to set up a proper e-business (not e-commerce) whatare the costs and
options involved? This question could be how long is a piece of
string.  but for a small e-business what costs would be involved in
the overheads ie webserver rental, web site set up, database server
rental or inhouse buying of a packahe ie syBase, DB2, Oracle,
premises, a DBA, etc

Even if it is not possible to cost it, what are the factors involved
in setting up an e-business?

Entrepreneur magazine publishes a series of start-up guides for
various businesses. They have one guide specifically dedicated to
starting an e-business. It covers numerous aspects of starting an
e-business, including: types of e-businesses, start-up costs, funding,
structure & location, staffing, legal considerations, advertising and
public relations. Entrepreneur sells these guides, but your local
library and/or Small Business Administration office may a copy as
well.
http://www.smallbizbooks.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/newmedia/product.d2w/report?prrfnbr=126670
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,290471,00.html

For your local Small Business Administration office, visit:
http://www.sba.gov/regions/states.html

Here's a series of articles on starting an e-business:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt6/issue92.htm

This page offers six tips on starting an e-business:
http://www.hawaiilawyer.com/alerts/alert_apr_00.htm

These articles about starting and operating e-businesses are from
India, but the principles would apply anywhere:
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/ecomm/categories/ecom_howto.html
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/ecomm/articles.html

This BusinessWeek article briefly discusses the factors involved in
starting an e-business:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2000/sa000413.htm

Also try other links produced by these search terms:"starting an
e-business" costs
://www.google.com/search?q=%22starting+an+e-business%22+costs&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&client=googlet

E-business server expenses start at a few hundred dollars per month
and go up from there. For some ideas, try the links produced by these
terms: e-business server rental
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=googlet&q=e-business+server+rental&btnG=Google+Search

I hope this helps. Good luck.

When dealing with e-business the cost elements to watch out for mainly
are the hosting services, type of operating systems and programming
languages and of course the other bells and whistles.

According to Epinions.com the greatest concern for cost are in the
following categories:
1.	Choosing a web hosting company
           a.	http://www.epinions.com/inet-Web_Hosting_Topics-Selection_Criteria
           b.	http://www.epinions.com/content_2212995204
           c.	http://www.epinions.com/inet-review-404A-AE54946-3A18692F-prod4
2.	The dilemma of choosing between dedicate and co-located servers.
           a.	http://www.epinions.com/content_1648861316
           b.	http://www.epinions.com/inet-review-1B0D-1089D9FB-3A037FB2-prod2
3.	Scripting Languages support
           a.	http://www.epinions.com/inet-Web_Hosting_Topics-Scripting_Language_Support
4.	Account maintenance tools and
           a.	http://www.epinions.com/inet-Web_Hosting_Topics-Account_Maintenance_Tools
5.	Multimedia support if you plan on if your site would require audio
or video delivery to your clients.
           a.	http://www.epinions.com/inet-Web_Hosting_Topics-Multimedia_Support

When you are ready to choose the perfect web host for your business
you could also visit the following web site.
The Best Web Hosting Companies from HostIndex.com
http://www.hostindex.com/voteresults.shtm

Leave your troubles behind!!! (no server purchases, maintenance,
software licenses, etc...).  Your best is to get hooked up with Yahoo
shopping; simply create a store-front on Yahoo
(http://store.yahoo.com/).  You can try it for 30 days.  Hope this
helps.

Dhimant

Hi. For web hosting you could visit AT&T Small Business Hosting Service at:
http://www.ipservices.att.com/sbh
wich is really a good option

How to set up an e-business: UK

5 steps to e-business - the cheap way

1. you need 2 people - managing director & secretary
2. Need a company name - then register it companieshouse.co.uk - £250
3. Get a domain name & get web site space - cheapest ive seen it
www.giointernet.com costing from £10 a month for full e-commerce web
site hosting
4. make sure you get a good web designer and sales & marketing person
to be able to sell your service using the right words and marketing
approach. web site should cost about £250
5. your own garage can be used as the premises - some large companies
started off in a garage

everything should cost you no more than £700

i dont know ur budget for nor u skill . but i sholuld say it is
possible to set up e-commerce site ur self without spending a single
peny on developing the site , but u need to spend just on merchent
account & payment gatway.
if u have some patience and skills i think its possible  
domain naime registration:
http://www.registerfly.com
server space :
http://www.wbws.net
links for securing payment gateway: 
http://www.valueweb.net/online_commerce/ 
http://www.authorizenet.com/ 
http://www.getmerchant.com/merchant/htmdocs/apages.cfm?sap_id=18&aname=Payment%20Gateway
http://merchantcommerce.net/ 
links for webpage desigening software : 
ftp://ftp1.namo.com/eng/download/we5trial/one/WE5EnuTrial.exe 
ftp://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/disk1/win95/netutil/slsworx4.zip 
 
in this site u wuuld find some more help: 
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/E-Commerce
regards
yogish

For those following behind, another approach that may be available is
to search for remotely hosted applications that exactly match the
particular market you are participating in. Then narrow in to those
who use a fixed fee model on a known quantifier such as sales. Knowing
an exact number can be very helpful in analysing the potential of the
business.  It may well be, that no matter what happens, you will never
make a profit. For example, in the video or game rental industries you
would look at:

http://platformlabs.com/app/top.htm