Every day, literally hundreds of thousands of sincere, honest and hard-working individuals across the world are surfing the Internet in their quest to find a legitimate home based business. Unfortunately, many of these people either have been, or getting ready to be, scammed by the myriad online businesses that are making false promises and outrageous claims. Since the Internet is still a fairly unregulated entity, somehow these unethical companies and individuals have no qualms about (or repercussions from) advertising and promoting their products or services. Bent on trying to put these companies out of business, I've put together a list of do's and don'ts when looking for a legitimate home based business.
Don't:
- Buy into the hype. There is an old adage, "If it seems to be true, it usually is," has never rung truer than it does on the Internet.
- Believe the testimonials you read. Most, if not all, of these are made up by the marketer/individual/company promoting the business. Simply put, these people don't even exist
- Believe the examples shown of bank statements that show how much someone is making doing that particular business. Creating these bogus income statements is simply a matter of deleting the "real" figures, and typing in whatever they want you to see.
Do:
- Your due diligence. Don't take anyone's word for the reputation of the company you're considering unless you know that individual personally, and know that they come from a place of integrity. At a minimum, check with the Better Business Bureau http://www.bbbonline.org.
- Find out the address and phone number for the business you're considering. If there is no contact information, you can be assured that this is a "scam" business, probably being run by some seedy character out of his/her basement.
- Check to see what kind of training and support, if any, you'll be getting if you invest in this business. Find out how the company responds to questions and issues that are sure to come up once you get involved. Personally, I would never do business with a company that doesn't have "people" dedicated to my success, and that includes a "real" person to talk to if I need answers.
In summary, when looking for a truly legitimate home based business, get past the hype, learn from the mistakes of others, and, by all means, check out the business thoroughly before investing a dime more.
