Small home-run businesses - web advice please!

[born&brED]

Hello all!

I thought the Family Room might be a good place to seek the advice I need - I'm a local mum, hoping to set up a small home-based business. I've seen on the EDF before a few links to sites that local mums and dads have set up (cakes etc), and have been very impressed!

I was just wondering if anyone could recommend a web host that is easy to use, reliable, fairly cheap and which is quite flexible and arty in terms of design. Or is that wishful thinking?! I was wondering whether to go through blogger / blogspot, but not sure how that'd work if I wanted it to become an online shop. I'm fairly happy to start off on Etsy or facebook, but would ideally want something more 'official' and direct eventually.

Thanks in advance! :)

[supergolden88]

Try moonfruit - it is pretty easy to use and you can customise it to an extent. You can build/design a website for free but need to pay for the hosting I think. And it has options for shops

http://www.moonfruit.com/

[vch]

I've used SquareSpace before and they have amazing customizable templates you can tweak to your hearts content. They offer a 14 day free trial.

[lucyA1308]

I use Mr Site. co.uk . I find it an easy package. I probably use the bare essentials, but it works and looks smart, and I can make changes where ever I am (within reach of a computer), rather than wait for someone else to do it for me.

[born&brED]

Thank you everyone (both above and in private messages!) for your help - that's exactly what I needed! Will def be looking at all the suggestions and thanks for all the detail about customising / shops etc. xx

[Goodliz]

Just to throw another one in. I used weebly.com after seeing my friend doing her site for her business. It looked really easy and it was. I used it for my business. I also then recommended it to another friend who has used it for her business too!