two or three hours. From here, in the now-immortal words of Buzz Lightyear, it’s “infinity and beyond.” You might want your own domain name (like my timberry.com, for example), and you’ll find ways to do that as a WordPress installation too. (timberry.com is hosted at MediaTemple for a little over $200 per year). You’ll be amazed at the variety of WordPress plugins for additional features and functions.

* WordPress is probably the most popular of the blog platforms, and it’s free if you do it like I’ve suggested. But there are many others, several with similar offerings regarded already-designed themes. I’ve also used Blogger (free) and Typepad (for an annual fee) and I like them both.

Disclaimer: Just in case you’re wondering: No, I have no relationship with WordPress, no commissions, no paid endorsements. I use it and I like it. This is free advice. Sad commentary, that these days a recommendation is suspect of ulterior motives. That happens so often that I don’t blame you for wondering.

– Tim Berry

This is an extremely broad question and depends on the service or product and your marketing and sales goals. The difference between marketing to another business or to a consumer can be dramatic. With that said, I would start by stepping back and thinking about your goals and strategy. Here are some things to help guide you:

Define your target audience. Whether it be your suppliers or consumers, be sure you know their makeup. Devote your time to getting out there and meeting them in person. Talk less and listen more; come prepared with a series of questions. Be sure to learn beyond the areas your business addresses directly and look at their lifestyles on a general level. Supporting these efforts with research and data around demographics is essential but nothing replaces the “street.” Plus, It’s such fun! Finally, remember that your employees and your investors are important audiences to consider as well.

Clarify what needs you are addressing. Many ideas for new businesses are prompted because the entrepreneur became frustrated with the current options and figures out a better way. What problem are you solving for your target audiences? Are you making something easier? Are you saving the customer money? Are you helping people communicate? Be sure your idea is clear and easy and sticks.

Do a competitive analysis. My attitude towards competition was learned while playing tennis as a child. You have to know your opponents style and strengths, but you must stay committed to your game in order to win. Simply reacting and copying puts the other person in control. So do your due diligence and know the competitors in your market, their strengths and their weaknesses. And then find what differentiates you from your competitors. Let that be your guide and be sure to communicate that in your marketing and sales efforts.

Develop your brand. Let the answers to the questions examined above help you create your brand. A few years into Plum Benefits we hired an outside agency to aid us in developing a brand DNA that serves as a guide to consistency in our communication strategy. The deliverables included a company name change that better served our growth plans. It also outlined our company’s key attributes, which forced us to prioritize what defined Plum Benefits across everything we do. Determining key messages for each target audience was another outcome. Even if you’re not at the stage where you can invest in outside consultants, I found this strategic exercise invaluable and would do it on my own if necessary.

Choose communcation channels. Where you will communicate your message will depend on where you can reach your target audiences. Press is an obvious opportunity and often a major component in a start up’s launch. Other strategies and channels include social marketing, online advertising, email marketing, affiliate marketing, event marketing, and even direct mail is still something to consider if its appropriate for your business.

Test, analyze and do more of what’s working! Once you have determined which channels are worth including in your tactical plans, develop limited efforts and see what works. Depending on which efforts are driving results, start moving your financial and time allocation more to those areas. While this is oversimplified, such discipline will ensure that you are being efficient.

I was inexperienced and on my own when I started Plum Benefits, so my saving grace was in finding resources beyond myself. Remember, there are experts who have deep knowledge. Hire them if possible. Also, seek them out; become a voracious reader, attend conferences and take seminars and go to networking events. I like to invite leaders I meet to brainstorm over dinner – they appreciate the opportunity to network and find the challenge of a new business exciting. Don’t be afraid to not know, be smart enough to ask for answers… you can get a lot of free advice, apply others successes and learn from others mistakes. You are not alone.

- Shara Mendelson