As some of you know I am a Baby Signs instructor. It is kind of my home business. I teach parents and caregivers how to communicate with infants through sign language. I love it and I am not going to give it up but it is not helping to pay the bills and hardly pays enough for itself in advertisements and inventory. So I started thinking of ways to make more money and still be at home with my girls.

DH and I discussed it and I think I'd like to try and open my own quilt shop, not really like QIAD since we aren't staying in Wisconsin and I just can't keep that much fabric on hand or open an actual store. I am thinking of more making quilts and selling them on craigslist or eBay. But I am kind of lost as to how to go about "starting a business". With Baby Signs I have corporate headquarters to help with anything I need and they started the whole thing, logo's name's, trade marks, all the legal stuff, etc. Has anyone here ever started a business from the ground up that can give me some advice?

Etsy ...is a great online marketplace and is for those who handmake items- perfect for you! You can name your store-  Look to social networking sites...ie Twitter, facebook to build a client base.  Blog about your crafting, use Blogger it is free and more flexiable with business blogs write  about starting your at home buisness!  Here is an example blog ....  Have a link to your etsy store on your blog- a picture link is easy to make I have the HTML base code just give me your graphic.... Let me know if you need tips I can help you out. 

There are people out there that only buy handmade look at sites like this one ... to join!

Start with a business plan... it takes a while, but if you truly go through it and create it you will see if that is the road you want to go down. The best one I found was at SCORE http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html ...

Good luck!

If you go with Ebay they help you get an online store started.  It cost money though. But I would still go check it out.

Thanks for the advice ladies. At this point I can use all the help I can get!