Create and Add Modules To Joomla Home Page

We'd like to high-light key services on the front page of our Joomla web site with modules that will contain links to pages on the site that contain more information. The page is currently just laid out with text and one graphic. We'd like to have summary boxes of information on the site that site visitors can take in at a glance. We'll provide links to examples of the kind of "boxes" we'd like. There will be between approximately 10 modules into which we can place clickable content. The current version of the Joomla install is 1.5. Please note, this is NOT to build a whole site. This is NOT to install Joomla CMS. The site already exists and is running without any problem.