I hope it's ok to post this with the powers that be?

Me and a friend are setting up a little business and I want to design a logo. Now I have no idea how to go about doing this! In the past I have always paid people to do it for me as I am not that artistically inclined. But as this is a start up I need to keep costs down. So I was wondering if any of you lovely people have any advice, art packages etc you could pass on to me. I will say that I'm not the most technically savvy guy but I am a quick learner and any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Randomly, this recommendation cropped up earlier in a thread Jay started.

For logo design, the industry standard would be Adobe Illustrator, which is obviously very expensive to buy. However there is an open source alternative called Inkscape that you could have a try on.

Lots of tutorials online if you Google for them too.

Having the appropriate software is the least of your concerns. If you're not a designer, I'd still recommend hiring the work out to ensure you get something good. The external face of your business--the way you present yourself to potential customers--is not the place to cut corners, in my opinion.