Starting an Online Business

The book I read to research this post was Starting an Online Business All in One for Dummies by Joel Elad et al which is an excellent book which I borrowed from the library. One thing this book says is you have to assess what your strengths & the jobs you are good at & focus on doing them. If you aren't able to build a website you are probably better off leaving that to a web designer. Something like Dreamweaver takes a long time to learn, time that could be better spent growing your business. Equally if you aren't a trained accountant get a professional they will do it in a fraction of the time. Don't go to a web design or accounting firm, they have the overheads of the company, get someone who works solo. If you are selling a few products consider getting a wordpress site & using either a free or very cheap ecommerce plugin. It gets too complicated to set up with a big range of products though. If you aren't sure what to sell have a look at
http://trendwatch.com/
or  http://trendhunter.com/
An important step is setting up a blog to promote your business especially if it's website based. In addition a blog can supplement your income if you run adverts on your site try google adwords or adsense. At the very least you should market it on Facebook & Twitter. I would also add Google+. If you have a look at my main computing blog at
http://scratbag.me/
There are posts on twitter marketing, facebook marketing, facebook advertising, google+ & small business marketing to name but a few. Venture capital may be an option try
http://vfinance.com/
With venture capital it's often invested in your company long term although often you will have to give them a share in the company & sometimes a seat in the boardroom. Another option to consider is becoming an affiliate of a company like ebay or etsy it saves you having a website at least initially & you can make a good income. I'd suggest use several sites.