In this “slowing economy,� you're probably worried about your job – and quite rightly, too. Most larger companies will definitely lay off a few thousand workers, and if one of them is you, what are you going to do? Well, how about start a business?

I'm sure you know by now most of those “business opportunities� that charge money to join are scams (most people I know ended up in debt because of them too). You can do exactly what they're doing, and not pay them a dime – or you can start a myriad of other businesses absolutely free as well.

Service businesses are probably the easiest to start without an investment – but there are ways to start retailing with absolutely no cash out of pocket too. You just have to know where to look.

Contrary to popular belief, most wholesalers do not require you to be a licensed business. You could simply list their product on your web page or eBay store and buy from that wholesaler without having any kind of solid paperwork from the government.

Better still, there are thousands of wholesalers who ship in small batches, and sometimes even “drop ship� - or, send the product directly to your customer. That means you don't have to keep any kind of an inventory.

Just to give you an example, let's say I were to start a clothing store online. I find a few shirts I like and do little more than copy the picture from the wholesaler's site and put it on mine.

When a customer buys that one shirt at $25, I buy the box with 6 of those shirts from the wholesaler for $30, and ship out their one shirt when I get the case of 6. In this hypothetical situation, all I have to do is sell one more of the shirts to make a profit. Easy as Internet pie.

You can find out more about Patricia Mayo and her other projects at Mayobrains.com or ComHacker.org.