Best place to start making a website for your business??

I have a small business and I was just wondering where was the best place to get a website for it. I have tried some other websites but they aren't doing the trick. I would like one that is suffisticated has images and a shopping cart for my products.

Also don't want to spend too much monthly for the hosting...

You have a few options. And it can be quite a process.

You can put up your project on Elance and see what bids you get for a basic website. Since you just need a standard site with a Shopping Cart and possible credit card / pay pal transactions, most companies should be capable to of doing this and putting an accurate estimate on it.

http://www.elance.com/p/landing/buyer.ht...

You can also just find a local company in your area to build it and you can purchase a template of website with shopping cart included to have the local company use. If you provide a template, then they already have the design and layout and just need to fill out the language part (your company name, name the tabs, and put in your products). This would be more cost effective, but a little more work on your end. You can seach all kinds of templates here:

http://www.templatemonster.com/

A few tips. Beware of outsourcing. It is very very common with building website applications. It's not that you shouldn't outsource, it is that you should be aware of it, if you get involved. You can go directly to an offshore company such as one in India and you'll notice that it is very cheap. If you go directly though, be prepared to spend a lot of time fixing communication errors because of the language barrier. Saving money and the frustration of working with non-fluent english speaking folk is almost a wash. But sometimes a budget is the more important. Going through a 3rd party that outsources isn't as bad, as long as you establish that they communicate with the off-shore company and you don't have to. This way the 3rd party will translate all your specifications to a language the off-shore company can understand.