I hear many webmasters, including the very successful and those just getting started, making complaints about the cost of setting up and maintaining small homebased business websites on the Internet.

Here's how small businesses are built in the brick and mortar world.

1. You would invest your own money, or borrow for start up costs and enough to keep your business afloat until it begins to pay it's own way

2. You would buy or lease a building to house your business.

3. You would buy or lease display fixtures or other necessary equipment.

4. You would buy merchandise to offer at your small business.

5. You would hire employees, buy insurance, pay utilities.

6. You would need to advertise. This could be flyers, TV or radio ads, or newspaper ads. All these methods of advertising are expensive.

7. You would worry about losing your shirt until you were in profit. And you would work very hard to get back your investment.

Yes, building a homebased business website is a risk of sorts too. If you lack skills, you will have to develop and learn them. If you fail, you may suffer some embarrasment. You will have to work if you expect to succeed.

But here's what building a homebased business website on the Internet offers as compared to the 'real world'.

1. A small investment if you are willing to work diligently.

2. Web hosting at a modest price, as compared to buying or leasing a building.

3. You will need to build a website to display your wares. Free builders are available if money is tight.

4. Merchandise can be either dropshipped, or it could be affiliate products, or information you create yourself. Either of these ways incurs no upfront costs to you.

5. You don't need employees. Since you work from home, you already have utilities and if you are reading this, you already have an Internet connection.

6. You do need a domain name in place of the sign you would have at the front of your building. This costs roughly ten dollars a year. Other methods of advertising can be found that are free or that are inexpensive. How about articles, for instance?

7. If you are willing to work hard and do many things yourself,it may take some time, but you will have little to lose and potentially a lot to gain!

Starting an offline business is very costly and there is no guarantee of success.

A number of years ago, when I invertoried small convenience stores, they typically held 35K in merchandise. That's just the merchandise. Start-up costs for a business offline vary depending on the type of business. But it isn't inexpensive.

How hard would you work if you had 90K invested?

A franchise for a carpet cleaning business or a sandwich shop costs around 90K. Investing in a franchise comes with it's own limitations and problems. Anyone who has bought into a franchise will tell you it isn't all sunshine. A lot of work is required in the beginning years.

Small homebased business websites are a bargain. Many are making from a modest income to really big money with small homebased business websites. They have done their homework and worked hard to make them successful.

Let's all work as if we had 90K invested and see just what a great opportunity small homebased business websites really can be!