what are the options for a small business (translate: inexpensive) website?
Specially, simple website software, or companies that will design and
maybe hoast websites cheaply.
(i have infomation on website names)

May i reccommend using 

http://www.register.com 

DO-IT-YOURSELF
Create your own Web site
for as little as $4.95/mo.

PROFESSIONAL DESIGN
Work one-on-one with
a professional designer

WEB HOSTING AND
ECOMMERCE OPTIONS
Flexible Web Hosting Packages
Sell products online
Upload your own files
Voted best overall shared Web hosting provider

or for more one on one personal service for a cheap price. as little
as a donation. www.solentech.tk

clarification: I would like to OWN the site (program) when all is said
and done, regardless of where it is hosted. Some website companies
would let me use their shell as long as they host it.

Maybe a software package is more want I want recommendations on.

oh a software package. for easy webpage creation you can use
Frontpage. a microsoft program. its super easy to use and expand on
once you learn more advance  html scripts.
http://search.ebay.com/frontpage_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8
and i am not aware of or heard of many packages that have hosting.

Macromedia Dreamweaver is also an excellent choice.
http://www.macromedia.com/

Dreamweaver - an excellent program, industry standard, but too complex
for a beginner/first-time user. It has almost every feature you could
ever want and then some, which means that it should not be the first
program you use.

I would recommend Frontpage, or perhaps Xara, although I personally
find both of these too simplistic for my needs now.

Another option would be to purchase a good quality template
online(loads of sites with these) and then merely edit small areas of
it, mainly the content.

With regards to hosting, it is very cheap these days, and you do not
need to be technically minded to use it. I do not know if you are UK
or US(I am UK) but 1&1 is the most popular here, and idiot proof,
although you pay extra for its user friendliness. My own under
development hosting plan(*WARNING* plug alert :P) will be around £1.25
per month for 250mb hosting, or £5 a month(£50 per year) for 1gb
hosting, which is very cheap compared with a year or two ago. Many
other hosting firms have similar prices(although none as cheap :P).
One of my personal hosts is http://www.matrixinternet.co.uk , who I
find to be very good value.

My suggestion is to check out http://www.d9domains.com

They offer reliable, low cost hosting with web-site building software
online. Also, the 7X24 telephone, email & Web-based tech support makes
it great, even for a novice.

I highly recommend http://www.iBuilt.net It offers a browser based, do
it yourself, all inclusive, full featured, website design and
management solution with email and hosting included.

Check out www.lifestyleinteriors.co.in it was designed for 200 USD,
for more details visit us at www.creativesparkz.com

Check out www.hostbreak.com. Guaranteed cheapest web design and
hosting. Email them on sales [at] hostbreak.com to enquire about
pricing etc.

Ron.