Last night I was spending time in a big bookstore while my daughter was shopping for cloths. There was no shortage of books on how to start a business. Most said you need at least $20,000 to start.

All the books had several chapters on how to get the $20,000 to $150,000 to get going--borrow from friends, tap a rich relative, mortgage your home, or sell your stuff. I knew a guy who did that and he told me he spent the next two years unable to sleep. It can be very uncomfortable when your business is new and struggling and you still have to worry about paying back a ton of money to some of the most important people in your life.

I strongly advise taking the cheap, cheap, cheap path to building your own business. All you need is a sales letter and an order pad. If you hire a professional writer to create your letter, you will up and running for $100 or less.

Even if you have to borrow the $100 from rich uncle Ned, you won't lose much sleep over paying it back. And you won't have to wait years to pocket your first profits.

Here are a few simple steps to get your sales letter and order pad business going fast.

1. Figure out a service you can provide. Make a list of all the things you've learned on the job, in school, or from people you know. Then mark out all the ones you don't like, don't think anyone needs, or things that won't pay much. You will have some great options left.

For example, Peggy spent several years keeping books for a small firm with 10 employees. She got the hang of several popular accounting programs, learned how to do payroll, and figured out all those federal and state tax forms. When Peggy heard 60 million people are running their own small business from home, she new there was a HUGE market she could sell her bookkeeping service to. "I just know there are at least 10 million people who need help filling out a government form," she said with a smile.

2. Get your sales letter. It should have a headline at the top to point out your customer's main itch and your good way to scratch it.

After the headline, talk about a pressing problem the reader has. Show the reader how the problem will get worse if they don't fix it. Then present your service as the solution to the problem.

Use bullets to list the features of your service. After each feature, explain what the feature does for the customer.

Then throw in a good comment from a customer, friend, or expert in your field. Something like "Joe is friendly and gets the job done right the first time...Pete Salant, New Haven" will do wonders for sales.

Have your letter formatted on paper to send out via regular mail and have it formatted for email. Get mailing lists from the chamber of commerce, trade organizations, and list brokers (see your Yellow Pages.) Also put your sales letter on a web page.

3. Your sales letter should give people several ways to buy from you. Give your phone number (where you will be standing by with your order pad), provide directions to your location with your hours of service, and list your web site.

An 800 number can get the phone ringing and it doesn't cost much more than regular long distance. I find if you list both your 800 number and your regular number, many people will call the regular number. Long distance is cheap, but the 800 number works to make you look larger and like you want to help customers.

Get a shopping cart for your web page. There are many that are cheap or free and easy to set up. See http://JustWebIt.com for a free one.

Even though I've discussed selling a service, these methods will work just as well for selling a popular product. It is best to make your own product, but you can also earn reselling other people's products . See my AffiliateTeacher.com site for much more on this.

The key is to think SMALL when you are starting a small business. Don't try to jump to being big right away. Thinking small will help you keep expenses down and expectations realistic. Plan to grow gradually. You can reach the $100,000 to $200,000 level in a few years. And you won't be losing any sleep along the way.

Keegan Michaels shows people how to earn a living or an extra income working for themselves. He also writes sales letters for http://CheapWriting.com See his extensive tips for profiting with affiliate programs at http://AffiliateTeacher.com Reach Keegan at keegan@affiliateteacher.com or 801-328-9006