The book I read to research this post was Starting and Running an Online Business for Dummies 2nd & UK edition by Kim Gilmour et al which is a very good book which I borrowed from the library. Britain has more online businesses per capita than any other country in the world. Generally the things you need like a computer and scanner you already possess. You need a good accountant to help you set up the limited company and do things like the VAT returns. You also need knowledge of local laws ie in Britain if an item is faulty the company has to pay the return postage. You need to join some business forums and also the small business advisor at your local bank is good for business advice. I know someone who invested a load of money in equipment for making handmade & bought a website. One thing she didn't do was any market research. Had she done that she'd have known selling a small box of 4 chocolates for £5 is too much. So far she hasn't sold a single box of chocolates. When people go on the internet they expect a bargain. The only possible is when the item is unique in some way. When you set up your website it's a good idea to buy all the similiar sounding domain names especially ones like .biz & .net. Microsoft had to pay $20 million to someone who had the website lindows.com because it sounded like windows.
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