Can you afford to start a home business? Barbara from HomeBusinessWiz explores the affordability of a home business. She boils it down to three questions:

1. What do you own already?
2. How can you use your existing assets?
3. What will your start-up costs be?

As I've mentioned before, starting a consulting business is cheap. It's an affordable home-based business. Most people already own a computer, printer, telephone and perhaps a few home office supplies. If you create some business cards and start networking, you'll be on your way to running your own consulting business. In comparison, starting a restaurant or a retail store takes a lot more cash. And consulting makes a great second job, so you can start it a little at a time. Once you hobble together some money, consider putting together a website.