From low tech to high tech, the next entry in our series of bootstrap startup ideas was inspired in part by a piece of spam (Yes, sometimes it is tasty!) left on a previous post.

Starting a retail business on line has become a lot easier and less expensive in recent years with the availability of drop shipped items.

The practice allows you to eliminate the expense of buying a large inventory before getting started and also outsource the delivery and payment portions of a retail operation, at least in the beginning.

To begin a bootstrapped retail operation today, simply:
• Do some research on the dos and don'ts of starting a bootstrapping operation
• Find a reputable drop shipper or two you plan to work with on a regular basis. (Huge sites like Light in the Box and EQueenStreet.com offer a wide variety of electronics and other products from China competitively priced.)
• Make a few test orders first. Take low end merchandise that is not costly. Even the site proprietors sometimes suggest this to assure yourself of quality and make it easier for you to write the ads for the merchandise on your site.
• DO NOT spend much money setting up a website/storefront in the beginning. Websites from free blogs at blogger, wordpress or soulcast to on line communities as varied as Squidoo and MySpace can provide free promotion for your products and store sites are available inexpensively ranging from budget services like doteasy to some like Microsoft Office Live which offer services at no cost at all.
• Set up an account through PayPal Merchant Services allowing you to accept a variety of payment types without hassle.
• Add a blog on related topics-say one on photographic techniques if you sell digital cameras-to help promote your site.
• In time you can decide whether your on line retail business warrants expansion into bricks and mortar to add visibility and increase your available inventory.

To share more ideas for bootstrap business startups and meet other bootstrappers just like you feel free to join our Yahoo! and MySpace groups.