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Best advice I can give you is to contact your local Business Link. They're free and non-obligatory, they help you identify what it is you want to do and send you any amount of useful information. They can also help you access local resources like business courses.

As regards business loans... depends on what's available at the time and your exact circumstances - a bank loan is a bank loan but there are special-interest groups out there to help people in particular circumstances or wishing to set up particular types of business. For instance I was able to get a low-interest loan from the Prince's Trust because I'm under 30... you may be able to dig up something from an eco group because of the recycling aspect... One pretty universal thing is that it's a lot easier to get a loan if you have a solid business plan. So you need to be doing all the research *first*.

Licensing will probably be your biggest challenge. No idea how much money you'll need. Again, Business Link will be able to help - they may not have all the answers for you but they're likely to be able to tell you who to ask.

Company name and logo stuff is pretty simple. Mostly it amounts to: don't steal anyone else's copyrighted images; and don't pretend to be something you're not (for instance you can only call yourself Polarisld33 Ltd if you actually are a Limited Company).

EDIT: Uh... these are UK rules. I didn't spot that you're in the USA. Sorry.

I also think it depends what they mean by "online".

I mean, my phone is always with me and is always connected to the net, one way or another. I pick up my emails in the same way as I pick up my text messages - I'm not spending all my time "on the phone" but I'm never really disconnected.

Yaywoo!

I think direct customer/business manager interaction can be an advantage or a disadvantage for the small or single-person business. On the one hand, you're entirely in control of your message. On the other hand, you're only human.

So on an average day, you go to work, you talk to your customers, you believe in your product, you are full of positivity and can-do - great!

But on a rubbish day, you're coming down with the mother of all colds, there's no one to pass the public-facing jobs off to, you can't bring yourself to just be 'closed' for the day - you do your best but the only image you can present is that of one who is auditioning to be an extra in Shaun of the Dead. Not so good.

(To follow the tangent, don't forget access isn't just about customers - everyone is only a car crash away from needing access to their own established working environment. It's also not just about wheelies (although obviously that's what I focus on in my own life). There's all sorts of impairments, physical, mental, neurological, sensory. Many of these aren't expensive or difficult to adjust for. The biggest access adjustment is in the mind - to not simply dismiss us as not worth bothering about.)

OK, haven't used Windows Mail myself... found this tutorial for how to set up a signature that seems to be saying that you either can have a text-only one that you type in directly - or you can import an HTML one with as many bells and whistles as you like.

From what I can see, the program you need to download is a "text editor". Google has several free ones but I've never used one so I can't make a recommendation. Sorry. Who did your website? They'd be most likely able to make a sensible suggestion - or make a signature for you.

What are you currently using for your email? Is it a program like Outlook or Thunderbird? Or is it a web page that you use in your browser?

Last business to really impress me was the Chesford Grange hotel/conference centre in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

They were one of the places I visited as potential wedding venues... didn't go with them after all, as their facilities were more "conference" than "wedding", but I would absolutely recommend them to anyone planning a conference, an AGM, an awards ceremony, a Christmas party, etc.

The place was large, well-lit, felt very spacious, perfectly clean and attractively decorated... there was real wheelchair access for all areas, including nice hotel rooms... the staff I dealt with were polite and sensible and answered all my queries, nothing was too much trouble.

I felt quite horrible when I emailed to say that we'd chosen a different venue, but they just replied straight back that they wished me all the best. I was so impressed that I emailed someone a few notches up the ladder to give positive feedback about the person I'd been dealing with.

Have a play with the Geocities-izer to see How Not To Do It, or as they phrase it, "Make Any Webpage Look Like It Was Made By A 13 Year Old In 1996".

Email signatures with the contact details, link to website, disclaimer and so on are quite easy to set up, and you shouldn't need to download anything extra. Just check the help section for whatever email program or webmail site you are using - it's a fairly standard built-in feature and they'll usually talk you through how to put in links and images.

Must confess, though, I'm baffled as to why you would want animation in the signature.

Sounds fun!

We're all up in the air at the moment - at some point in the next month Future Husband is supposed to be more-or-less moving out to go and work away for a bit, but we don't know when and we may only have two days notice.

It's driving me insane. I can't even do a proper supermarket shop because I don't know how many meals he's still going to be here for. If I placed an order for a week's worth of groceries for two people today, he could well have gone by the time it is delivered!