There are two type of people in the world. Those who see the glass half empty and those who see it half full. This experience was heightened for me when I had lunch with an old colleague from work and he began to complain about how only rich people could start a business. I thought he was joking.

As I sat and listened he ranted for almost ten minutes giving all the reasons he could not start his own business and get out of the rat race. He talked about the high cost of start ups, franchising and real estate development. When he finally came up for air I decided to ask simply ask him one question. Mark, "Have you every asked yourself what kind of low cost businesses with high profit margins are out there?"

He looked like he had been run over by a truck. I went on to say, "You are just asking the wrong question." He sat for a minute and said, "Ok, if you're so smart give me some ideas." I said, "Great. Oh and by the way let's make it fun and focus on the ones you can work from home in your pajamas."

Here are the 5 low cost high profit businesses I shared with Mark.

1. Internet Marketing: Do you have a computer in your home? If so you could be sitting on a gold mine. People use the internet to do all types of things. From a multimillion dollar wire jewelry making enterprise to a young kid from Long Beach California who created his empire teaching people how to play music by ear. Everyday people are getting on the internet and pursuing their own dot com fortune.

2. Tele-seminars: If you not a very technical person one of the best strategies is tele-seminars. With simply a telephone and a conference call line for your guest to call in on you can offer a class or seminar. You can either use it as a lead generator or you can sell your product or service from the seminar itself. An additional product can come from recording the class. Once you record the class it can become an instant product you can create passive income from.

3. Joint Ventures: If you like the idea of not needing a product or money of your own than the idea of joint venturing could be for you. This business is simply the art of the deal. You are paid in direct proportion to your ability to bring together two parties who would not otherwise know each other outside of your introduction.

For example if you combine company A's products, knowledge, resources and partner it with company B's client list you get to share in the profits. And it would not cost you one cent.

4. Affiliate Marketing: What if someone else did most of the work but you got to share in the profit pie? Well, that is what affiliate marketing is all about. There are thousands of products ranging from digital down loads, books,seminars not to mention hard products like computers, cell phones and other techie stuff. Your job is to find the products that your market is interested in and when you sell something you get a percentage of the sale. You can do this without having any inventory or the overhead of a traditional business.

5. Information Products: This is one of the most highly lucrative low cost businesses you can get into. If you have specialized knowledge or can do you can research and reporton it you can create products that are highly profitable. For example, one of the fastest ways to success is to interview experts in a high demand niche market.

Once you have interviewed these experts you can take the information and create several different products from the one interview. Some of the things you can do is sell the recording itself, sell the transcript of the call, use some of the content create an e-book or report or take several of the interviews and put them together for an expert tape series.

6. Network Marketing/MLM: I have always been a fan of network marketing because the business model is as much about self development as it is building a business. The premise is you find a company that you are passionate about the product, has a proven system and strong team leadership. Most of these companies are low cost of entry. And you build your empire leveraging the efforts of many.

Some people incorrectly believe you are going to get rich off the back of someone else. Not true. The very core of network marketing is built on the fact that you get paid in direct proportion of your ability to recruit, train, inspire, support and lead a voluntary group of people. For those who can do this the rewards are great.

7. EBay: I was recently introduced to the EBay craze by someone who in the beginning had no money so he decided to sell a tape set a friend had created. This product was a compilation of interviews with successful entrepreneurs. Their first sale was $37.00 and they went on to build multi-million dollar empire. EBay is one of the quickest ways to get to a profit. You can take things that you have in your garage today and sell them on EBay tomorrow. Remember one mans junk is another mans treasure.

At the end of the lunch something interesting happened. My friend Mark was starting to see the glass half full. How about you? Are you looking for a business you can start without breaking the bank? The above five businesses are just a few ideas to jump start your thought process. However, make no mistake you can start a low cost high profit business and enjoy it while lounging in your pajamas.